Klarinet Archive - Posting 000004.txt from 2007/06

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Reginald Kell: Part 8
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:07:32 -0400

Reginald Kell, Part 8: Robert Schumann, Fantasy Pieces, Op. 73
No. I: Zart und mit Ausdruck (tender and with expression)
No. II: Lebhaft, leicht (lively, light) / Coda, Nach und nach ruhiger (more
and more tranquilly)
No. III: Rasch und mit Feuer (brisk and with fire) / Coda, Schneller
(faster)

Schumann wrote Op. 73 in 1849, during a prolific period before the uprising
in Dresden that sent him scurrying to safer ground with his wife. I'm
comparing the performance with the Peters Edition (Nr. 2366), "Revised by
Issay Barmas," original copyright 1922, renewed 1950. I've never seen the
manuscript or the first edition. I'm not sure what "revised by" means
(always ominous coming from an early 20th century editor); but maybe it
just means that the Barmas edition includes the parts for modern clarinet
in A and modern clarinet in Bb (instead of the earlier, German clarinet for
which Schumann wrote). Barmas indicates that he prefers clarinet in A:
The cover says, "Klarinette in A (oder B) und Klavier" and inside, the
ossia on the piano score is for clarinet in A only.

In a 2006 posting, Ken Shaw writes,
>>I listened to the Kell Decca recording last night.
>>On CD rather than my old LP, it was clear that he
>>played #1 on the Bb and #3 on the A. I think that
>>he also played #2 on the A clarinet.
http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/2006/03/000003.txt

That post is well worth a look, because Ken aptly analyses the advantages
and disadvantages of each choice. Ken, I agree about Kell playing the
first movement on Bb clarinet (the telltale is at I- 56); I honestly can't
tell in the second movement (every time he lands on the break, he swallows
the note!); but in the third movement, I think he's on Bb clarinet, and
therefore I think he's probably playing the whole thing on Bb (since he
doesn't change clarinets when he *should* change clarinets in the
Stravinsky). The telltale for me that this is not clarinet in A in No. III
is the tone quality of the long, held accidental note tied across bars
III-38-39-40. Kell's awfully good at minimizing any difference in tone
quality as he crosses the break, but I think I hear a difference in the a#
it would be here if he's on a Bb clarinet and the b natural it would be on
clarinet in A. That note has a tiny bit of fur on it, compared to his
b-natural. It's hard to hide on a note that long.

So I'm going to say that, in this 1953 recording (from Decca LP DL 9744),
with pianist Joel Rosen, Kell plays clarinet in Bb for all three
movements--and that I'd rather hear it on clarinet in A if it would mean a
mellower tone quality (although I think his tone is always a choice, not an
accident). Kell and Rosen take all the repeats this time. For my taste,
Rosen stays too far in the background, as a mere accompanist. I think the
clarinet belongs up front in these pieces, yes, but not this far up front.

Kell and Rosen use a lot of rubato, appropriate for this Romantic-era
composer. Kell chooses his crooning, speechlike phrasing here much more
than he does in the works by Mozart and Beethoven, but it doesn't bother me
in the Schumann (as it does in the misbegotten Handel transcriptions).
That's because all three of these Schumann pieces, despite their brevity,
have a curiously meandering, conversational quality, especially No. I,
which seems to begin in the middle (I'm writing about Schumann here, not
this interpretation). The construction isn't loose at all, on paper, but
for the listener, the three pieces (really three movements of one piece:
they're all based on the same theme) ramble on like stoned hippies until
the faster-paced ("Schneller") Coda of No. III finally gets to the point.

As played here by Kell and Rosen, Nos. I and II sound appropriately
contemplative, in a low-key way--somewhat undercut by Kell's shrill tone
quality, although I greatly admire his intonation! In No. III, I don't
quite agree with this interpretation of "Rasch und mit Feuer." It's brisk,
yes, but should it sound this lighthearted? I think No. III should sound
more passionate, more serious. However, I don't have any scholarly
authority for that "should." It's just my reading of "mit Feuer" and quite
likely wrong, since I read German about as well as Shadow Cat speaks
clarinet.

This recording follows the Peters edition so closely that it may be the
edition Kell and Rosen use. Differences (omitting a few places where Kell
tongues so gently inside a slur that I don't think it amounts to a real
difference):

Bar I-17, Kell tongues the alt. e-flat (slurred from the clariion e-flat in
Barmas).

Bar I-33, Kell tongues between the 2 sets of 8th notes (Barmas puts a slur
over the whole bar).

Last bar of No. I, Kell holds his quarter-note the full measure (three
beats) where the edition indicates a quarter note (no fermata) followed by
two beats of rest. This measure has a peculiar instruction in the Peters
ed.. Barmas (Schumann?) writes "attaca" under the bar, but then he's got a
fermata over the double-bar! So, which is it...?

II-30, on the first repeat, I hear the appoggiatura, though Kell swallows
it somewhat. On the second repeat, I hear only a little hitch where the
appoggiatura belongs.

II-46, again, on the first repeat, I hear the appoggiatura. On the second
repeat, he skips it.

Last bar on No. II, same odd notation in the Peters ed., with "attaca"
under the rests and then a fermata over the double bar. Huh?

In No. III, Kell cuts ends of phrases very short for emphasis, a general
characteristic of the way he plays allegro in most other pieces in this set
of disks. *If* the Peters edition is an accurate score, then I think Kell
goes too far here, cutting notes to half their length when they're not even
marked staccato.

III-9, Kell tongues the 8th-note run (slurred in the Peters ed.).

III-60-61 he's tonguing notes slurred in the Peters ed.--sounds good,
though.

Last bar of No. III, in the Peters ed., after an emphatic quarter-note
ending followed by three beats of rest to fill up the final measure,
there's another fermata over the double-bar! Again--huh?

Lelia Loban
"The painter turns a poem into a painting: the musician sets a picture to
music."
--Robert Schumann, "Neue Zeitschift," 1843, quoted in "The Wordsworth
Dictionary of Musical Quotations."

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