Klarinet Archive - Posting 000350.txt from 2005/11

From: Oliver Seely <oseely@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Re: Mahler, et. al.
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 16:05:10 -0500

Thanks, Roger, for the clarification. Was "Kol=20
Nidrei" the piece about which a critic sniffed, "It
doesn't sound Jewish enough"? Possibly because=20
of this recollection I was uncertain about the
matter of Bruch's ethnicity when I requested a=20
microfiche of the autograph of the double
concerto, opus 88, from the Universit=84ts- und Stadbibliothek K=94ln.

In my mind critics are in most cases a lower life=20
form. When I read the biographical notes for
Bruch in Grove I was angered by the reception the=20
composer's pieces received in his later years:
"His reverence for the music of Mendelssohn and=20
Schumann and his resistance to change meant
that works written at the end of his life, such=20
as the chamber music of 1918, sounded much the
same as those compositions dating from 60 years=20
earlier", so I did my part to set the record
straight in my preface to the double concerto in=20
which I wrote, purple prose notwithstanding,

"Bruch's clarinetist son Max Felix must have been=20
enchanted to receive this tunefully rich and
lusciously romantic composition from his father,=20
replete with folk structures drawn from earlier
suites. From the opening arpeggios of the first=20
movement to the final allegro molto triplets, one is
awestruck by the breathtaking beauty of the work=20
and a sense of wonder that it is not performed
more often. The composer was 73 when it was=20
first performed in 1911 to, some say, a hostile
audience more sympathetic with the experiments of=20
Stravinsky and Scriabin than with the
romanticism of Mendelssohn. That Bruch's style=20
may not have changed much from his works
composed forty years before ought not to matter a=20
whit to the lover of soulfully intense musical
companionship at its best."

Thanks again,

Oliver

Bruch just wrote "Kol Nidrei". He wasn't Jewish in any way. This is a=
common
misapprehension.
Roger S.

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