Klarinet Archive - Posting 000003.txt from 2007/07

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Reginald Kell: Part 10, Brahms Quintet, Op. 115
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2007 15:20:59 -0400


Johannes Brahms, Quintet in B minor, Op. 115.
I Allegro
II Adagio
III Andante--Presto non assai, ma con sentimento
IV Con moto--Un poco meno mosso

Reginald Kell recorded with the Fine Arts Quartet (Leonard Sorkin, violin
I; Joseph Stepansky, violin II; Sheppard Lehnhoff, viola; George Sopkin,
cello) in 1951, just six months after their collaboration in the Mozart
Quintet. Decca released the LP as DL 9732. Kell plays clarinet in A (as
specified on the score). His tone color change at the break is easiest to
hear in bar I-171, where he has quarter note b-flat followed by b-natural;
the register change is clearly audible again in II-49, when he goes from
b-natural to a; and in II-116, where he goes from c to b-flat. I like this
interpretation, which closely follows the score most of the time. I think
this is one of the better recordings in the 6-CD set. My only big quarrel
with this performance is the omission of the first repeat, at I-70.
Quibbles: I'd prefer to hear attacks played with less scrubbing of the bows
by all of the string and I'd prefer a tad less portamento from cellist
George Sopkin in the last movement. Kell's tonguing is delicate throughout
(unlike some of his other performances) and I'm not always certain whether
Kell slurs and tongues exactly as per the score in heavily-textured places
where he's playing along with other people.

To the extent possible, I compared the recording with editions available to
these musicians in 1951. In the Library of Congress, I looked at the
full-sized (folio) first edition of playing parts published in Germany by
Simrock in 1892 (call no. M3.3 .B8 Op. 115 1892, donated to the LoC in 1987
by Paul Nellen; I did not make copies, because the pages are too fragile to
Xerox) and compared those with International 1071 and also with Bretikopf &
Hartel's 1989 edition no. 6048, re-edited from the 1927 edition in 1989
(call no. M562 .B8 Op. 115 1989). I own a copy of International 1071. I
photocopied the Library of Congress's copy of the reduced full score of the
first edition (all parts on each page, similar to a conductor's score)
published by Simrock in Germany in 1892 (call no. M562 .B8 Op 115 1892). I
didn't have a ruler with me in the LoC, but on my copy of the LoC photocopy
of the Simrock reduced score the pages measure approximately 6-1/2 inches
wide x 10-1/4 inches tall (a good bit bigger than Eulenburg no. 239, a 1982
miniature score that's nearly microscopic--since its Library of Congress
call number is the same as Simrock's except for the date, be sure to ask
for 1892 in the library).

I also compared the 1989 Breitkopf parts with Simrock and International in
the Library of Congress, but the library didn't have the first Breitkopf
edition, edited by Hans Gal and published in 1927. For 1989 Breitkopf,
Wolfgang Meyer re-edited the clarinet part and Christoph Popper re-edited
the string parts. TGal had direct access to Brahms's personal copy of the
1892 Simrock score and also to the autograph score. Meyer and Popper used
microfilms of Brahms's personal copy of the 1892 Simrock score and also the
autograph score, provided by Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. The
fact that Breitkopf bothered with a new edition indicates that, despite
using the same source materials as Gal, the 1989 editors made changes. he
introduction to the 1989 edition says it's re-edited "principally from" the
1927 edition, but it's unclear which emendations and comments are Gal's
(therefore available to Kell et al) and which are Meyer's and Popper's
(unavailable for the recording).

International 1071 is undated, but I found International's copyright
filing, from 1949. In the Library of Congress, I compared that 1949
International first (call no. M562 .B8 Op. 115 1949) with my personal copy
of International 1071 that I bought new about 10 years ago. The current
edition is not re-edited: the two Internationals are identical except for
the color of the front cover. International fails to credit an editor, but
clearly did use one, though the great majority of of his or her emendations
represent inaudible differences in notation preferences, not audible
differences in musical content. International's notation choices follow
Simrock's closely in the clarinet and cello parts, including replication of
some odd typography from the first edition, as at clarinet II-24, where a
decrescendo mark slants down at an unusually acute (space-saving) angle in
both scores. Most of International's editing is in the violin and viola
parts.

Most of the phrase and expression markings are the same (exceptions noted
below) in all these editions. Conveniently, both Breitkopf and
International reproduce the rehearsal marks in the same places as in the
Simrock 1892 first edition. It's feasible for different musicians to play
from different editions for a successful rehearsal. Differences that would
be *audible* between the Decca performance and the Simrock, Breitkopf
(1989) and International eds. are so few (and IMHO so likely to result from
rehearsal discussions among musicians who may not all be reading from the
same edition, or even from "artistic license" rather than anything a
musician sees on paper) that I'm unwilling to take a position on which
edition Kell and the Fine Arts Quartet might have used except for a
tentative speculation about Kell, based on II- 56-57, 62-63.

In comparing the performance by Kell and the Fine Arts Quartet with the
Simrock, Breitkopf (1989) and International scores, I give the clarinet
notes in the clarinet's key, not at concert pitch. For notational
preferences that don't affect the way the music sounds, I've given one or
two examples below and then haven't bothered listing other examples of the
same thing separately, except where I think there's an error or a real
potential for confusion. When footnotes in the Breitkopf edition show
where the autograph score differs from the Simrock first edition, but
Breitkopf prefers to preserve the Simrock version as the playing score
(apparently on evidence that Brahms made these changes himself during the
publishing process), I don't note those variants here, with the exception
of bars II-56-57 and 62-63. Most editions include an optional solo viola
part as a substitute for the clarinet. I ignore those optional viola
parts. Also, I don't include the Henle edition because it wasn't published
until 2000, and was unavailable for the 1951 Decca recording.

In general: International and 1989 Breitkopf add bar numbers (not present
in Simrock) on the left margin of each line, but both also keep the
original rehearsal letters from Simrock. There are no ossias on the
original Simrock parts. International and 1989 Breitkopf both provide all
instruments with ossias for entrances. International occasionally provides
the string players with bowing marks (as at I-58, I-93) and position marks
(as at I-4 and frequently thereafter). Nither Simrock nor 1989 Breitkopf
provides bowing marks or position marks. The two important instructions
for mutes and then no mutes--"con sordino" for all the strings at the start
of the Adagio and "senza sordino" for all the strings at the start of the
Andantino--are the same in all of the editions including Simrock in full
score and parts. All of the editions have the same pizzicato and arco
markings for strings.

For all instruments, an expression marking that appears above the staff in
one editon often appears below the staff in the other. I've noted the
first instance below in the specifics, but ignored many other examples.
International and Breitkopf add many courtesy accidentals not found in
Simrock. It's rare for Simrock to give a courtesy accidental where
International and/or Breitkopf do not, although Simrock is conspicuously
more generous with cautionary accidentals in the 2nd violin than in the
other parts! In Simrock, nearly all of the cautionary accidentals are for
the strings.

In the second movement, in the long clarinet runs across the beat,
International usually puts the 9, 11, etc. below the notes, inside the slur
where one is present (see bars II-44, 52-53, 58-59, 63, etc.), while
Simrock puts the numbers above the notes. Where sets of triplets continue
for more than one bar, International is more likely to write in the 3 in a
brace each time, or 3 in a brace above each set in the first bar, then "3"
without the brace thereafter as a reminder, where Simrock often leaves off
the braces on the first bar, writes in the "3" in that bar only, then
counts on the musician to notice and continue the triplets.

Simrock uses some notational shorthand inconsistently. Simrock's full
score uses symbols to break up notes into dit-dit- dits, but in the Simrock
set of parts, all the notes are written out for the strings except in
slashed tremolos. For instance, in the viola in the Andantino at III-162,
the Simrock full score shows a quarter note with two slashes through the
stem and four dots above the note-head to stand in for four sixteenth
notes, where International, Breitkopf and the Simrock viola part all show
the four staccato 16th notes. However, in the same phrase, where the
clarinet echoes the viola at III- 163, the Simrock full score and clarinet
part both use the abbreviated notation, with dots over a quarter note. In
bars immediately following one marked with the shorthand, Simrock's full
score will use the slashed note again but sometimes omit the dots above (as
in viola at III-163)--and almost always omits the dots for values longer
than a quarter note (clarinet at III-163). 1989 Breitkopf follows the
inconsistencies in the Simrock parts set, with the notes written out in
full for the viola but not for the clarinet. Obviously the notation is
more consistently accessible in International.

Simrock, Breitkopf and International all are inconsistent in deciding where
to use 64th notes and where to switch to slashed tremolos to be played the
same as 64th notes. All three editors will mix both in the same bar, but
often they choose different bars or different places in the bars. For
instance, at bar I-65-66 in violin 1, Simrock has 16th notes alternating f
and g, then ending bar 66 on two c's. International gets the same result
by asking for 2 groups of 9, with each group shown as a dotted quarter note
f and a dotted quarter g with a slashed tremolo sign and a 9 above each set
in I-65, then one such group followed by 6 more 16th notes in I-66, then
the two c's. See also bars I-186-187, bars II-54- 55 and elsewhere, not
listed separately below. It looks to me as though all three editors made
those notational choices for individual bars based on which method would
best wrapping to the next line in the middle of a bar, something that all
three editions handle reasonably well, given the difficulty of avoiding
mid-bar wraps in the Adagio. The Simrock *full* score even has a mid-bar
line-wrap in the Adagio, at II-56. (I don't count something as a mid-bar
line wrap if the only part of the bar appearing at the end of a line is a
key change and/or a time change. Preparing for key changes and time
changes on the previous line makes the score more readable, not less.)
Simrock's parts have two mid-bar line wraps in the viola, one in the
clarinet and one in the cello. International has one mid-bar line-wrap in
the clarinet, two in the viola and one in the cello. Breitkopf has only two
mid-bar line wraps in the viola part and none in the other parts.

Simrock's first edition parts would make a good, usable performance score
except for the now-obsolete typography for the slashed tremolo sign (both
in the parts and in the full score). That's a serious problem, because of
the many passages for the strings in the Adagio in which 64th notes
alternate *in the same bar* with fingered slashed tremolos. Simrock writes
these slashed tremolos as if they were *pairs* of 64ths, with regular
braces connecting what appear to be note stems, though they're not! The
dangling *real* note stems (here, usually quarter-note stems) to tell the
musician how long to hold the tremolo are easily overlooked, and in
practice, the innocent string player is liable to find himself or herself
seriously out of sync, jumping ahead of the others to the next bar, before
realizing that an apparent pair of 64th notes, played as such, is really a
slashed tremolo of quarter-note total duration. (See Simrock's second
violin in the Adagio, II-61-69, for annoying examples.) International and
1989 Breitkopf update that visually confusing typography in favor of
slashes that don't attach to any stems of their own and don't come anywhere
near touching the note stems, so that there's no chance of confusion. I've
never seen an autograph of this score and am curious how Brahms wrote these
tremolos.

I Allegro

Bar I-13: in the Simrock full score, the crescendo is below the clarinet
staff. In International, 1989 Breitkopf and the Simrock parts, it's above.
(Notation only; not an audible difference. Below, I ignore the many
additional examples of expression markings located differently, as long as
the editor's intent is clear.)

Bar I-30: In the clarinet, International and 1989 Bretikopf, the last note
in the measure is a d with an accidental natural (after d# an octave lower
earlier in the bar), but Simrock has no cautionary accidental on the last
note, either in the full score or in the clarinet part. (Notation only;
not an audible difference. Below, I ignore the many additional examples of
the Breitkopf and International editors placing cautionary accidentals in a
different octave than the octave where the previous accidental occurred.)

Bar I-67-68 in the viola, here is a case where Simrock's scoring is
clearer: all 64th notes in Simrock, but half the bar 64ths and the other
half written as 64th tremolos in International. (I have not mentioned many
similar differences below, except in special cases.)

Bar I-70: All the editions I looked at have a repeat. Kell and the quartet
omit this repeat. (Phooey!)

Bar I-79: the clarinet and both violins (all editions) have crescendo and
decrescendo in this bar. The viola also has the crescendo and decrescendo
there in International, Breitkopf and the Simrock parts, but not in the
Simrock full score.

Bar I-135: The International and 1989 Breitkoph editions give a cautionary
natural on the clarinet's throat g, following g-sharp in the previous
measure. The Simrock ed. has no cautionary accidental. (Notation only;
not an audible difference. Below, I ignore further instances of cautionary
accidentals in bars following the bar where the previous accidental
occurred. In general, Simrock does not print these cautionary accidentals
but the other editions do.)

Bar I-145: In the cello, Simrock has a slur between the first two notes,
f-sharp to g, where International and 1989 Bretikopf have no slur. The
Simrock parts and International have a crescendo arrow beginning in bar 144
and throughout bar 145. The Simrock full score does not have that
crescendo arrow for cello or viola but does have it for all other
instruments. Breitkopf gives the arrow to everyone but puts it in
parentheses for cello and viola.

Bar I-167: Simrock, Breitkopf and International have a diminuendo marked
for all the strings on that bar (the clarinet comes in on the final 8th
note and also has "dim."). Simrock (both in the parts and in the full
score) has not only the diminuendo but also an arrow for crescendo on the
first three notes and an arrow for decrescendo on the next two notes for
second violin and viola, with the crescendo arrow directly below "dim.".
Putting a crescendo and a dimenuendo on the same notes seems to be an
obvious misprint in Simrock, but the other editors fail to fix it.
International prints the error in second violin and viola, then adds the
error to the first violin as well (but not to the cello). 1989 Breitkopf
prints the error in the second violin, while omitting the crescendo arrows
for the viola (and not adding them to the other instruments).

Bar I-194: In the viola part on the full score, Simrock saves space by
giving the viola one bar in treble clef, but there is no switch to treble
clef in International, 1989 Breitkopf or the Simrock individual viola part.

Bar I-203: There is an error in the 1st violin part in the International
edition, where the dot is left off the first note (c should be a dotted
quarter). The spacing indicates the dot was intended; maybe it's just a
misprint on my copy (the kind that results when a bit of crud on the paper
blocks the ink as the sheet feeds through the press). The note is correct
in Simrock (full score and part) and 1989 Breitkopf.

II Adagio

Bar II-21-22: For 1st and 2nd violin, Simrock and 1989 Breitkopf show one
slur covering all the notes in both bars (they are in 3/4 with 3 quarter
notes per bar there), but the parallel constuction in the cello has a
separate slur over each bar. International gives each bar a separate slur,
for all three instruments. This is an error in International, and probably
results from the fact that in the Simrock parts for both violins, that slur
wraps from bar 21 at the end of a line to bar 22 at the beginning of the
next line. It's easy to miss the fact that the slur does wrap for the
violins, since the two slurs for cello are unambiguously separated (these
bars are on the same line in the cello part) in the first edition. (The
questioon doesn't come up in viola and clarinet because they don't have the
same phrase.)

Bar II-26-27: I think Kell slurs from the g-sharp ending II-26 into the a
above the staff that begins II-27.

Bar II-31: Sounds as if Kell tongues subtly from middle g-sharp up to high
g-sharp (slurred in the scores).

Bar II-34-36: Kell tongues his g-sharp in II-35 and then his g-natural in
II-36. The marking on the score there (all editions I saw) has the slur
covering all of bars II-34-35, including the d that ends bar II-35, but
then a separate slur marking from the d up to the g-natural beginning bar
II-36, as if this d that should have been slurred should also be tongued.
I suspect that my failure to understand this marking is a deficiency in my
education, but I'm guessing it means to tongue the note but do it gently,
and that Kell's choice is the correct one. (The same marking occurs again
elsewhere, as at II-120-122 and at III-68-69).

Bar II-55: Kell does extra tonguing for emphasis here, too, breaking
between the second and third notes. He tongues again between the sixth and
seventh and the seventh and eighth notes, but not as marcato as he takes
the last three notes where the slur has ended in the score.

Bar II-56-57 and 62-63, a 1989 Breitkopf footnote shows additional notes
for the clarinet that appear in the autograph but that Brahms evidently
decided to cut while preparing for publication. Kell doesn't play those
notes. In other pieces, Kell tends to play as many notes as he can get,
sometimes to the point of usurping them from another instrument (see my
comments on Corelli). Since I don't know for certain that these footnoted
additional notes appeared in the 1927 Breitkopf edition (although I do know
they appeared in no other printed edition available to Kell at the time), I
can't use the footnote as evidence that Kell did not use the Breitkopf
edition. However, I do think that either (a) Kell hadn't seen the
autograph--otherwise, he would have claimed those notes and played them--or
(b) the quartet threatened to beat Kell up if he played them.

Bar II-61: Kell tongues the entire second half of the bar, marcato. All
versions of the score I've seen indicate half and half: slur 16th notes
b-natural, f, e, d then tongue 16th notes c, d and 8th note b. This is one
of the few places in this performance where Kell markedly exaggerates a
phrase this way, although he does far more of this sort of thing in many of
the other performances in the Decca set.

Bar II-61-69 in second violin and viola: Here is a striking example of how
difficult this movement would be for sight- readers, because of the mixture
of slashed tremolos and 64th notes, varying from one edition to another.

Bar II-70, second violin, last two (identical) double-stops in the measure,
the upper note is a. For the lower note, Simrock's full score alone has
accidental g-natural, following an accidental g-sharp in the same octave
earlier in the bar. On the same beat, the clarinet in A (in clarinet key
of D minor) has b-flat (orchestral g-natural) an octave higher. The other
instruments add c-natural and e-flat to the ensemble chord. International,
1989 Breitkopf and the Simrock second violin part have the accidental
g-sharp early in the bar but no accidental on the last two double-stops,
and therefore the second violin's g's stay sharped, resulting in an edgy
passing-tone of c, e-flat, g-natural (clarinet), g-sharp and a. The
alternative in the full score, c, e-flat, g-natural and a, would sound
considerably less-edgy, but this beat is in a modulation between keys where
either g-sharp or g-natural will work in the progression. In this
performance (as in all other performances I've checked), the second violin
plays g-sharp.

Bar II-70-71: Kell's altissimo is painfully shrill here.

Bar II-81-94: The Simrock clarinet part, International and Breitkopf all
show the option (as an ossia) of switching to B- flat clarinet for these
bars. (The Simrock full score doesn't show this option.) The fingerings
are considerably easier for clarinet in B-flat, but I can't imagine many
clarinet players would make this switch, since it's asking for trouble to
pick up a cold clarinet for a few bars. It sounds to me as if Kell sticks
with clarinet in A. Kell's tones on the two forte, accented notes below
the staff at II-83-84 (g-sharp in 83, then e-sharp in 84, assuming he stays
on clarinet in A) are ugly honks.

Bar II-87: In Simrock and Breitkopf, the key change from (orchestra)
B-flat minor to G-sharp minor occurs before bar 87 (at F). In
International, the key change occurs a bar later, before bar 88. Thus, in
bar 87, Simrock's notes for first violin are quarter notes f-sharp four
spaces above the staff, d-sharp three spaces above the staff and half-note
c-sharp two lines above the staff. International's notes for 1st violin
are quarter notes g-flat 4 lines above the staff, e-flat three lines above
the staff and half-note d-flat three spaces above the staff. A clarinet
player might play an f-sharp the same as a g-flat and so forth, but string
players are taught to make a pitch distinction between sharps and flats.
Since the cello, the viola and the clarinet echo each other in the 16th
notes in bar 87, relocating the key change could make a difference in the
way the music sounds. I think International's editor has no business
altering Brahms's score. It's up to the musicians to accomodate each
other's pitch, as Kell and the quartet do here.

Bar II-119 in the viola, there is a misprint in the International edition,
where the first note, b, should be an 8th note (as in Simrock parts and
full score and in Breitkopf), not a dotted 8th.

III Andantino--Presto non assai, ma con sentimento
Bar III-2: Kell tongues the first and third notes of bar III-2, as many
other performers do. All editions show a slur over the entire first bar
through the third beat of the second bar, which is quarter note c. I can't
find an editorial justification for tonguing the quarter note, a, that
begins the bar; but for the third note, c, the 1989 Breitkopf footnote says
that, in the autograph manuscript, the slur ends (and a new slur begins) a
beat earlier, with a new slur beginning from the c, though Breitkopf
follows the editions in putting the slur ending on the c with a new one
beginning a beat later on the 8th notes.

Bar III-5: Similarly, Kell tongues the first and third beats of this bar.
He continues with this phrasing; further instances not noted separately.

Bar III-10, Kell may omit the mordant here. Since the first violin has a
parallel passage without the mordant, it's possible that Kell plays his
mordant but the first violin drowns it out. It should be audible.
Otherwise, why would Brahms have written it for clarinet alone?

Bar III-27-29 in second violin, from the g-e double stop that's tied from
27 into 28, Simrock slurs to the f-sharp-a double-stop in III-29,
indicating the bow should not be stopped (either lifted or, less
dramatically, reversed) between those notes. However, the Simrock parts,
1989 Breitkopf and International all omit the slur, indicating the bow
should be stopped.

Bar III-44 is rehearsal letter B in International, Breitkopf and the
Simrock parts. The B is missing in Simrock's full score but the remaining
rehearsal letters are the same in all these editions.

Bar III-110: In the cello, Simrock's full score shows the first brace of
16th notes staccato, with the second brace of 16th notes not staccato. The
Simrock parts, International and 1989 Breitkopf editions put staccato marks
on both braces of 16th notes in that bar. (The following three bars of
16th notes have no staccato in any of these editions.) However, I don't
think these notation differences amount to anything audible. In this
performance, the cellist plays the whole bar staccato and continues
staccato for the subsequent three bars, matching the performance of the
other strings, who generally play their 16th notes staccato in this
movement unless they're marked slurred. The strings follow normal
performance practice in this regard. A slur for legato would tell the
string player not to change the bow direction on each note, but here, with
no slur, the duration of a 16th note is already so short in this "Presto,
non assai mai con sentimento" in 2/4 that, as a practical matter, there's
not much of a difference between playing staccato and simply changing the
bow direction as the score indicates.

Bar III-108-111: the two violins make some horrible noises here. They're
not together and they're out of tune.

Bar III-174-177: International and Breitkopf correct a series of misprints
in Simrock's first violin part and full score. There's no question these
are misprints in Simrock, because each of these bars comes up an 8th note
too short. We are in 2/4 time. The quarter note b two spaces above the
staff that ends bar III-174 should tie over to an 8th note b in bar
III-175. Simrock has the open space for the 8th note b that begins bar
175, but the note and its tie to the previous bar are not there. The same
error occurs with the next bars: in III-176, Simrock leaves out the 8th
note a and its tie to the a in bar III-175; and in bar III-177, Simrock
leaves out the 8th note g-natural at the top of the staff with its tie to
the g- natural that ends bar III-176. In the full score, spaces sit empty
for the missing notes. In the first violin playing part, the ties are
missing and there are printed dots where the missing notes should be.

IV Con moto--Un poco meno mosso

Bar IV-64: In 2/4 time, the cello plays dotted quarter B slurred up to 8th
note C-sharp on the first repeat. For the second repeat, the cello holds
the B for the full two beats of the bar. Simrock's full score shows the
two different endings overlaid on the same bar before the double-dot
repeat. Simrock's cello part, 1989 Breitkopf and International write out
this difference as separate first and second endings for the cello,
although the other instruments (playing that bar the same way the second
time as the first) have a simple double-dot repeat there. (Not an audible
difference.)

Bar IV-92: In the cello, Simrock's full score and 1989 Breitkopf have no
expression text. Simrock's cello part and International's cello part mark
the first note of that bar sforzando.

Bar IV-93-94: In both repeats, the fiddles are out of tune with Kell and
with each other.

Bar IV-102: In the first violin, International is easier to read, altering
Simrock's awkward brace and slur placement in the second brace of 16th
notes. (Notation only; not an audible difference. I forgot to check this
bar in Breitkopf.)

IV-117, 118, 119: International has staccatos on all the notes in the
first violin, where Simrock's full score, Simrock's parts and Breitkopf
have no staccatos on any of those notes. Here again, the difference looks
bigger on paper than it sounds to the ear. Leonard Sorkin, appropriately
not calling attention to himself (Kell has the lead on the clarinet),
doesn't play out with a forcible staccato, but the necessary brevity of
these 16th notes with no slurs makes them sound staccato without any
special effort.

Bar IV-157-158 in the clarinet, all editions have a crescendo and
decrescendo on the first note (dotted quarter in an Andantino con moto in
2/4 time) in each of these bars. It's interesting that Kell, who often
uses "wwaaAAOOoow" phrasing in other compositions, doesn't take that
marking here as license to do the same elsewhere in this Quintet, where his
playing generally sounds more traditional than elsewhere in the Decca set.
I think the other four musicians influence his phrasing quite a lot in this
Quintet--hold him back from his more melodramatic impulses.

Bar IV-160, the International edition puts a fermata over the double bar
after the second ending. I don't think I've ever heard a performance where
the musicians failed to pause there, before the key change and switch to
3/8 time. 1989 Breitkopf has no fermata. Simrock's full score has no
fermata and all but one of the Simrock parts haven't got it, either--
though, oddly enough, the fermata is typeset on the viola part alone.
Somebody has pencilled that fermata into both of the violin parts in the
Library of Congress's copy of the parts, but this is not a pristine copy
originally filed with the Copyright Office and the handwriting on it could
date from any time between 1892 and Paul Nellen's donation of this set in
1987.

Bar IV-162-165: Bad intonation in the violins again--here and III-108-111
are the only two really bad moments I hear in the performance.

Lelia Loban
In a letter to Edward Hanslick regarding a December 12, 1891 performance,
Brahms wrote, "...Joachim has sacrificed the virginity of his Quartet to my
newest things. Hitherto he has carefully protected the chaste sanctuary
but now, in spite of all my protestations, he insists that I invade it with
clarinet and piano, with trio and quintet....Tell Mandeczewski (or let him
read) that the quintet 'adagio con sordini' was played as long and as often
as the clarinettist could hold out."
--Johannes Brahms, published in "Neue Freie Presse," July 1, 1897; quoted
in Florence May, "The Life of Brahms," Vol. II, p. 625-626. Neptune, NJ:
Paganiniana, 1981 (1st London: E. Arnold, 1905).

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