Klarinet Archive - Posting 000489.txt from 2010/11

From: X-C-UH-MailScanner-r.n.taylor@-----.uk
Subj: Re: [kl] Sabine Meyer & movement
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:45:52 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Jones [mailto:helen.jennifer@-----.com]
<SNIP>

I say, if it floats your boat, move. Don't worry about it, especially
if you have other things to worry about. Sabine Meyer's moving
performance should serve as a reassurance, that it is perfectly ok
until *you* decide that *you* don't like the aesthetic.

-Jennifer

----

Just to say I saw the other oft-mentioned 'culprit', Martin Frost, a couple of nights ago at the Wigmore Hall and, of course, I paid particular attention to his movement. It seems to me that he uses movement in very specific ways. When a phrase is sinewy he will curl his left shoulder upwards; mostly his movements are quite staccato in character - he will often divide a small passage into a kind of call and response, and he almost acts this out by physically expressing the nuance of each statement, almost as if it were two people engaging in a conversation. The movements begin in advance of the feeling or idea he is trying to express, so perhaps in his case I would guess (and I don't claim any more insight than that) that he is doing it for a variety of reasons :

1) His movements are extremely suggestive, eloquent even, and this helps him supply extra coherence to the audience to the precise musical idea he is aiming for.
2) In finding the physical expression of the musical idea he finds he can also capture the exact expressive nuance of the clarinet that he is aiming for more effectively
3) By having a semi-choreographed exposition of his interpretation of the music he can re-connect more easily with his interpretive intentions - almost like using mnemonics as a memory aid.

Those are my completely subjective impressions. Personally I could watch him perform all-day long and feel nothing but pleasure.

Noel

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