Klarinet Archive - Posting 000017.txt from 2006/10
From: "David Glenn" <davidglenn@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] clarinet symposium dresden (day 2 of 3)
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:26:14 -0400
DAY 2
The next morning started with the meeting of the German Clarinet Society. The officers were all reelected for another four years. An event in honor of Richard Mühlfeld in Meiningen is being planned. The clarinet choir should take part in it. I'll spare you further details.
It was interesting to experience driving in the former German Democratic Republic 16 years after reunification. My wife and I were in Saxony shortly after the "turn" as they call it and we couldn't help but notice how poor the roads were and in which run down state the houses were in. Not so any longer! The roads were in excellent condition, fully equipped with fresh pavement, fresh painted lines, clean, clear road signs and even electronic message boards. Often there were four lanes where two would have sufficed. The cars were the same mix of brands as one sees in the west and all the buildings along the roadside looked just fine. The parking garage at the main station was beautifully done and seemingly much bigger than needed. There was only one wierd, triangular intersection on the way to Bad Gottläube would probably have been converted to a traffic circle in the west as that is the rage here at the moment. This is no value judgement. I just found it interesting to note the dramatic change.
At 10 AM was a fascinating lecture on the printing history of Weber's Grand Duo Concertante by Knut Holtsträter (Weimar).
This was followed at 11 AM by Pierre-André Taillard (La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland) with a lecture on perfomance practice at the time of Weber. This was an eye and ear opener for me. He discussed rubato and played historic recordings of (forgot his name) fomer solo clarinettist in the Berlin Philharmonic just after the turn of the century and Charles Draper a couple of decades later. Following these, for me, sensational revelations, Mr. Taillard informed us of the state of his research on resonance and the clarinet reed. For those of you who know his invention, the Claripatch, you may be interested to know that he has made further discoveries and, due to these, has been able to reorganize and simplify his invention. Owners of Claripatch may update their system for EUR 30.
12 noon was a concert by the Baermann-Trio. They opened with a world premier of "Traumstrom" for Eb clarinet, contrabass clarinet, piano and percussion by Udo Diegelmann who also played marimba. By Erkki-Sven Tüür followed "Architectonics II" for clarinet, bass clarinet and piano. Finishing the program was an arrangement by the clarinettist, Ulrich Buesing of "Sechs Impromptus" op. for piano four hands by R. Schumann. Here the contrabassist who had changed to bass changed to basset horn and impressivly sounded every bit as controlled and clean on this third instrument as he had on the others.
No time for lunch unless you miss something. I did this after hearing about half of Ulrike Warnecke's speach, starting at 1 PM on teaching ensemble playing to young clarinettists. For the same reason, I didn't make it to hear Sota-Klemm and Michele Marelli playing the basset horn with Kazuko Ihara on the flute performing Stockhausen. I felt bad but I was hungry and I had heard Marelli in Berlin 2 years ago and Sota-Klemm and Marelli in Arnsberg in May so I had to settle for a quick chat with Michele whom I had met in Berlin at the last symposium.
3 PM was a lecture by Prof. Dr. Frank Heidlberger (Denton, Texas) about his new edition of the Weber clarinet works. In a highly energized hour, he informed us of the many problems which preparing such an edition presents and how he is dealing with these.
At 4 PM, Hans Juergen Eckmeier (Dormagen) presented his theories on teaching beginning clarinettists. There were some objections from the audience including Peter Geisler from the Berlin Philharmonic (retired) when it came to choosing German or Boehm system instruments for the kids. It reminded me of a discussion a couple of years back where members of the Berlin Phil (including Herr Geisler) objected to an Israeli clarinetist being awarded a professorship at a conservatory in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
As I was worried that this discussion would be continued when Ralf Pegelhoff (Hanover) continued the program at 5 PM with a further contribution about teaching clarinet at music schools and conservatories, I used this time to visit the exhibits.
This was followed by a wonderful performance at 6 PM by "Clarimonia". They played pieces twice, once on modern instruments and then followed this by presenting the same piece on historic instruments. The members, Bernhard Koesling, Ekkehard Sauer and Jochen Seggelke changed effortlessly from one instrument to another and presented us with a whole palette of musical colors.
At 7 PM, the clarinet choir rehearsed. I just loved playing the contrabass!
The evening concert was provided by Mr. Taillard accompanied by Edoardo Torbianelli. They first played the Silvana Variations on historical instruments which I had to listen to from outside the door with a few other members of the clarinet choir who had not managed to pack and store their instruments fast enough after the rehearsal. This was followed by a rendition of the Grand Duo Concertant on modern instruments. Mr. Taillard and Mr. Torbianelli played extremly virtuose and demonstrated to some degree the rubato which Mr. Taillard had been discussing earlier in the day. Some passages were played exceedingly softly on the clarinet so that I wondered if he was demonstrating his claripatch invention or if he really intended the music to be like that. The fortes were resonant and not forced. The concert was very enjoyable.
Again, I decided to miss the last event because I had an hour's drive to my bed. So I didn't hear the last concert of the day with Dieter Hufschmidt (speaker), Ralf Pegelhoff (bass clarinet) and Tim Ovens (piano) entitled "Kafka, Klarinette und Klavier".
follows Day 3
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