Klarinet Archive - Posting 000606.txt from 2004/10

From: "Matthew Lloyd" <matthew@-----.uk>
Subj: [kl] K622 - to beat or not to beat
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:13:05 -0400

Putting a beat to K622 is not reinterpretation. It is the imposition of
a wildly inappropriate style on to a work that is in need of no revision
whatsoever.

I don't deny that there are fashions in music - for example we would
play Mozart today with a much smaller orchestra than would have been the
case sixty years ago. There has been a huge surge in interest in
original instruments, and the difference that these bring to the
performances of great works. [Perhaps fashions is the wrong word - I
don't mean to be disparaging to either the artists of a long time ago or
today.]

I'm not sure that there isn't something of God in the best of Mozart.
It's not easy for an atheist to accept that something can be evidence of
the almighty, but if there is any evidence of an almighty, then it is to
be found in the late, great works of Mozart.

I don't expect many to accept that last point of view. But to me what
you suggest IS sacrilege.

Matthew

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Roberts [mailto:timr@-----.com]
Sent: 21 October 2004 17:25
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] Opera productions that should be damned

Adam Michlin [mailto:amichlin@-----.com] wrote:

>PS: And yes, I would put a beat to the Mozart Clarinet Concerto if I
>thought it was the only way I could eventually get them to appreciate
>the real thing. Luckily, I don't feel that way, but I also don't have
to
>worry about selling tickets to an opera house.
>

And on Wed, 20 Oct 2004 21:19:52 +0100, Matthew Lloyd"
<matthew@-----.uk> replied

>Without wanting to descend into personal criticism, as far as I am
>concerned if you stand by your postscript your views lose all validity.
>
>

Matthew, your position is unreasonable. Reinterpretation is a keystone
of music, and always has been. Look at how many of our great pieces of
music are "Variations on a Theme of Composer X, by Composer Y". None of

those would exist if people were afraid of reinterpreting the work of
others.

Many such variations are crap, of course, but that does NOT mean we need

to be afraid of trying, for fear of being eviscerated by the Classical
Music Mafia. For example, I can easily imagine the first movement of
K.622 reinterpreted with a rhumba beat: ONE and two AND three and FOUR
and ONE and...

"Xavier Cugat plays Mozart!" Is that what Mozart intended? Almost
certainly not. Would Mozart have liked it? We will never know. Is it
sacrilege? No. There is nothing holy about K.622.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org

--
This email has been verified as Virus free
Virus Protection and more available at http://www.plus.net

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org