Klarinet Archive - Posting 000643.txt from 2002/09

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] 'Other versions' of well-known pieces
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 07:04:27 -0400

On Mon, 30 Sep 2002 12:43:56 +0200, joseph.wakeling@-----.net said:

> > Does the fact that the Beethoven violin concerto, now re-arranged
> > for clarinet, constitute a violation of what we have been discussing
> > - (see Tony Pay`s account of the history of the Schumann Romances).
> > It (Beethoven) <is> a complete, and deliberate, and separately
> > structured "re-composition" is it not? Not mearly a player`s own
> > decision to change instruments for the sake of facilitation.
>
> Just to note, Mikhail Pletnev and Michael Collins don't claim it is
> anything other than this - their attitude is very much, "We thought it
> would be interesting, it works musically." They don't attempt to
> justify their rearrangement on anything other than these grounds! ;-)

Like, that it might be worth listening to, or anything?-)

The difficulty, of course, is that almost everyone nowadays knows the
Beethoven violin concerto, because there are any number of wonderful
recordings, and many wonderful concert performances of it.

So, listening to the clarinet version, it's almost impossible not to
want to switch all the time to the infinitely superior violin version,
which I for one find elicits possibly the deepest responses I have to
music. In the case of this arrangement, unlike that of the Prokoviev
flute/violin sonata, it's not even as though it's a question of gains
and losses. Here, it's pretty much *all* loss.

I think this consideration -- of how widespread knowledge of the
original is, as well as how perfectly its conception fits the original
scoring -- explains why it was possible for Beethoven to produce the
piano version of the concerto, which is almost never played today. High
quality performances of the violin version just weren't very common.

Following on from that, I recently heard a performance of the Brahms
Trio op 40 for violin, viola and piano, played by Jurij Bashmet and
others. Seeing the programme, I immediately thought, "What piece is
this? I've never even heard of it!"

But of course it was the Horn trio, arranged.

Now, though I know the Brahms Horn trio, I don't know it quite as well
as I know the Beethoven violin concerto; so I settled down, thinking
that it might be an interesting experience to hear the piece played this
way.

But, it was a complete disaster. Even played by these wonderful
players, all the drama and poignancy of the contrasted registers
inhabited by the horn and violin goes for nothing. It was like their
trying to do a version of Romeo and Juliet in which the lovers, instead
of coming from rival families, are childhood playmates; or a version of
Beauty and the Beast in which they both look like normal people.

A whole aspect of the piece was lost, and revealed to be one of the
crucial mainsprings of the musical argument of the original. Whole
chunks came out as meaningless.

So in the end, I was glad to *have heard* the 'Brahms Trio for violin,
viola and piano', because it means that I *never have to hear it again*.

I'm afraid I feel pretty much the same way about the 'Beethoven Clarinet
Concerto'.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
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