Klarinet Archive - Posting 000276.txt from 2005/04

From: Frank Bezner <frank.bezner@-----.de>
Subj: Re: [kl] Test results (S. Mayer)
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 11:30:48 -0400

Sabine Meyer (!) has, of course, become a notorious figure in Germany:
not just, because of her clarinet playing, but also because, after her
nomination by Karajan to the Berlin Philharmonic, there was a bitter -
much discussed - row between Karajan and the orchestra.

I must say that, living myself in Germany, I find it somehwhat
overstated to claim that no recordings of players except her were
available. Nobody force-feeds me (an adult beginner of clarinet
playing) to listen to HER recordings: even in a non specialist CD-shop,
one gets lots of other players (e.g. Kell, Pay, Marcellus, Brymer,
Klöcker, Collins, Fröst etc. etc.). It's can be of the great joys in
life to disagree over matters of interpretation or even taste, but a
statement as "her whole PERSON just lacks...", IMO, says more about who
makes it than then person it pretends to grasp.

Best wishes,
Frank Bezner

danyel wrote:

>Hi,
>let me explain, the somewhat bitter undertone in my attitude towards S.
>Mayer is due to fact that living in Germany I have been exposed to her
>playing for many years. She has hold a monopoly on certain pieces for quite
>a while on German stages and record shelves. All the gorgeous recordings
>made by Stalder, Michallick, the Viennese, are out of print (I bought
>several scratched post-war records from collectors all over the world in
>order to hear Brahms or Mendelssohn played properly), yet hers are force-fed
>down our throats. However, I found her sound unbearably sterile, like the
>clarinet register of a Casio organ, her playing uninspired, meek and dull.
>She drags along at unlikely tempi and her whole person is lacking the spark
>and originality that seems to have inspired composers like Mozart, Weber,
>Mendelssohn or Brahms in players like Stadler, the Baermann's and Mühlfeld.
>We need a different breed of people to play those pieces. I can't take the
>boredom any longer. No doubt she is technically quite competent, but so
>what?
>Best wishes,
>danyel
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ormondtoby Montoya" <ormo2ndtoby@-----.net>
>To: <klarinet@-----.org>
>Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 3:44 AM
>Subject: Re: [kl] Test results
>
>
>
>
>>Danyel wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>S. Mayer and her ilk, no matter whether they
>>>play Wurlitzer or Jinbao, cold Buffet or on a
>>>comb. Mayer might be German and she sure
>>>plays Oehler, but aesthetically she is
>>>Wasteland.
>>>
>>>
>>First of all, for me, your description of Sabine Mayer labels everything
>>else in your post as irrelevant to me. She need not be your favorite
>>performer, but her music does not justify the description you have used
>>above.
>>
>>
>>
>>Secondly, this discussion about Dan's experiment has caused some hard
>>feelings.
>>
>>Imo, all of us need to remember that while we may have preferred (as I
>>would have) an experimental design with fewer variables, the fact
>>remains that those people who tried to identify nationalities despite
>>the other variables were unable to do so.
>>
>>This shows only one thing: that the respondents could not distinguish
>>nationality regardless of the other variables.
>>
>>Dan insisted --- quite clearly and directly --- that this was all that
>>he intended to test. When I asked Dan (see the Klarinet archives) what
>>he was going to do about differences in sound systems, recording
>>techniques and so forth, his reply was (not verbatim) "I don't intend to
>>do anything."
>>
>>The fact that Dan's particular interest doesn't match mine (or yours or
>>anyone else's) is worth discussing --- which we have done --- but it
>>does not justify personal anger or resentment in either direction.
>>
>>I may disagree with Dan, but then he may disagree with me. Should
>>either of us harbor a grudge or get nasty about it?
>>
>>No.
>>
>>Dan proved one particular statement, and if it wasn't a statement that
>>interests you, so be it.
>>
>>If you care enough to do a different experiment yourself, then do so.
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
>
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>
>

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