 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Sam
Date: 2000-04-26 02:11
I've been playing the Brahms Sonata No. 2 for a long while now-at various performances for the past five months. I am having to play it again in 5 days at a festival. The problem is I feel really unmotivated about this peice, it doesn't intrigue me much. Please tell me about Brahms and this peice, in particular the 1st mvt. Perhaps an expanded knowledge of this music will help me discover a new character that will make this peice passionate for me.
Thank you,
Sam
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Author: Megan
Date: 2000-04-26 03:08
Brahms wrote both of his Sonatas for a man named Richard Muhlfeld. He loved the way Muhlfeld played and wrote the trio, quintet and both sonatas for him. Muhlfeld was a self taught clarinet player and Brahms called him "my prima donna". They were written in 1894 and were some of the last chamber works he wrote. I personally find these pieces wonderful, I am also playing the Eb sonata and love it dearly. I know it's not the most technical piece you'll ever play but it is so expressive. You have to pay attention to every dynamic, bring every phrase alive and never let the intensity die. You might find it boring if you don't do enough with the phrases and dynamics. For me, the most intense part of the first mvt is at measure 92, everything leads up to there.(remember that this is only what I think and I'm sure that many people won't agree with me) I think that Brahms wrote everything he wanted into the music and you just have to play it and love it. Rubato is good too, but don't overdo it, he wrote a lot in.
I know this won't help too much but I hope it does a little. I really love Brahms and play his music every chance I get.
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Author: Katherine Pincock
Date: 2000-04-26 03:59
Brahms is difficult because it's hard to get into the mindset for it. In early pieces, the more notes there are, the more difficult/impressive the piece is; Brahms, however, suddenly switches gears for people who've worked this way. As Megan said, feeling is key for Brahms. The best tip that I heard to discuss both sonatas, especially the Eb, is that Brahms wrote these as the last two pieces of his output: he was looking back on a whole lifetime, that included his work as a composer and his love for Clara Schumann (the wife of Robert Schumann, Brahms' teacher: they carried on a correspondance for the rest of her life, and were clearly extremely close.) It's passion for life, but filtered through experience and memory. If you think more like that, you'll find the music makes more sense to you. I hope that helps.
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Author: col
Date: 2000-04-26 13:46
Hi,
Im playing have played this piece last year and have come back to it again for a performance in a few weeks. I am actually enjoying it more the second time around because i have matured in my playing. Im sure this must be true for you too. My only thought apart from what has been already said is that you must lose yourself in this piece. Lose yourself so much that you forget where you are - it doesn't matter and draw the emotion out of every phrase as if it were life. If you can do this you will fall for this piece in a big way and won't ever be bored of it
Goodluck
col.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-04-26 18:20
Sam wrote:
-------------------------------
I've been playing the Brahms Sonata No. 2 for a long while now-at various performances for the past five months. I am having to play it again in 5 days at a festival. The problem is I feel really unmotivated about this peice, it doesn't intrigue me much. Please tell me about Brahms and this peice, in particular the 1st mvt. Perhaps an expanded knowledge of this music will help me discover a new character that will make this peice passionate for me.
Thank you,
Sam
Sam -
There's nothing anyone can tell you about the Brahms Sonata # 2 that will revive your interest in 5 days. Still, it's truly great music, and the best players work on it for a lifetime without exhausting its riches. The best thing to do is put it aside for a few months and come back to it refreshed.
If you think you absolutely must play it, probably the best thing you can do over the next few days is listen to several recordings and compare how each player approaches each phrase. I think the best currently available recording is by Harold Wright with Peter Serkin. Wright's earlier recording with Harris Goldsmith also has many admirers, but I prefer the one with Serkin. I also like Richard Stoltzman's recording. Even if you don't, you should listen to it to compare it with Wright, to learn what you like and why you like it.
Thea King's recording is excellent.
Keith Puddy plays well and uses Muhlfeld's restored clarinet.
Michael Collins does well and has Michail Pletnev, a gigantic virtuoso pianist, as his partner.
George Pieterson is partnered by Hephzibah Menuhin, who nearly overpowers him. It's not the best of all possible interpretations, but it demands to be heard, just to know what's possible.
Older recordings (LP only) worth searching out: Kell/Rosen, Kell/Horszowski and Yona Ettlinger (wonderful - my favorite of all) and Mitchell Lurie (*very* exciting).
There are a number of resources on Sneezy that discuss the Brahms # 2 or phrasing in general, including:
<A HREF=http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Misc/Talent.html>http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Misc/Talent.html<A>, Dr. Gordon (Gordo) C. Bobbett's article on talent vs. skill;
<A HREF=http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/Phrasing.html>http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/Phrasing.html<A>, Anthony
Pay's wonderful article on Phrasing in Contention;
<A HREF=http://www.ocr.sneezy.org/articles/cipolla3.html>http://www.ocr.sneezy.org/articles/cipolla3.html<A>, John Cipolla on Phrasing--Speaking in Musical Sentences; and
<A HREF=http://www.ocr.sneezy.org/articles/geidel3.html>http://www.ocr.sneezy.org/articles/geidel3.html<A>, Stan Geidel on So, Since You Are Working on the Brahms E-Flat Sonata...
Each of these will give you plenty to get through, over the the next year or two. However, 5 days is not enough to absorb any of them thoroughly enough to have an effect on your playing.
If you can't get yourself interested, though, DON'T PLAY IT, no matter how much publicity there's been, and how badly you our other people will be embarrassed.
When playing in public, your first and most important question is "Would I pay my own money to hear this?" If you're bored and unmotivated, the audience will know it in 10 seconds. If you have nothing to communicate about the Brahms, DON'T PLAY IT. I would literally rather hear Row, Row, Row Your Boat played with conviction and a communicative spirit than hear the greatest music in the world played while sleepwalking.
There's nothing wrong with going out on stage and announcing "Ladies and gentlemen, there will be a change in the program. Instead of the Brahms Second Sonata, I will play [the Saint-Saens Sonata] [Domains by Pierre Boulez] [a suite of Klezmer tunes] [a transcription of Sidney Bechet solos] [my high school fight song]." Anything at all, as long as you are excited about it and have something to communicate to the audience.
Sure, the show must go on. But you should put on a show only when you can get yourself up to give a great performance no matter how low you feel.
Don't let your audience down. More important, don't let yourself down. You can recover from a cancelled performance. If knowledgeable people here you play as if you don't give a damn, that can haunt you for years to come. Worse, you'll get used to playing that way. I will forgive mistakes. I'll forgive stage fright. I'll feel your excitement. I'll feel your pain. I won't forgive your boredom.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-04-27 13:09
Another great performance of this work: Jonathan Cohler. See also his fine article, posted somewhere on sneezy, about the use of vibrato.
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