Klarinet Archive - Posting 000121.txt from 2010/12

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] The Stadler quintet nbeeds some rethinking
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:09:13 -0500

I must be mistaken, then. That clarinet looked so long to me, that I
presumed it to be a basset clarinet. But my basic premise still holds. The
work needs some serious rethinking. Your idea about the 16th note variation
is almost identical to mine. Those broken arpeggios appear to me to be very
awkward, and starting the variation on the low basset C makes so much sense.
Also, the leaps in the first variation could use the low C when the broken
chords of the solo passage descend to C below the staff in the traditional
version. It has been years since I played the work, but if I were still
playing, I'd buy a basset clarinet just to work out the issues of that
magnificent piece,.

But one would have to be made of stone to play that work without
improvisations.

Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean Osborn" <feanor33@-----.net>
To: <klarinet@-----.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 9:34 AM
Subject: [kl] The Stadler quintet nbeeds some rethinking

> Dan,
>
> Actually, she's not playing a basset clarinet, at least in the link
> you sent. It's a clarinet. It appears to me to be a regular A
> clarinet, Albert System, with a low E vent key on the
> bell. Additionally, she does do at least one ornament that I heard
> in the first variation of the last movement.
>
> Like you, I wish she would ornament more. It's not just optional,
> but required in a piece like that. You can hear some of my ideas on
> my recording. I also play a clarinet, not a basset clarinet on the
> recording, but I try to alter some of the notes that have grown up
> traditionally trying to compensate for the missing notes. Some of
> these fixes I find to be not as good as other posibilites, and I find
> it particularly awful in the Concerto. One quintet change I make is
> in the fourth movement, 16th note variation, I put the second, third,
> and fourth notes of the clarinet part back into the register they
> were for the Basset Clarinet (in other words, down an octave from the
> published edition). I think it makes the ranger more interesting. I
> got these ideas from the great Stanley Hasty.
>
> Happy listening and performing,
>
> Sean
>
>
>>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYlq4LuapMk&NR=1
>>
>>This link will take you to a charming performance of the Mozart
>>clarinet quintet, with the splendid Sabine Meyer on a basset
>>clarinet (and with a great string quartet, too). But strangely -- I
>>listened to all four movements and you can, too -- she plays no basset
>>notes.
>>
>>On one hand this is commendable because what she is saying is that
>>she has not been convinced by any suggested alterations to the text
>>so as to accommodate basset notes. Unlike, K. 622, the fact is that
>>there has been only limited investigation of the text of K. 581 to
>>propose the use of basset notes.
>>
>>On the other hand, why then does she use a basset clarinet in
>>A? Since the low notes (and if she played them I missed them) were
>>not used, why not use a traditional clarinet in A? It may be that
>>the greater length of her basset horn enables a timbre that she
>>prefers even when not using that extra length to get basset
>>notes. I always found that my B-flat and A clarinets (both of which
>>had the low E-flat) produced a sound character that I found more
>>interesting than my other clarinets that did not have the extension,
>>so I can understand if that is her view.
>>
>>The only suggestion that I would offer her -- as if she needs it --
>>is that she appears almost never to depart from the traditional
>>text; i.e., she does not improvise, which means that she does not
>>participate in the creative process, as an improvising performer
>>would do. For example, in the minuet (which has four presentations
>>of the main theme -- first time with repeats = 2 presentations, plus
>>2 da capos for another 2 times) the main theme is heard he same way
>>every time. (And it can be argued that even in the da capos the main
>>subject should be repeated, which means four additional
>>presentations of the main subject for a total of 8 times. Did I
>>count that correctly?) And in the slow movement -- which is an A-B-A
>>form -- the final presentation of the A theme is unchanged.
>>
>>While she is an exciting player, to be sure, she could really do
>>that piece up flaming red if her presentation of the text were not
>>so literal every time.
>>
>>Dan Leeson
>
> www.osbornmusic.com
>
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