Klarinet Archive - Posting 000830.txt from 2004/07

From: "Shaw, Kenneth R." <krshaw@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Excellent Concerts
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 15:38:34 -0400

I've been to three excellent concerts in the last few days.

On July 19, the Washington Square Chamber Orchestra (scheduled to play
outside, but driven to a local church by rain) did Prokofiev's Peter and
the Wolf and Overture on Hebrew Themes, and the Janacek Capriccio. It
was a tiny group (one string player on a part), and Larry Guy was the
clarinetist. Everyone was outstanding, and Larry put on an amazing show.
If you haven't heard him, grab any opportunity.

Then, a recital at Mannes (tix only $20) by Marc-Andre Hamelin -- no
clarinet, but a great performer. He did two late Beethoven piano
sonatas, #30 and 31 (Op. 109 and 110), Schumann Papillons and Liszt,
Apres une Lecture du Dante. He's a mesmerizing player, with no limit to
his technique or sonority, and the Mannes hall is ideal. It holds only
about 300 and has fine acoustics. For an encore, he played the entire
Beethoven Sonata # 32 (Op. 111). This has to be the best concert I've
been to for a long time. The Mannes concerts are a great, undiscovered
New York City secret -- mostly free, or at nominal cost.

=46inally, on July 17, we went to a concert called Mozart, Weber and the
Clarinet. The Aston Magna Quartet (Daniel Stepner, Nancy Wilson, David
Miller, Loretta O'Sullivan) is about as good as there is for period
instrument performances, and Eric Hoeprich is, of course, in a class by
himself. After a pleasant but slightly dull opening, a quartet by
Georges Onslow, they did the Weber Quintet and the Mozart Quintet.

=46or the Weber, Eric played a 10 key Bb classical instrument he made, and
it seemed to be completely without effort. All the fast passages were
rippling and clean, and the slow ones were singing and almost operatic.=20

=46or the Mozart, he played his own basset A clarinet, built after the
Riga sketch. Like Steve Fox's instrument
<http://www.sfoxclarinets.com/Stadler.html>, it's a basic 5-key
instrument with 4 thumb keys for the extension. He didn't take every
possible opportunity to use the extended notes, and I liked his choices
very much. Most important, the instrument worked perfectly with the
strings, balancing and trading off phrases in a way that modern
instruments simply can't accomplish.=20

The performance was in St. James Church in Great Barrington, MA -- a
stone building with beautiful acoustics. In the Mozart slow movement,
the sounds woke up a small bird outside the window, which gave a fine
obbligato. Less fine were a couple of motorcyclists.

The entire concert was at A-430, which Eric said is now the consensus
pitch for period instrument performances of music from the classical
period.=20

He let me handle his instruments after the concert. I think I could get
used to them. The basset A clarinet is not that much bigger than a
regular A clarinet, and is noticeably lighter than a modern instrument,
since it's made of boxwood. By the way, he used a neck strap with it.

The concert will be repeated on January 6, 2005 at the Boston Museum of
=46ine Arts and on January 9 at the Frick Collection in New York. Everyone
should run to get tickets. (The Frick concerts are also recorded and
broadcast on WNYC on Saturday nights at 8:00 pm. I'll have my tape
recorder ready.)

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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