Klarinet Archive - Posting 000247.txt from 2007/02

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] Kell
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:58:54 -0500

On 26 Feb, "Keith Bowen" <bowenk@-----.com> wrote:

> Mmmm yes, good points. But there is the evidence that Mozart used it in
> slow movements. So I suppose you are saying that it should be used only
> when one is sure it is appropriate.

I wouldn't want to say what one 'should' do. (Obviously it's important that
one *can* do anything.) It's just that rubato, like any applied expressive
technique, has its consequences; and it's worth while being aware both of
what you are gaining from it and of what you are losing by it.

Sometimes the musical gain of a performance quirk is minimal and the musical
damage maximal, so there is no win in the musical stakes; yet a performer may
still produce the quirk out of a notion that they need to give an
'individual' performance. For them, just that very individuality counts as a
plus.

I don't particularly care for performances that work that way, even though
some do.

> And presumably we don't have any way of telling [whether or not it's
> appropriate], other than musical sensibility?

No, we don't have any way other than that. Indeed, one way of characterising
someone's musical sensibility would be to say that they have a well-developed
idea of what's appropriate.

That seems circular; but clearly the more able an instrumentalist you are,
the greater chance you have of pulling off a 'risky' interpretative move; and
the more you know about the possibilities of a particular piece the more
you're aware of what you may be losing by such a move. So musical
sensibility is something you can learn.

We might even be able to learn something by discussing Kell's box set
interpretations *in detail* here, in relation to the possibilities of the
pieces he's playing. But the 'in detail' bit is important. Here's an
example of the sort of detail I mean, in three posts of my own from 1999
about the beginning of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto:

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1999/10/000504.txt

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1999/10/000542.txt

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1999/10/000544.txt

Ignore the jokes;-)

Tony
--

_________ Tony Pay
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