Klarinet Archive - Posting 000228.txt from 2008/01

From: "Daniel Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] A fascinating thing
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:57:08 -0500

Your attention is called to an article in today's NY Times, p. B3.

There, Bernard Holland reviews a performance of the Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center, in which the group played the two Mozart wind octets (375
and 388 but not in that order) with a string bass that mostly doubled the
2nd bassoon. This is a very valid practice that arose with recognition that
the standard wind octet lacks a real bass, which is why the Gran Partitta
uses the double bass. It was Richard Strauss who recognized this in respect
to his opus posthumous work for a large wind band ("The Invalid's
Workshop").

But those comments are only an introduction to a more interesting aspect of
the concert, namely that between the two Mozart octets (nonents??), a third
was inserted by the double bass player and composer, Edgar Meyer. I quote:
"In his own piece [Meyer] has left space for lots of virtuoso passagework,
including an elaborate pizzicato movement ... set often against lower winds
playing in unison."

In effect, between the two octets of Mozart's Vienna years, an entirely new
composition for the winds was presented, namely a solo work for double bass
accompanied by a wind octet.

I find that fascinating. The octet had Stephen Taylor and Allan Vogel on
oboes, José Franch-Ballester and David Schifrin on clarinets, David Jolley
and William Purvis on horns, Peter Kolkay and Milan Turkovic on bassoons,
and Edger Meyer on bass. That's some group!!

Dan Leeson
dnleeson@-----.net
SKYPE: dnleeson

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