Klarinet Archive - Posting 000443.txt from 2010/09

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Improvising in Mozart's clarinet music
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:44:11 -0400

I have often spoken about how performances of Mozart's clarinet music (and Beethoven's and Schubert's and others) are invariably well-played but frozen and unchanged from performance to performance, from player to player. It is when I hear questions about where the autograph of Mozart's clarinet concerto can be found, that I realize how little historical knowledge of performance issues of 18th century music can be found in today's world of clarinetdom.

Except for the use of the basset clarinet, which allows some distinguishing of performers and performances, in almost every performance we hear, one could unplug one soloist and plug in another, so unvarying, constant, and unchanging is the solo line. All the players are brilliant, of course, but that is not enough. They need to be able to distinguish their performances from everyone else's.

As much as I dearly love K. 622 and K. 581, I avoid performances in which I believe the soloist is not flamboyant enough to improvise on the basic material provided by Mozart. In effect, few soloists distinguish their performance by imaginative improvisations so as to make the piece a display of their ingenuity built on Mozart's fundamental scheme. It was not until I heard the brilliant clarinetist, Robert Marcellus, create a dull performance of K. 622 did I realize how serious the problem was. He really thought that what he did would be perceived as introducing a high standard to performance of the work, when, in my opinion, it was as dull as split pea soup.

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVexD...eature=related

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBcqr...eature=related

Here are two YOUTUBE films on the subject of improvisation. You might find them interesting. Perhaps not.

In discussion with some of the leading American clarinet players, I am often told that improvising on Mozart's music is like gilding the lily. Sorry, but that old chestnut no longer works. Mozart wrote his music with clear indications of where to improvise. He screams at you, "DO SOMETHING," and to presume that to do so violates the intent of his music in some unidentified way is a pile doo doo. The problem is that so few clarinetists are trained to recognize the clear and unambiguous signals he lays down.

I point out that a recording of K. 452, which included Tony Pay on clarinet and Levin as the pianist, all the players showed how a performance of a work is transformed to a higher musical and artistic level by the simple act of changing the text.

It is not that there are no rules in which text to change and how to change it. There are, of course. But stubbornness and old fashioned thinking inhibit a move to another direction of performance in music of the classic period.

Dan Leeson
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