 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: eduardo94
Date: 2013-11-27 16:49
I'm going to do a audition next year and the required repertoire is: one romantic piece, one contemporary piece and one "virtuosic" piece.
In the same month, i'm going to do a recital too. So, i wanna play the same pieces in my recital and audition.
I am thinking about this program: Premiere Rhapsody (Debussy), Sonata n2 (Brahms), a brazilian contemporary piece (if you want to listen and give me a feedback, i will be glad, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kLw8kZoxQw). And the last one is the "virtuosic" piece. Do you think the Rigoletto fantasy (Luigi Bassi) is a virtousic piece? Theme and variations (jean françaix)? maybe Poulenc Sonata?
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2013-11-27 18:42
IMO, the Bassi has been thrashed to death.
Why not try the Cahuzac "Il Pays d' Oc" [sp.] instead, if you want something similar, but that has a little more substance to it and isn't overdone (yet).
Also IMO, doing the Francaix on the same recital program with the Debussy and the Brahms (all very taxing) might be a killer, both for the you and the audience; give them and yourself a little break from "intensity." (The Poulenc, probably my favorite sonata in the clarinet repertoire, sadly is also overdone.)
Are you absolutely stuck on doing the same repertoire for both the audition and the recital? One should program for the audience, and what I'd program for an audition (the harder stuff, both technically and musically) wouldn't likely be what I'd program for a recital meant to please an audience without fatiguing them. Give the recital audience at least one light piece, maybe, like Christopher Ball's "Folk Song Suite" or Reade's "Victorian Kitchen Garden" suite. Replace one of the really difficult pieces with something that is musically satisfying but doesn't require months of preparation.
Remember, recitals are meant to entertain the audience more so than to show off your abilities. Auditions are the opposite.
B.
P.S. I just listened to your piece on YouTube. Excellent playing, nice sound, great technique, and so forth. But now I know for sure: I definitely would not stick to your original set for the recital. It's just "too much," if not for you, then for your audience.
Post Edited (2013-11-27 19:43)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-11-27 21:34
Eduardo -
Your technique is excellent, your tone is bright and soloistic, your intonation is OK but could use a little more attention.
In the Brahms, I'd like to hear more variety in tone color, and overall more velvet in the sound. Brahms wrote for Mühlfeld's Ottensteiner clarinet, which was smoother and lighter than what you do. You don't have to play with a thick, creamy Germanic tone all the time, but you have to take that into account and be able to make it when you want to and when the music calls for it.
I think you could learn a lot from listening to the opera Rigoletto before you start working on the Bassi. Your playing right now is in a straight line, with everything perfectly controlled. The Bassi is a roller coaster. You go right to the limit of what you can do. The audience needs to feel danger as well as mastery. More important, Grand Opera is Grand because it's all about overwhelming emotion, with gigantic voices crying out in passion and pain. That has to come out as you sing -- and roar -- Verdi's heartrending melodies.
You're on the threshold of great music-making. You obviously have the talent to step through. Become the musician whose personality leaps off the stage and into the ears and hearts of the audience.
Ken Shaw
Post Edited (2013-11-29 20:51)
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Author: eduardo94
Date: 2013-11-29 20:03
Thank you for the feedback, it helps me alot!
About the control of intonation, the only exercise that can help me with that is long tunes right?
And about the audition, do you think it's a good idea change the Brahms for Schumann 3 Fantasy Pieces? Or the Brahms is "more deep" for a audition?
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-11-29 21:48
Long tones help you listen to what you're doing, but I think they're not the best way to improve intonation.
Instead, get an electronic tuner that also plays any note you set it for, such as the Korg CA-40 http://www.amazon.com/Korg-CA-40-Large-Display-Chromatic/dp/B000EE8YPK/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1385762063&sr=1-1&keywords=korg+tuner.
Set it to play a note (for example, C) and play the same note on your clarinet, listening for the beats and adjusting until they stop. (Don't use the meter function.) Do the same playing an octave higher and an octave lower.
Next, play a fifth higher (G) and a fifth lower (F). The beats should be clearly audible there, also. Then do it a fourth higher (F) and lower(G). You can even do it with major and minor thirds, though the beats get harder to pick out.
Then move the reference tone up a half step (C#) and do the same exercise, continuing up through the entire chromatic scale.
This is very tiring, and you must not do it after your attention flags -- 10 minutes at the most.
Once you learn to hear the beats, make it part of your warmup. Pick a reference note at random and match it, then match fifths and fourths. If you play in an orchestra, do the matching to the oboe's initial tuning A, or, if your group uses an electronic tone, do the exercise with that. Once you get used to it, you can do it in 10 or 15 seconds, to wake up your ears.
While playing, keep yourself aware of the pitch of everyone else and play to tune with that.
Tuning with beatless intervals puts you in "just" intonation. The even-tempered scale used today requires that you play equal intervals rather than beatless ones. However, at any given point, you should work to play without beats.
I'm much more concerned, though, about finding the emotion of the music. The Bassi can bring down the house, but if you play it just one thing after another, everything the same, you put yourself and the audience to sleep.
Go to the Wikipedia entry for Rigoletto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigoletto and listen to the clips of Enrico Caruso singing "La donna è mobile" and "Bella figlia dell'amore." When you come to those tunes in the Bassi, bring Caruso's "slancio" (passion) into your playing, even thinking the words while you play.
Ken Shaw
Post Edited (2013-11-29 21:53)
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2013-11-30 03:12
The Rigotto Fantasy would be perfect for a "virtuosic" piece. It will show exactally what you're looking for. As far as good intonation goes, you have to hear it in order to play in tune. There are many ways to "learn" how to play in tune but ultimatly you have to learn the "hear" it correctly. This is one way I used to suggest my students practice it.
First, after you're warmed up, learn your instrument. Using a tuner play through some scales,C, F and E work well to cover the range. Playing each note write down which notes are more than five points sharp or flat. Take your time and do it several times to "learn" your clarinet over several days. You have to recognize what's wrong and what needs adjusting. Then try to fix what can be fixed. Are you're throat tones too sharp or flat, can they be altered with a new barrel or taping some tone holes? Once you've done all you can with the instrument learn to adjuct the notes with your playing. Putting fingers down for a sharp throat tone, adding a side key to slightly raise the pitch of a note. Uning you're embouchure to make a note slightly sharper or flatter. Then comes the hearing part. Sit down at a decent piano and play a note and try to match the pitch. Listen and identify what's wrong and than make an adjustment the best you can. There is no "fast" method to learn to play in tune. Do this for about 15 minutes or more a day. If you're not sure what the pitch problem is check with your tuner and then adjust your pitch to the piano. After a while you will begin to learn to hear flat and sharp and what to do to correct it. It will take time but if you can't learn to play in tune you will never make it as a professional. It doesn't matter if the piano is perfect or not as long as it's decent. The idea is to learn to adjust to what you're hearing. You can use the tuner tone later once you feel comfortable with matching the pitches on the piano.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: eduardo94
Date: 2013-12-01 21:44
I just received a great news. I am going to play the Rossini introduction, theme and variations with a orchestra next year.
So, I think de Rossini is similar to the Rigolleto Fantasy, am I right?
What are the tips you can give me to play it? What arias/operas I must listen.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-12-01 23:48
The Bassi Rigoletto Fantasy and the Rossini Introduction, Theme and Variations are cut from the same cloth.
Kudos to Jack Kissinger for reminding me that the "Theme" is from Rossini's opera, "La Donna del Lago" (The Lady In the Lake)
http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/lookup.php/Klarinet/2004/05/000090.txt. It's highly OPERATIC. Listen to Sabine Meyer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGps7hnYyNk, who gets it exactly right. Notice in particular how she:
1. Plays soft as well as loud, tender as well as bold.
2. Uses lots of rubato.
3. Picks out the notes of the theme amid all the decoration.
4. Plays with her heart on her sleeve, with love, tears and heroic virtuosity.
Frankly, nobody can beat her on her own ground, and you must make your own performance, which will not be hers. Nevertheless, she shows what's possible, and necessary.
As to listening, go to YouTube and listen to lots of Rossini. Begin with Cecila Bartoli http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zueczClpW6k.
Then listen to various versions of the famous showpiece Una Voce Poco Fa:
Amelita Galli-Curci http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MG0OxZ8c1w, who makes it pure virtuoso display.
Cecilia Bartoli http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCUNvCjLrTo, in costume and super-cutsey.
Joyce di Donato http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3damaS03KgY, in concert, really bringing out the meaning of the words.
And finally, Maria Callas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuEmJZzuG9U, who, even in concert, turns up the temperature even higher.
Ken Shaw
Post Edited (2013-12-05 12:13)
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2013-12-02 12:22
Be sure the orchestra librarian does not order the parts for the Variations in C, which is a completely different piece!
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2013-12-04 05:33
The "Introduction, Theme and Variations" is operatic because the "Theme" is from Rossini's opera, "La Donna del Lago" (the Lady in the Lake). In the Klarinet List posting that Ken provides a link to, Jim Lythens appears to have committed the error rmk54 warns against -- i.e., he appears to have confused Rossini's "Variations for Clarinet and Small Orchestra in C." written for a student friend when Rossini was 17 with the later "Introduction, Theme and Variations," (which Rossini may not have even written).
Confusing the two works is a common (though, IMO, careless) error resulting from the similarity in the two works' titles.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: eduardo94
Date: 2013-12-08 20:59
Talking about the audition now. What romantic piece do you prefer? I am between Brahms sonata n2, Schumann fantasy and saint saes sonata. I think the saint saes one is "weaker" than schumann and brahms. What do you think?
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