 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: wjk
Date: 2003-03-20 13:10
Can anyone recommend some Marcellus recordings? Does anyone feel any other clarinetist comes close in terms of tone or technique?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: msloss
Date: 2003-03-20 13:32
I believe there were at least two threads on this subject in the last several weeks that contained some terrific recommendations and insights on Marcellus' catalog. Well worth looking at. Best not to kick the hornet's nest again on the other question.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-03-20 14:50
In termos of technique there are all kinds of great players who sit along side of Marcellus. I for one have always admired the individualty of players like Drucker, Marcellus, Wright. they are truly the giants.
I think many people easily forget the greatness of Ralph McLane and his importance in this matter. His playing and tone went beyond words.
Robert McGinnis is another who comes to mind, I really like my New York Phil recordings of him. Lat not least, simeon Bellison was an incredible player, and I enjoy very much his clarinet work on the New York Phil Beethoven 7 under toscannini. There are alot of greats.
David Glazer made a great recording of the Hummell Octet. It is one of the wonders of clarinet technique. He also was Marcellus' predecessor in Cleveland.
David Dow
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-03-20 15:09
As for individual solos where I feel Marcellus can be best appreciated you should go to the Sony essential classics and have a listen to some of the standard orchestra works they performed and recorded under the Szell tenure.
sone of my personal favorite Marcellus solos
Kodaly Harry Janos suite clarinet cadenza-very well played and extremely beautiful tone
Richard Strauss Death and Transfiguration Beautifully entered high Eb with a superb legato connection from the alltissimo to the middle clarion. Inspired!
Brahms Symphony No 4 slow movement. Tremendous control in the upper chalumeau with excellent blending with the 2cd clarinet
Last movement Variation with excellent entrance on the clarion F# with a lovely dovetailing into the next instrument
Bruckner 3 Szell A great amount of beautifully executed work to heard here.
Mozart 40th this is one of my favorite solos in the last movement. Here the sound is very well placed with excellent crisp arrticulation that one is so used to hearing from marcellus.
Brahms 1st Slow movement Truly played with great elan. The solo is worth listening to several times!!!
Ravel Daphnis & Chloe Suite no 2. An amazing tone here to heard....superb winds on this recording. Man I admire this record.....
Walton Variations on the Theme of Paul Hindemith Phenomenal record with superb feeling.
Richard Strauss Sinfonia Domestica....great solos especially in the lullaby. Great chalumeau ...reference recording of this piece if there ever was one!
I think these are among my personal favorite things Marcellus did. As for the Beethoven syphonies they are all gloriously done and #8 and # 2 are particulary nice because we really get to hear him stretch out....
All in all this is quite a legacy of recorded output. Sadly there are no Schubert Ooctets or Brahmns A minor quintet records....this would be a great place to hear such a pure sound....no ifs and buts there will always be a mystique around such great artistry and rightly so. Enjoy!
Marcellus fan and clarinet nut,
David Dow
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2003-03-20 15:26
David,
There is a recording of the Schbert Octet (with expanded strings) taken from a live broadcast that is part of a 75th anniversary several disc boxed set celebrating Szell. Whether it is still available through the Cleveland Orchestra website or by calling their store I am not sure. Perhaps you or others will inquire?
I do know that this was one of Marcellus' personal favorites. He mentioned this fact to many over the years.
Gregory Smith
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: vin
Date: 2003-03-20 15:41
That schubert recording is amazing. The warm, voluptuous sound of the whole cleveland orchestra strings brings an interesting new element to the piece and Marcellus (and the horn player (Myron Bloom?) and bassoon player) project gloriously above it all.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-03-20 18:46
Myron Bloom was almost certainly the horn player on the Octet recording, and George Goslee was the principal bassoonist in Cleveland at the time, so presumably he was also playing.
Some of my favorite Marcellus playing is on a Russian Favorites LP that has, unfortunately, never been reissued on CD. Capriccio Espagnole, Capriccio Italienne, Polovtsian Dances and Sunrise from Kovanshchina. Amazing stuff, played, I'm told, on a GG crystal mouthpiece.
The unique qualities of the Cleveland woodwind principals contributed greatly to Marcellus's playing. He went out of his way to praise oboist Marc Lifshey, Maurice Sharp is legendary in the flute world, and George Goslee was as good as they come. It was all of them together, each one supporting the others, that made the Cleveland Orchestra the best there was. The only comparable group was Kincaid, Tabuteau, McGinnis/McLane and Guetter/Schoenbach in the Philadelphia orchestra, and their 78 RPM recorded sound in the 1930s and 40s wasn't close to what Cleveland got in the 60s and 70s.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: HAT
Date: 2003-03-20 22:08
Just to clear up a few factual matters,
On Domestica, the low passage you refer to (under the oboe solo) is in the 1st A clarinet part, which was played by Tom Peterson, not Robert Marcellus (although it sounds very close. . .amazing how great playing gets into the ears of those who hear it every day).
David Glazer was not Marcellus's predecessor. He did not ever play principal clarinet in the Cleveland Orchestra. Marcellus's direct predecessor was Bernard Portrnoy and before that, Robert McGinnis.
In terms of QUANTITY of technique, there have been players who approach or even exceed Marcellus.
In terms of QUALITY and REPEATABLITY (in other words, playing perfectly and beautifully ALL of the slow or not obviously difficult things one is supposed to nail every time) there have been precious few who have ever come close over a 20 year timespan.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-03-21 02:16
Wasn't Glazer with Cleveland in the 1946 season?....... According to article in the The Clarinet he was there with Rodzinski....t;his is of course many years before Marcellus
David Dow
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-03-21 02:17
Is it possible that glazer was asked to replace a ill player or someone on sabbatical....these things happen...
David Dow
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: HAT
Date: 2003-03-21 12:32
David Glazer was 3rd clarinet in the Cleveland orchestra from 46-51
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-03-21 14:29
Dear Hat:
I am currently in touch with the archivist in the Cleveland orchestra and will soon post the correct info....Mr. Glazer was a fine clarinet player and certainly did a great deal of solo work with such groups as the New York Wind Quintet and Arthur Weissberg to be considered a ground setter...
Sincerely
D D
David Dow
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Clarence Beale
Date: 2003-03-21 22:02
The following can be found on pp. 644, 645 of The Cleveland Orchestra Story by Donald Rosenberg:
Cleveland Orchestra Principal Clarinetists:
1918-20 McGibeny, Charles G.
1920-25 Green, Louis
1925-26 Thalin, Walter R.
1926-29 de Santis, Louis
1929-30 LeRoy, Henry
1930-31 Gorodner, Aaron
1931-33 Pripadcheff, Alexander
1933-41 Bonade, Daniel
1941-42 McGinnis, Robert
1942-44 Cioffi, Gino
1944-45 Both, Emerson
1945-46 Hasty, D. Stanley - not listed as principal in this book
1946-47 McGinnis, Robert
1947-53 Portnoy, Bernard
1953-73 Marcellus, Robert
1974-76 Shifrin, David
1976- Cohen, Franklin
The information on David Glazer is:
Glazer, David (1946-51)
Clarence Beale
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-03-21 22:52
Thanks so much for the helpful info. glazer was a true master of the clarinet. We also know that fine clarinet work was going on prior to the Marcellus/Szell tenure....
David Dow
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-03-22 12:33
Bonade wasn't too bad a player either. McGinnis went to New York after his time in Cleveland and finished his career with the NY PHIL. These guys were pretty hot players....
David Dow
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
