Klarinet Archive - Posting 000257.txt from 2007/05

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] R. Kell, Part 3 (long!) (was: [kl] R. Kell revisited)
Date: Sun, 27 May 2007 20:07:53 -0400

Part 3 re. the 6-disk set of Reginald Kell's complete Decca recordings. A
message of this length may accomplish little except to demonstrate that
pedantry is not an art form, but here goes.

Mozart Concerto in A, K. 622
Reginald Kell gives a graceful performance in the Mozart concerto (recorded
in 1950, from Decca LP DL 7500) , which he plays on clarinet in A. He
plays the concerto straightforwardly and so fluidly that he makes it sound
effortless. He uses an attractive, traditional clarinet tone, with no
extra-hard tonguing, next to no "notey-ness" and less vibrato and rubato
compared with some of his other recordings in this set. I like *Kell's*
playing a great deal in the concerto, but, despite Mozart's scoring for
strings with two flutes, two bassoons and two horns, the nameless,
conductorless pickup orchestra has no wind instruments and sounds thin.

The liner notes list only 17 string players, who use too much portamento,
with occasional intonation trouble and ragged ensemble. I keep imagining I
hear a flute in the tuttis, but I'm guessing it must be Kell, quietly doing
double duty when he can, filling in for missing wind players (as expedient,
often not on the same line he shows the soloist for the tuttis in his
edition a few years later). String players also sometimes fill in for
missing winds. In the solos, there's often imbalance, with Kell too far
forward, although that probably represents a wise choice, since the
orchestra sounds under-rehearsed: the recording company's responsibility.

The two print editions I compared with this performance were the Breitkopf
& Hartel ed. for Clarinet in A edited by Henri Kling (1842-1918), as
reprinted in 1987, which I believe was generally accepted as the standard
edition at the time this recording was made (in 1950, clarinet in A was the
normal choice for the soloist, basset clarinet being much rarer then than
now); and the transposition for Bb Clarinet by Reginald Kell, subtitled
"Authentic Edition," with the piano reduction revised (transposed and more)
by Karl Heinz Fuessl and published by International in 1959. I'm under the
impression that this is simply Kell's clarinet in A version with the
accompaniment transposed for Bb clarinet--please correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, I purchased Kell's edition in 1962 and therefore it doesn't reflect
any changes Kell may have made later.

Kell and Fuessl transpose the accompaniment so that a student who owns only
a Bb clarinet can learn the same written notes as the player of a clarinet
in A and won't have to re-learn all the fingerings later. Therefore, all
notes indicated below in a discussion of the differences between the Kling
and Kell scores are the *written* notes as they appear in *both* editions
(therefore presumably also in Kell's publication for clarinet in A, the
instrument he plays here), not concert pitch notes.

In the performance, Kell uses slur marks as phrase marks and often tongues
gently inside these phrases, to keep them legato but give them a bit of
articulation. Where he writes staccato marks inside the phrase mark, he
tongues these staccatos more delicately than he does staccatos outside
phrase marks. I don't spell out all of these places below except where
there's a very noticible difference between what he plays and what he
writes. Except as otherwise noted, Kell's own playing matches his
published edition, though I won't be surprised if other people on this list
catch me in errors or omissions. Since this list includes Mozart scholars
and I'm not one of them, I take no stand on whether Kling's edition, Kell's
edition or Kell's performance is "better" where they differ, except when I
see a potential for confusion.

Some things I haven't specified individually below: There are too many
differences in placement of the phrase marks between Kell and Kling to
specify all of them: they occur in literally every line of the concerto.
Often, Kell slurs over a longer phrase that Kling breaks up. Often, Kling
indicates a slur with a dotted line while Kell writes it in with a solid
line. The following analysis applies only to the clarinet parts, since the
piano parts are reductions and the orchestra in Kell's performance also
plays a reduction, source unknown, for strings only.

As in the Trio, Kell plays his trills unprepared from the principal note.
(It sounds to me as if the violinists usually do the same but reached no
firm consensus on this issue.) Both editors are inconsistent about
providing a cautionary accidental. Since a cautionary accidental is only a
convenience that doesn't affect the pitch of the note, I haven't noted most
of these differences except for a few early examples, unless I think
there's a possibility for confusion. Both editions begin renumbering bars
from 1 at the beginning of each movement; thus I-80 is the 80th bar of the
first movement, II-80 is the 80th bar of the second movement, etc..

Consistent differences in notation preference:

Tuttis: In the first two movements, Kling's edition assumes the clarinet
player will play along in the tuttis, shows those notes full-size and gives
the clarinetist a rest before the subsequent solo begins (or omits the
tutti notes if the solo rests for only a bar or so, as at I-286-7 and
elsewhere), while Kell reduces the sizes of the tutti notes and generally
runs them right up to the beginning of the subsequent solo. In the last
movement, Kling switches to using multi-bar rests and does not show the
tutti again at any point before III-122-137, when he reverts to his
previous practice of showing the tutti full-sized unless it's very short,
while Kell continues to show an optionally playable line of the tutti in
small notation, as before. Kling reverts to multi-bar rests again at III-
278 and III-286, then back to the full-sized tutti at III 298-300 and in
the closing measures. I prefer Kell's more clear, consistent method of
notating all the tuttis the same way.

Appoggiaturas: In bars I-61, I-80, I-255, I-274, I-276 and I-307, Kling
follows Mozart's usual practice of notating an appoggiatura before an
eighth note for a combination that would be played as two sixteenth notes.
Kell not only plays but writes two sixteenth notes. Thus, in bar I-80,
Kling begins with appoggiatura f, eighth note e-flat, sixteenth notes d, c.
Kell begins with four sixteenth notes, f, e-flat, d, c. I realize that
with the autograph manuscript lost, the editor must make these decisions
(which are inaudible in any case), but I think it's clear enough from other
extant autograph scores how Mozart generally wrote this type of ornament
and IMHO it's more helpful to teach students how to read Mozart-era
notation (because they're going to run into it in other scores) than to set
it out in modern style this way. This difference between the editions only
appears where two more sixteenth notes follow the notes in question (making
a phrase of 4 sixteenth notes in Kell). In other constructions, though,
such as the types found at II-7 and at II- 39, Kling and Kell write these
phrases the same way, with appoggiaturas.

Trills: Kling finishes off a trill with a pair of 32nd appoggiaturas and
Kell with a pair of 16th appoggiaturas, thoughout, except for bar I-310,
where both use sixteenth notes, not written as appoggiaturas.

Specific differences other than the consistent ones listed above (for Kell,
assume he and the orchestra play what his score says, unless otherwise
noted, except for many *subtle* phrasing differences that I don't think are
worth spelling out):

Mvt. 1, Allegro

I-21, in the clarinet part showing the tutti, Kling's 3rd note is b-natural
and his sixth note is b-flat, as an accidental. Kell's third and sixth
notes in the edition are both b.

I-82, at the beginning of the third set of triplets, Kling writes
precautionary a-flat and Kell does not, following the a-flat tied over to
the beginning of this measure from the previous measure. I think it's
better to write in a precautionary accidental in such cases, even though
it's also correct to leave it out--but given that the soloist's manuscript
is lost, the copyist should follow Mozart's choice from his orchestra
score, if the notation is clear there.

I-91, similarly, on the half-note (a throat e, following a clarion e-flat
in bar I-90), Kell adds a precautionary natural sign while Kling does not.

I-94, Kling's last three notes (eighths) in the bar are d, e, f#. Kell's
last three notes (eighths) are d, f#, d.

I-95, Kling is on the staff, sixteenth notes g, d, e, f#, g, f#, g, a,
b-flat, a, g, a, b-flat, a, b-flat, c
Kell is an octave lower, below the staff, sixteenth notes g, f#, g, f#, g,
f#, g, a, b-flat, a, g, a, b- flat, a, b-flat, c.

I-96, Kling begins with quarter notes clarion d, chalumeau d. Kell
reverses the octaves: chalumeau d, clarion d.

I-97, both are on the staff. Kling has sixteenth notes g, d, e, f#, g, f#,
g, a, b-flat, a, g, a, b-flat, a, b-flat, c. Kell has sixteenth notes g,
f#, g, f#, g, f#, g, a, b-flat, a, g, a, b-flat, a, b-flat, c.

I-107, Kell's score shows staccato on the last five 16th notes, with no
phrase mark over them. He doesn't articulate these nearly as strongly as
he usually does phrases he notates that way. He plays these notes the way
he plays phrases with a slur mark over staccato marks.

I-109, Kling's 6th note is a written accidental, f-natural (following the
f# earlier in the bar). Kell's 6th note has no accidental and therefore is
f#.

I-112, Kell's printed bar of 8 8th notes has a slur over all but the first
note (which is slurred to the previous bar), but in the phrase that begins
with the second note of the bar, Kell plays the first five notes strongly
tongued, marcato.

I-127, Kling indicates the bar with two fermatas should be ornamented.
Kell does not so indicate in his edition and plays the fermatas without
ornamenting that bar in the performance.

I-139, all sixteenth notes, Kling has c (1 line below the staff) down to e
(4 spaces below the staff), up to next g, c, e (first line of staff), down
to c (1 line below the staff), g, e, up to g, c, e (bottom line of staff),
g, c (3rd space of staff), down to g (2nd line of staff), c. Kell has c (1
line below the staff) up to next e, g, c, e (top space of the staff), down
to c, g, e, c (1 line below staff), up to e, g, c, e (top space of staff),
then down to c, g, e (bottom line of staff).

I-159, in the tutti, the third note is an accidental, f#. Kling's sixth
note is a written accidental, f- natural, but Kell writes no accidental and
therefore the note is f#.

I-198, eighth-note triplets, the first of which begins with a rest, Kling
starts on c (one space below staff), goes down to f (3rd line below staff),
up to a (2nd line below staff), c, f, a, c (3rd space of staff), f (top
line of staff), a (first line above staff), down to f (top line of staff)
and up to c (two lines above staff). Kell starts in the same place, c (one
space below staff) but then goes up to f, a, c, f (top line of staff), down
to a (2nd space of staff), up to c, f, a (1st space above staff), down to f
(top line of staff), up to c (2nd line above staff).

I-204, instead of playing f, a, marcato to c, as he marks it later in his
edition, Kell slurs from the a up to the c, and similarly, in I-205, he
slurs from the g up to the c.

I-212, Kell articulates the 16th notes; he later wrote a slur over those
notes.

I-315, Kling indicates the bar with two fermatas should be ornamented. As
before, Kell does not so indicate in the edition and plays the fermatas
without ornamenting that bar in the performance.

I-317-318, Kell does not play staccato where he indicates staccato on the
published score.

I-326, first half of the bar (all 16th notes), Kling begins on c (1 line
below staff), then down to e four spaces below the staff, then up to next
g, c, e, g (second line of staff), c, e (space at the top of the staff).
Kell begins on c (1 line below staff) and goes up to next e, g, c (third
space of staff), then down to e (first line of staff) and up to g, c, e.
They write the second half of the bar the same, beginning from g sitting on
top of the staff.

I-337, first half of the bar, Kling begins on c (1 line below the staff),
drops down to e (fourth space below the staff), goes up to g, c, e (bottom
line of the staff), down to c, g, e (four spaces below the staff). Kell
begins on c (first line below the staff) and goes up to e, g, c, e (top
space of the staff), then down to c (3rd space of staff), g, e (bottom line
of staff). They write the second half of the bar the same, beginning from
g three spaces below the staff.

Mvt. II, Adagio

Generally: Where Kell has a quarter note followed by a rest, as in bar 40,
he usually holds that note longer, sometimes for the full measure.

II-55, Kling and Kell both begin the bar on quarter note c tied to 32nd
note c (1 line below the staff). Following in 32nd notes, Kling writes e
(four spaces below the staff), up to g, c, e (bottom line of staff), g, c,
e (top space of staff). Kell follows the tied c, also in 32nd notes, by
rising to e (bottom line of staff), up to e, g, c (3rd space on staff),
down to e (bottom line of staff) and from there the same as Kling.

II-57, Kling and Kell both begin the bar on quarter note d tied to 32nd
note d (1st space below the staff). Both then follow with 32nd notes.
Kling drops down to f (3 lines below the staff), then up to b-natural
(accidental, 2 spaces below staff), d, f, g, b-natural (accidental, 3rd
line of staff), d. Kell goes from the tied d up to f (first space on the
staff), up to g, b natural (accidental, 3rd line of staff), down to f (1st
space on staff), up to g, b (natural, 3rd line of staff), d. The rest of
the bar is the same in both editions.

II-59, Kling has a full bar of b-flat (2 spaces above the staff) with a
fermata and a note, "This should be ornamented." Kell shows the b-flat
with the fermata followed by "Cadenza by Carl Baermann," written out on the
staff in small notation. However, Kell doesn't play that cadenza in the
recording. He plays a much shorter eingang (I'm guessing it's his own) at
that spot.

II-86, before the dotted 8th g (top of staff), Kling writes an appoggiatura
in the form of a 32nd note, while Kell uses a slashed-8th appoggiatura.

Mvt. III, Rondo, Allegro

III-9-15, 32, 40, 52, 73, contrary to his practice in the first two
movements, Kling gives the clarinet multi-rest bars, while Kell, as usual,
writes in the tutti out, in small notation.

III-43 and also III-47, in the second brace of 16th notes, Kell slurs the
first two in the performance (slur not marked in the published edition), a
gentler version of the way he plays and writes the braces of 16th notes in
bar 7.

III-99 and III-103, Kell writes a slur over the brace of 8ths in the
edition, but plays these notes marcato in the performance.

III-114, Kling writes the opening note of the measure, 8th note g (sitting
on top of the staff), as a stand-alone note, with a staccato mark over it.
Kell ties that note to the dotted half-note g's that are tied over the
previous two measures in both editions. In the performance, he plays the
8th note tied but accents it with a short, strong crescendo, and holds it
close to a quarter-note.

III-160, in the performance, Kell slurs across both braces of 16th notes.
In the edition, Kell drops the slur (carried over from the dotted half in
the previous measure) after the first two 16th notes.

III-169, all eighth notes, beginning with a rest, Kling writes, b-flat
(mid-staff) down to a, g, up to b-flat (mid-staff), down to f (bottom
space), and begins bar 170 with eighth note e (bottom line of staff).
After the opening rest, Kell writes, b-flat (2nd space below the staff),
down to next a, g, up to a, down to f (three lines below staff), and begins
bar 170 with eighth note e (4 spaces below staff).

III-183-185, in the performance, Kell plays the notes marcato. In the
edition, he writes a slur under the whole phrase.

III-190, in the performance, Kell plays the second phrase of 16th notes
staccato, not slurred as he later wrote them in his edition.

III-205, Kling writes dotted quarter f (3 lines below the staff), 8th-note
appoggiatura a-flat (2 lines below the staff) to 8th note g (3 spaces below
staff), the 8th notes f, g. Kell writes the same notes and values except
he omits the appoggiatura altogether.

III-232, in the edition, Kell writes a slur over all the notes in this bar,
but in performance he plays them marcato.

III-236, once again, in the edition, Kell writes a slur over all the notes
in this bar, but in performance he plays them marcato.

III-247, once again, Kling writes the opening note of the measure, 8th note
g (sitting on top of the staff), as a stand-alone note, with a staccato
mark over it. Kell ties the note to the three-beat g's in the previous two
measures. In the performance, he plays the 8th note tied but accents it
with a short, strong crescendo and holds it for nearly a quarter-note.

III-278 and 281, Kling returns to mult-bar rests (3 bars) instead of
writing out the tutti, while Kell continues his usual small notation of the
tutti.

III-298-300 Kling's back to the full-sized tutti for 3 bars. Kell
continues small tutti notes as usual.

III-301, Kling writes 16th notes c (1st line below staff) down to e (4th
space below staff), up to g (3rd space below staff), c, then 8th-note e
(bottom line of staff), then 16th notes d (1st space below staff) down to f
(3 lines below staff), up to b (2 spaces below staff), d, 8th note f
(bottom space on staff). Kell writes 16th notes c (1st line below staff)
up to e, g, c, 8th note e (top space on staff), then 16th notes d (1st
space below staff), up to f, b, d, 8th note f (top line of staff).

III-302, Kling writes 16th notes e (4th space below staff) up to g, c, e,
8th note g (2nd line of staff), then 16th notes f (bottom space on staff),
up to a, down to f (bottom space on staff), d, b, g (3rd space below
staff). Kell writes the same phrase an octave higher.

III-311, Kling writes the second half of bar 311 as 16th notes a (2 lines
below staff), up to c, down to g, up to c, down to f, up to c. Kell writes
the same phrase an octave higher with a sign to play it an octave lower.
The result is the same, but I prefer Kling's notation here.

III-312, Kling writes 16th notes e (4 lines below staff, up to c (1 line
below staff), down to g, up to c, down to g, up to c, down to a, up to c,
down to g, up to c, down to f, up to c. Kell once again writes notes on
the staff with an indication to lower them an octave, so that he's in the
same octave as Kling, but Kell's notes are slightly different: 16th notes e
(written bottom line of staff, played 4th space below staff), up to c, down
an octave to c, up an octave to c, down to g, up to c, down to a, up to c,
down to g, up to c, down to f, up to c.

III-313-314, Kling writes 16th notes e (4 spaces below staff), up to c,
down to g, up to c, down to g, up to c, down to a, up to c, down to g, up
to c, down to f, up to c, then begins bar III-314 with dotted quarter e (4
lines below staff). Kell continues the instruction to play an octave lower
than written, so that he's in the same octave as Kling still, but again has
slightly different notes: 16th notes e (written bottom line of staff,
played as 4 spaces below staff), up to c, down an octave to c, up an octave
to c, down to g, up to c, down to a, up to c, down to g, up to c, down to
f, up to c, then begins bar III-314 with dotted quarter e (written bottom
line of staff, played an octave below). I can't help thinking the only
reason to tell the soloist to play down an octave, instead of simply
writing those notes where they should be played, is to save paper. The
last page is somewhat crowded. Extending those notes below the staff would
have meant either crowding that page very severely or adding another sheet,
in effect leaving three and a half pages blank.

III-346 to end, Kling writes out the tutti full-sized again while Kell
writes it in small notation.

I could've done without the feline obligato, which I'm pretty sure wasn't
on the recording. Just to allay any sense of empending doom: Since I
don't have Kell editions for anything else in the set of his recordings, I
won't go into this much detail for any of the rest of them.

Lelia Loban
"It is much easier to play a thing quickly than to play it slowly."
--Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, letter, 1778

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