Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2005-07-10 15:40
I was going to reply to the thread about favourite DVDs -- or then again, perhaps I wasn't -- but anyhow, I was playing with the controls of my SubjuncTV this afternoon, and came across an interesting programme on the audio channels.
On this subjunctv programme, there were recordings of the Brahms Op 120 no. 1 clarinet sonata being played, and a panel of experts giving their opinions. I was particularly taken by the performance by Tadeusz Brenagramschildsputz, with Eva Pong at the piano, that happened to be playing as I tuned in.
This is a pretty 'way out' frequency on the programme, actually: in it, all the experts agreed with me that this was the best version that was ever likely not to enter the catalogue, and thus for us not to get to hear, because it had never been recorded. The nostalgia and sense of loss that's so much a part of the Brahms was, I'd say, unbeatably captured by these performers.
But fiddling with the controls a bit more, I came across something a bit more understandable: the performance by Jacques Breimer. This was what would have resulted if Jack Brymer had been born in France of German parents, and had insisted at an early age on teaching himself to play a Wurlitzer clarinet.
It was fascinating at last to be able to hear what national clarinet playing character actually amounts to, as well as the difference that the German instrument makes when you play a German piece.
Then, I twiddled the settings once more, and got a performance by Richard Stzomtlan. I could have had Richard Stoltzman, but I thought it would be interesting to see how his performance would have changed if the Registrar at his birth had been dyslexic. (I can therefore report, not by much.)
Richard was playing something else, however. He was playing the first sonata that Brahms would have written (apparently there are four or five, of which the first is in F major) if Brahms had actually married Clara Schumann. Richard conveyed the optimism and exuberance of this wonderful piece, finding a new and different way of interpreting every espressivo marking, in a way that I really had to admire, even though it wasn't particularly to my taste.
Investigating the channels around this performance, I found to my surprise that several didn't have any music on them at all, just an actor reading Brahms's advice on fathering as a mature man. But apparently the explanation is that Brahms wrote a small book on the subject of his experiences of the matter, and never had the time to meet Muehlfeld.
But then....I made a real discovery, one that I still find it difficult to believe is possible. I found a channel that had Stzomtlan's performance, but sounding as it *would* have sounded to me if it *had* been to my taste!
Wow! If only we could always use this facility!
Of course, it would make lists of what performances people like best a bit irrelevant -- but even for people who like doing that sort of thing, it seems a small price to pay for the increase in enjoyment.
What does everyone think about that? Or if you don't know what you think, what *would* you think if you thought something about that?
Just imagine, you could all listen, say, to Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony as it would sound *if you actually liked it*, and perhaps even, I could find out what it would sound like if I *didn't*!
....with apologies to Douglas Hofstadter...
Tony
Post Edited (2005-07-10 16:08)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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