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Re: Marcellus's Mozart

Author: graham
Date: 2004-01-05 09:00

GS makes good points but the question I ask is why the Wright account of the Quintet immediately made me think: this is great, and the Marcellus Concerto made me think: this is dull? As you point out, Wright's account is subtle. No chocolate sauce on asparagus there! And on the whole I do like inner strength type players.

What distinguishes this subtlety of expression from an account that lacks sufficient energy, and seems routine or just to be going through the motions? Whilst I would not be so harsh on Marcellus as to say he was an absolute case of the latter, I have strong doubts that his playing (on that record) is going to match my view of Wright's playing.

It is a difficult question to answer, but here is a stab. With Marcellus I felt the phrasing was a little obvious. I could hear what he was trying to do, but that obviousness made it all the clearer that he was pulling his punches. If you listen to Prinz in the Concerto (or, say, Lawson) the phrasing seems less obvious, but the result seems more enlightening. Just as it is the case in the Wright recording of the Quintet.

The other thing is the question of architecture or structure. It often takes several hearings of a recording to determine whether the overall conception of the performance is sufficiently structural to stand the test of time (i.e. several listenings). It may well be that this is where Marcellus scores over many more "obvious" sounding accounts. I would have to listen to it much more to tell if that were so. I might do that, and I might see the light. Meanwhile, the original poster seems to me to have a point when he feels that it is not a scintillating account.

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2003-12-31 04:56