Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-04-18 17:19
Muhlfeld died in 1907, at the age of 51, so it's certainly possible that he made recordings. As you might expect, clarinetists have searched diligently, but haven't found any. Michael Bryant, who knows more about clarinet recordings than anybody (and has access to the BBC library), follows up on all the rumors, with no luck.
Jack Brymer wrote that Muhlfeld had an indifferent reputation, and one violinist who had played with him said he used "a big vibrato."
His Ottensteiner clarinets were significantly different from Ohlers. Keith Puddy got a grant and had one of Muhlfeld's Bb instruments restored and recorded the Brahms Sonatas on it. I have it and think it's good musically and certainly a fascinating window into history. Steve Fox makes a reproduction, but the one I played several years ago was still a work in progress.
Charles Draper recorded a heavily abridged version of the Brahms Quintet (with bleeding chunks of all four movements) on a 2-side acoustic disk, and later made the first electrical recording, both with the Lener Quartet. I have both, and the acoustic one is almost unlistenable. The electrical one, however, is excellent. Draper played a Boehm system clarinet, though, so his sound was almost certainly quite different from Muhlfeld's.
Michele Zukovsky told me that when she went to study with Leister, he said he greatly preferred his students to switch to German instruments, and he didn't think he could teacher her satisfactorily if she stayed with Buffets. She therefore made the switch, and, obviously, did very well, getting the principal job in Los Angeles. Her father, Kalman Bloch (who was also principal in Los Angeles), told me he thinks she sounds more like Simeon Bellison (the long-time principal in the New York Philharmonic, who played German instruments) than anyone.
The Chicago Symphony bought a set of Wurlitzer German clarinets to use in German music. Larry Combs told me they make it easier to get what he thinks of as a German sound out of them than on his Leblanc Opus clarinets. However, when I listen to Robert Marcellus in the Cleveland Orchestra's Wagner recordings http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000027VN/102-2604533-1975323?v=glance, he sounds amazingly "German."
Alphie is right, of course. The important thing is the musicianship. In addition, there's much to be learned from very old recordings. There are even a few of Joseph Joachim http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000WZ2/qid=1113844673/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-2604533-1975323. They are cylinders, made in his old age, but for me they tell as much about the Brahms style as anything.
Ken Shaw
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