 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-04-17 05:58
Tonight I attended the Stoltzman/Ax recital in Houston. I was very pleased by the performance. I thought that both musicians had excellent showmanship (Ax did most of the talking, but they had a good interaction and made some jokes). I also thought the playing was very nice. I must admit that I am a HUGE Stoltzman fan (he's my favorite clarinetist and an absolutely genius in my eyes).
I was a little nervous about the performance because earlier posts had talked about him not doing very well. I'm a college level clarinet student, so perhaps I'm not as critical as someone with more training, but I don't understand some of the posts that "counted the number of mistakes me made" and other such stuff. I heard very few technical errors. There may have been a few, but WHO CARES!! It's live, everyone slips up a little bit. Also, a lot of sound issues came up in previous posts. I personally like his sound, but I can see how some people could find it "abnormal" for a clarinet. However, I don't think he was messing up with his sound. From his many recordings, it's obvious that is the sound he wants to make. So any "sound" issues are probably more artistic than technical.
Also, I don't understand why anyone would pick apart a recital so much. It's not a competition or an audition, it's just a show meant for entertainment's sake. I think a lot of people forget that music is ultimately for entertainment... technical stuff is important, but being so hung up on technical issues that you can't enjoy a man who has reached the top of the performance world (for whatever reason) misses the entire point. I want to be a professional solo clarinetist, and people aren't gonna buy tickets just to see you play with perfect technique. In fact, I've seen some technically impecable players that were quite boring. And what's worse (speaking like a TRUE classical musician), a lot of the money to be made in performance isn't from playing classical music. Most of the famous performers do a lot of cross-over work (and I'm sure they sell more "Stoltzman plays Billy Joel" CDs than anything classical...). If you want to make a living in music, you have to embrace the entertainment aspect of it, not just the technical side.
However, don't think I'm saying that Stoltzman is just a talentless hack who happens to please his crowds... His impressive body of work proves that he has mastered the technical aspects just as well as the showmanship. He plays a wide variety of music.... from his Mozart Concerto (which despite what some might assume, is quite tasteful) to his jazz and modern (the Copland, Corigliano, and Nielsen concertos to name a few)... you can't say the guy isn't talented.
In closing (gosh... this is so long, I'm actually treating it like a paper...), Stoltzman is different, but variety is the spice of life. If you want to see someone who plays by every rule, then maybe you won't enjoy his playing. If you want see someone who is talented beyond belief and incredibly individual in his playing, then you'll probably enjoy his music.
Don Hite
PS - this was actually meant to be JUST about his recital, but as you can see, I got off on 5 paragraph tangent. I'd really appreciate the opinions of people who've seen his recent recital (especially other Houstonians). It's hard to speak for every one of his shows, because he may well have played completely differently in Austin (or wherever)....
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Author: Brian Peterson
Date: 2003-04-17 20:41
Don,
I heard him in Austin on Tuesday night. IMHO he seemed to get better as the night went on. Technically, the Schumann was fine but I felt like there were some pitch problems. From then on it was a real delight. I guess I could have counted mistakes too, but I figured, "why?"
What was most disappointing was the number of people, or lack thereof in the Bass Concert Hall. The place was virtually deserted. Ax invited everyone from the two balconies down to the main floor, but even it reminded me of one of my jr. high band concerts from years ago.
Brahms 1 with which he concluded was great and even with the sparse crowd, we managed to get an encore, "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" which was played very well.
Hope he comes back again sometime, but probbably not with that kind of attendance.
Regards,
Brian Peterson
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-04-18 01:31
I agree that he got better as the night on. The attendance in Houston wasn't as bad as it sounded in Austin, but I was anticipating a full house (which was a little bit disappointing)... We had tickets in the 6th row, and after intermission we moved to front row (which was deserted except for 2 people).
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Author: terry
Date: 2003-04-22 06:01
You may wish to contrast this with other reviews of previous reviews from earlier in the tour (just search the
past month for Stoltzman.)
Basically, Stoltzman started in Princeton,
and gave a performance where he should have
returned everyone's ticket prices. He seemed
to have slowly gotten his act together to
where Austin/Houston, he pleased the crowds.
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Author: Karel
Date: 2003-04-22 08:45
Terry, don't you think that only the dissatisfied listeners have a reason for a refund? A lot of us may be charitable enough to accept that a performer can have an off night.
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