Klarinet Archive - Posting 000280.txt from 2007/05
From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] R. Kell, Part 6: Weber
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 13:49:17 -0400
Reginald Kell, Part 6: Weber
Reginald Kell plays the Weber Grand Duo Concertant in E-flat, Op. 48
(recorded in 1953, from Decca LP DL 9744) on Bb clarinet, with Joel Rosen
on piano. Kell's tone quality sounds good to me here, only slightly on the
piercing side, and he rarely uses the "slangy" phrasing I've disliked in a
few of the other recordings. The clarinet sounds close-mic'd.
Unfortunately, the piano sounds as if it's in an echo-chamber across the
room.
I tried to access Tony Pay's pdf posting of the score copied from the
original manuscript,
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/download.html/1,764/weberduo.pdf
but my computer couldn't read it.
I'm handicapped in discussing specifics, because I've got only the clarinet
part (what a shame, because the piano part sounds like a monster!), in a
suspect edition, the old Cundy-Bettoney "Clarinet Classics, Solo Bb
Clarinet Parts from the Works of Great Masters, Vol. I." I bought this
copy used. The Library of Congress hasn't got this edition. This printing
fails to identify the copyright date or the editor. From the typography
and the worn condition of the printing plates, it's clearly a reprint of an
older edition, probably from the 19th century. The copyright must have
expired. This Cundy-Bettoney printing has no title page or colophon page
(apparently an intact copy: it never had these pages) and omits any
original title pages and colophon pages from all of the seven works
included. I think this copy came off the press shortly before Carl Fischer
took over the C-B catalog, because the only reference to Fischer anywhere
in/on it is a rubber stamp on the front that says, in all-caps, "Cundy
Bettoney Catalog is now owned & operated by Carl Fischer, Inc.. 55-62
Cooper Square, New York, N. Y. 10003." The Cundy-Bettoney address on an ad
inside has no Zip code. Can anyone identify the editor and the date of
this edition?
Without a trustworthy edition that includes the piano part, and without
greater knowledge of Weber than I've got, I won't discuss the specifics of
Kell's performance in detail--but this is one of my favorite recordings in
the set: ghostly in the Andante con moto, moody in the Rondo from 523-576,
and lighthearted elsewhere in the outer movements. I'm suspicious of my
own reaction, though, because it may not be a coincidence that I'm
enthusing over Kell's recording of one of the pieces I know the least about!
Kell's phrasing matches what's printed in the Cundy-Bettoney edition
(though he follows his usual practice of going farther than most musicians
in cutting accented notes short for emphasis). If any of his notes aren't
the same, I failed to catch them, except that, in the first movement at bar
I-129, Kell and Rosen don't take the repeat. (Phooey!) Where Kell has an
option at bar 196, naturally he takes the showier one, the high road down
(on the Bb clarinet score, from g 4 lines above the staff down to e three
lines above the staff, then down to the first c# above the staff) instead
of the low road up (mid-staff c# on the staff up to 4th space e, then
top-line g).
The Library of Congress lists only three printed editions (and doesn't list
the Cundy-Bettoney one):
Fentone, ed. by Pamela Weston, 1989
International, ed. by Reginald Kell, 1958
French, no publisher, editor not named, 1815 (first edition? manuscript?
LoC has a negative photocopy in the Performing Arts RR that I haven't seen
yet and may be able to copy)
I found some pros and cons on the Kell vs. Weston editions in the Klarinet
Archives, from serveral years ago, that make me think I would rather not
use either of those editions if there's any good alternative. Opinions
welcome.
Lelia Loban
The devil, with his foot so cloven,
For aught I care may take Beethoven;
And, if the bargain does not suit,
I'll throw him Weber in to boot.
--Charles Lamb, "Free Thoughts on Several Eminent Composers," 1830
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