Klarinet Archive - Posting 000830.txt from 2004/10

From: <tony-w@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mozart, Don Giovanni, and Tony Pay
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 13:48:10 -0400

The BBC listed the 'Performance on 3' concert with Tony Pay as being
Mozart`s Clarinet Concerto and not Mozart`s Bassett Clarinet Concerto.
I wish everyone could finally decide once and for all what instrument this
concerto was written for. Would we call the W. Walton viola concerto a
concerto for violin? Is Elgar`s cello a viola?

I recently played a piano acc. to the slow movement being played on the
bassett. (The performer like me, a pianist as well, also played the Chopin
Fantasie Impromptu - without any wrong notes). The player stood, and used a
metal rod (fixed to the bell) which rested on the floor to support the
instrument. I believe Emma Johnson uses a sling. Do we know what past
players used - Stadler? And would Tony Pay let us know what he uses and
prefers. I forgot (!!) to ask if I could hold the instrument at our
performance - I would dearly like to experience what it`s weight is, if
nothing else - you see I`m afraid that similar thoughts occur in me, to what
our other colleague expressed in here a few days ago. I have to respectfully
express that I also am not a fan of the bassett instrument.

Could this following situation have arisen? Mozart and Stadler in a chicken
and egg situation. What came first, the bassett or the concerto? Without
knowing the bassett, Mozart would have written the concerto for the 'A'
clarinet - wouldn`t he? And maybe without the fiendish break reiterationing
in the last movement. Could he have done so tho`, and then when Stadler had
introduced him to the Bassett, Mozart set about revising his original draft.
If the *bassett* came first, then where is the bassett`s other music, the
repertoire, for this instrument? Stadler must have invested some pennies
into it`s design and manufacture. He would have wanted more than just one
piece of music to help him recoup his investment. He was after all a
skin-flint - he didn`t pay Mozart for the concerto. When eventually the
bassett fell out of favour, the subsequent editor(s) then moved the ACGC etc
passage (what may not have been in Mozart`s original 'A' clarinet draft) up
to the break notes. Not incredible I`ll say!

There`s something not quite right about all aspects of speculation
concerning the bassett, which, if you ask me, requires another fictional
novel (we ain`t gonna get the truth) from someone!

I thought of it first - All Rights Reserved!

Tony W.

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