 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-04-18 18:39
I recently bought a couple of older LPs with interesting clarinet playing on them:
--- A 1951 (as best I can guess) recording of Louis Cahuzac playing Hindemith's Clarinet Concerto, in mono sound, with the composer conducting. If anything, Cahuzac sounds a lot like Stanley Drucker (or vice versa). Nice.
--- A later 1950s (I'm guessing again) recording (stereo though) of Reginald Kell playing the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with the Fine Arts Quartet, at Royal Festival Hall. Once your ear gets used to the wide vibrato which was sort of a hallmark of many English players of that era, it's a very satisfying performance (to me, anyway). Good to hear some of that 'old school' playing again!
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Author: RosewoodClarinet
Date: 2005-04-18 18:43
I love many CDs of Cleveland Orchestra with Szell conducting. Marcellus playing is one of the best orchestral clarinet playings ever made. Of course, others are wonderful, too.
RosewoodClarinet
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-04-18 20:26
David -
The Hindemith is a great rarity on LP and used to bring over $100 from used record dealers (mostly because Hindemith was conducting and the press run was low -- who would want a clarinet record, after all). However, the value is down around $15 now that the performance has been reissued on CD. Cahuzac was I think well into his 70s when he made the reccording, but his playing is still remarkable.
I'm sure the Kell/Fine Arts/Brahms is on the Concert Disc label. I'm reasonably sure it's the same performance that was issued on American Decca, which has been reissued on CD on the Boston Skyline label, along with a number of other Kell recordings.
Both are great stuff. I learned these poeces from them.
Ken Shaw
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-04-18 21:05
Thanks, Ken. (I feel REALLY good, since I spent less than $15 on the Hindemith LP!). Grubby financials aside, they're fine music. I didn't think to check on Monsieur Cahuzac's age at the time of the recording, but I'd sure like to sound 1/10 that good now, much less when I'm in my 70's. And you're correct about the Kell Brahms being on the Concert Disc label.
To preserve the recordings, I've copied them onto my favorite long-lasting though obsolete medium, open-reel tape (take THAT, you CD-philes!).
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Author: graham
Date: 2005-04-19 12:23
The idea of Kell's playing representing what was common in Britain at the time can be taken a good deal too far. Kell was always on the extreme, and by the time he sat down with the Fine Arts he had fallen off the end of the scale. British players in general did not play with that kind of vibrato. The majority followed Thurston more or less, and vibrato was not on his agenda.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-04-19 13:50
Gee....Kell was the only offshore clarinetist I was aware of during the 40s.....other than Sidney Bechet.
Bob Draznik
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-04-19 14:10
Graham --- thanks for setting me straight on Kell and vibrato --- I suspect I'm not the only American who has erroneously associated wide vibrato with the "British School" of playing during the second half of the 20th Century. I didn't think his vibrato on the recording was that extreme, nor was it unpleasant --- in general I found the performance to be very musical and energetic (and I'm not at all a proponent of vibrato on clarinet, usually I'm dead-set against it).
Certainly his sound was a far cry from, say, Acker Bilk's....................
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2005-04-19 20:11
I had the great pleasure of attending a clinic with Kell in the early 1960s.
Impressive dude; he taught me to learn to play pppp.
Don't recall his use of vibrato at all, but then I was just blown away with his competence.
At the end, he mentioned how important it is to team up with an excellent technicia to keep your clarinet ins perfect condtion. Then, he pulled his Boosey-Hawkes apart and unceremoniously dumped the pieces into his briefcase.
Bob Phillips
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-19 23:10
Kell was performing in Denver, and went to a local music store asking
for Vandoren #2 reeds as that was what he played (I'm pretty sure that was the strength, could have been 2 1/2).
The music store clerk who had never heard of him at all said to him " here, try this box of #3's - all the good players play on these........"
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-20 01:17
When I played the Teton Festival at 25, it made me feel like I as 80 as the air was so thin!!!!!
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Author: Bill
Date: 2005-04-20 03:35
About 5 years ago I read of someone preparing to write Kell's biography. Did anything ever come of that? I offered free copyediting to the gentleman doing the work! I've since lost track.
That's one book I'd always have handy, though I am now reading Carol Kycia's book about Bonade.
And I just got a copy of Thurston's technique book.
Bill.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2005-04-20 12:10
Last I know, the CD version of the Cahuzac Hindemith concerto was not available. It was available for a while, but has not been listed in the catalogues for some time.
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2005-04-20 13:58
David Blumberg wrote:
"When I played the Teton Festival at 25, it made me feel like I as 80 as the air was so thin!!!!!"
I'll be on vacation in Montana and Wyoming - probably visiting the Tetons - in June, and I plan to take my plastic clarinet so as to keep in shape for a concert I have to play shortly after my return. Hadn't occurred to me that the altitude would be an issue - should I take some softer reeds? Serious question!?
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-04-20 14:51
Ken,
Your link brought me to the Nielsen concerto, not the Hindemith (though admittedly my computer has an anti-German bias.....)
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Author: LarryBocaner ★2017
Date: 2005-04-20 15:11
David,
You most definitely want to bring softer reeds to the Tetons! Having played in the Denver (now "Colorado") Symphony for three years and the Aspen Festival for two (@7,500 ft!), I remember struggling mightily to compromise with reeds that were either way too stiff to vibrate, or that had to be shaved down so much that they were hard to keep from closing up! I was in my twenties then; by David Blumberg's reckoning, now that I'm in my seventies, I guess that'll make me a rival to Methusalah if I try to go back there!
Larry Bocaner
National Symphony Orchestra (retired)
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-20 18:10
O yes - I played on #3 1/2 reeds there instead of the 4 1/2's that I used.
I'm talking about just walking around, even sitting around........!!!
Very thin air, but the temp and humidity level's were amazing - great place to live.
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