 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ginny
Date: 2000-07-12 18:00
We just got three more (five total) recordings of RiB. Two are from the 1920's with Gershwin and a jazz orchestra, three are with full orchestra. The oldest three (1924, 1927 and 1955) have very "Klezmer" like clarinet laughs and chirps and of course the gliss is very different. I have never heard a recording where the clarinetists do this before! The piano style seems stable, but the clarinet style really varies as the years go by.
Of course I prefer the grocery store album of my childhood, non-klezmer sounding (my son likes the Fantasia version of his current childhood)...But why don't orchestral clarinetists try to play like the early Gershwin recordings?
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Author: Eoin McAuley
Date: 2000-07-13 08:36
Although Rhapsody in Blue is now standard orchestral repertoire, it must have seemed very strange when it was first performed. Orchestral players knew nothing about letting go and improvising, while jazz players knew nothing about playing exactly what was written in the score. RIB was a crossover piece, trying to combine the two traditions. The first performances were by Jazz Bands, so they would certainly have lots of stuff which is strange to our ears. The famous clarinet glissando at the start was put in not by Gershwin but as a joke by the principal clarinetist of the day. Sadly, this sort of playing around with the music seems to have never caught on in orchestras, and these are the ones that make the CDs.
I had a wonderful vinyl recording of RIB, although I can't remember the details. It featured Gershwin himself recorded live on pianola (player piano) playing along with a modern band. The Gershwin piano part sounded significantly different in terms of speed and so on when compared with a modern player such as Bernstein.
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The Clarinet Pages
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