Klarinet Archive - Posting 000296.txt from 2005/04

From: X-MailScanner-tom.henson@-----.com
Subj: RE: [kl] Test results (S. Mayer)
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 14:50:16 -0400

To follow up on the statement that no other clarinetist recordings are
generally available in Germany, I disagree based on what I found. I tend to
agree with what Frank Bezner said.

Go to Munich to a store called Ludwig Beck on the Marienplatz. On the top
floor you will find a most amazing collection of classical music you may
find anywhere in the world.

I had no trouble finding CD's by Dieter Klocker, Martin Frost, Karl-Heinz
Steffens, as well as many American and English clarinetist also. Perhaps in
a smaller store you would have a problem such as was described.

I even found a never before released recording (digitally remastered in
mono) of Beethoven's 9th as performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
and conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler on April 19, 1942. Reading the liner
notes, this is the only known recording of this work by this famed conductor
ever to take place during the war and for which he was tricked into doing
it. It was from a "Private off-the-air recording on seven 12-inch 78rpm
discs (14 sides). The intensity of this performance is astounding and the
ending is absolutely amazing. Furtwangler, evidently had been tricked into
conducting it and did not want to perform this great work during a time of
war. The liner notes say "But on this occasion the last bars are a nightmare
of nihilism, a stampede towards the abyss, such as I have never heard in any
other music. Furtwangler does the unthinkable and revokes the work by the
way he plays its own ending". The person singing Bass, Rudolf Watzke, has an
incredible voice and it is so clear and full that he could probably peel
paint off the walls. Simply amazing.

Tom Henson

<< I must say that, living myself in Germany, I find it somehwhat overstated
to claim that no recordings of players except her were available. >>

Best wishes,
Frank Bezner

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