Klarinet Archive - Posting 000127.txt from 2006/10

From: Simon Aldrich <simonaldrich@-----.ca>
Subj: [kl] Herrmann Quintet
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:24:50 -0400

Roger Hewitt asked
"Does anyone out there know anything about the Clarinet Quintet by
Bernard Herman (or is it Hermann?) substitles "Souvenir de ...
<something>"? A friend heard it recently (apparently it was played on
Classic fm radio station in UK a few weeks ago) and said how good it
was. I am interested in recordings and score/parts."

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) was one of the most prolific American-
born film composers of the golden age of Hollywood (1940s/50s).
He wrote music for 56 movies as well as radio and tv shows and is
best known for writing the scores for Hitchcock's Vertigo and Psycho
and Welles' Citizen Kane. He also wrote a sizeable body of stage and
concert music and was an active conductor.
He moved to London in 1966 and wrote his Clarinet Quintet ("Souvenirs
de Voyage") a year later.

I have played the Herrmann Quintet and recorded it for CBC radio . It
is a beautiful, sentimental, communicative piece - touching and
bittersweet without being populist or maudlin.

A recording I can't recommend highly enough is David Shifrin with
Chamber Music Northwest (Delos 3088).

If you do play it I would make one recommendation.
There are many double-stops (two notes at once) in the cello part.
Apart from being difficult to tune, double-stops kill the resonance
of each note and make the cello sound muted. When the cellist with
whom I played the Herrmann realised that the top note of the
doublestop was usually elsewhere
in the quintet she removed the upper notes of each double-stop and
this greatly improved the sound of the string quartet, not to mention
the pitch and resonance of the playing.

The parts and score (both hand-written) are published by MMB Music
(St. Louis, MO).
There is speculation that he wrote or intended to write a fourth
movement for this Quintet but that might be born of a certain
"unfinished" quality to the piece. Some people find the third (final)
movement does not sound like a final movement but the piece more than
stands on its own as is.

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---
Simon Aldrich

Clarinet Faculty - McGill University
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre de l'Opera de Montreal
Clarinet - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne

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