 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Clarinetist
Date: 2004-06-09 16:39
Could someone tell me how long this piece last´s when played at "normal" tempo. I mean when the piece is played by someone else than sabine meyer or Charles Neidich. I think they can play it pretty fast. So if someone got a recording where the piece is played slower, could you tell what is the duration?
Thanks
Post Edited (2004-06-09 16:40)
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Author: Robyn
Date: 2004-06-09 17:19
This may not be helpful, but I played the piece last semester and we timed it once to see if it would fit into a convocation performance. It was 11 minutes long (I think...the number13 sticks in my head too, but I think it was 11). Without repeats, it was 8 and a half minutes.
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Author: Kevin
Date: 2004-06-09 19:31
Never have heard Charles Neidich's recording, but have heard Sabine Meyer's and a couple others. And for my tastes, all their tempi are really correct and what the piece should be played at. Too much slower, and the whole thing really loses its charm.
Anyway, with all the repeats (which I believe are pretty important), the time it takes for the best performances is around 11-12 minutes, though sacrifices/compromises can be made, if the performer lacks the technique, to do it in 15. I think if a person cannot make it very comfortably in 15, then he/she really is not good enough to be playing it.
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2004-06-10 16:17
This is one of those crappy pieces to play in that one spends alot of time wondering just how fast one can play...as with alot of Rossini's music it is pretty empty and shallow....as to speed I would worry mainly about musicality and playing the finale as cleanly as possible...don't try to do things like others...
David Dow
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Author: larryb
Date: 2004-06-10 18:00
I agree with David Dow
This piece has always seemed to me to be the clarinetist's dark dirty secret - we should play if for ourselves, but not force it on others.
I saw Charlie Neidich perform it once and cringed in embarassment - his playing was amazing, but he did all kind of gimmicky things like jokingly taking off the mouthpiece to inspect it before hitting a high note - quite a vaudville act.
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Author: Clarinetist
Date: 2004-06-10 19:15
Don´t worry. I will practise a little more before trying those tricky things. ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif) Perhaps I should first see if I can play those high notes easily, before attempting something like Charles did.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-06-10 21:28
Although certainly not a great work by any stretch of the imagination, it should be put in proper context. It is a piece that was written when Rossini was 17 years old ...GBK
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Author: Tim2
Date: 2004-06-11 01:53
Larry, you wrote that this piece is quite a vaudville act. I couldn't agree more. The antics of this piece are all over. Smautz (sp) helps deal with the slower minor variation and maybe a lot more.
But on the other hand, a lot of the arias that you hear sopranos sing in opera are on similar scale. They (the arias) have many fast notes to impress us with agility. But even more so, they have slow extended phrases where the beautiful tone of the singer can be heard. And if the tone is beautiful, whether from the human voice or a clarinetist, it is appreciated. I think of this piece as Rossini's practice for his opera writing.
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Author: Rachel
Date: 2004-06-11 06:07
It might not be a great work, but it's still heaps of fun to play- and it impresses people.
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Author: Clarinetist
Date: 2004-06-11 10:17
I think we shouldn´t compare this piece to some others: like mozart etc. Everyone has their own opinions, which piece is beautiful, cool, etc. IMO this piece is great in it´s own serie. We should concentrate on things like making music instead.
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2004-06-11 15:23
The "Variations (in C) for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra" and the "Variations for Clarinet and String Quartet (Variazioni a piu strumenti obbligati)" both date from 1809 when Rossini was 17. Neither of these, however, is the "Introduction, Theme and Variations" (based on an aria from the opera "The Lady in the Lake"). From what I can tell, no one knows for sure when Rossini composed the "Intro, Theme and Variations" or if, indeed, he composed it at all. Since the opera dates from 1819, however, even if Rossini did write the work, he would have been at least 27 (and probably older).
Various theories that I have read or heard range from: (1) Rossini wrote the work, to (2) Rossini wrote the theme and some clarinetist of the day wrote the rest, to (3) Rossini wrote the theme and then one or more of the composers working in his "workshop" (sort of like Tom Clancy, nowadays) wrote the rest to (4) Rossini didn't write any of it -- someone else wrote it based on his theme. In the manuscript, the theme appears to be in a different hand than the rest of the work.
Confusing the "Intro, Theme ..." with the "Variations in C" appears to be a common error. In the Klarinet list, Tony Pay writes of showing up to rehearse the piece a number of years ago only to find that the orchestra had the wrong accompaniment. They had to delay the performance. According to him, the same thing recently happened to Julian Bliss but the performance was saved by the miracle of the fax machine. Actually, it also happened to me a couple of years ago but there was enough time between the first rehearsal and the performance to obtain the proper parts. The flutist who writes our program notes, however, was blissfully unaware of the change and wrote notes for the wrong piece. Whoever wrote the program notes for Stoltzman's recording apparently made the same mistake, except that s/he says Rossini was only 15 in 1809! (My source says he was born in 1792.)
Thanks to Allesandro Carbonare, you can download a copy of the manuscript to view for yourself at:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Opera/6021/download.htm
(Also thanks to Mark Charette for pointing this out.)
Best regards,
jnk
Post Edited (2004-06-11 15:27)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-06-11 16:19
Jack... Thanks for the correction.
I read the original posting too quickly, and was thinking of the "Variations for clarinet and small orchestra in C major" ( which is a very early work by Rossini, written when he was 17 and still living in Bologna)...GBK
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