 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2008-03-01 15:25
Over many years he has produced great clarinet playing, and still does. Several recent ones on Naxos.
richard smith
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2008-03-01 21:55
Bela Kovacs is one of the very best clarinetists around. Actually, he's a far better player and musician than you can possibly imagine. To listen to him perform his own compositions and arrangements is a jaw-dropping experience. He not only possesses an amazing technique and overall command of the instrument, he can play just about any style under the sun, including klezmer and jazz. I would say that he's head and shoulders above the average top professional orchestral player. If he lived in LA or New York as opposed to Budapest he'd be as famous as Drucker or Morales. He's truly something special.
Mr. Kovacs is now retired from the opera orchestra where he played principal for decades but continues to teach. In fact, there's an entire generation of excellent Hungarian and German players who are his students. His CDs can be purchased from a clarinet store in Budapest called Rose. Two that are highly recommended are "Hommages" (containing his own compositions for solo clarinet) and "Bela Kovacs Plays Clarinet Just a Little Bit Differently" (containing his own compositions and arrangements for clarinet and piano as well as clarinet ensemble).
Bela Kovacs is in a class all by himself.
Paul Globus, Montreal
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Author: nbblazer
Date: 2008-03-01 23:05
"His CDs can be purchased from a clarinet store in Budapest called Rose."
Is there any way you can purchase any of those cds via the internet? Does that Rose store have a website?
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2008-03-01 23:39
The 'Homages' are great pieces and should have more concert performances. I play them regularly.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: hrvanbeek
Date: 2008-03-02 02:49
I've recently purchased the CDs "Hommages" and "Bela Kovacs Plays Clarinet Just a Little Bit Differently" from Luyben Music. I just emailed to order them since they weren't listed on the website.
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Author: donald
Date: 2008-03-02 07:43
i have a vinyl record of Kovacs playing the Mozart concerto, plus at least one Naxos CD he plays on. I've always admired his sound- though it's quite different from mine. Isn't Jozeph Balogh his "star pupil"?
dn
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Author: LarryBocaner ★2017
Date: 2008-03-02 17:59
I had the pleasure of hearing Kovacs playing live at the 2005(?) ClarinetFest at the University of Maryland. He played classics, Klezmer, Jazz, Magyar -- all of them wonderfully! IMO he is a great artist; too bad he isn't better known here in the "new world."
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2008-03-02 18:45
Joszef Balogh is indeed a star pupil of Bela Kovacs but so is just about every other top player in Hungary. Mr. Balogh, who is a friend of mine, is an unbelievably talented artist in his own right, distinguished perhaps because he was Mr. Kovacs's first really great student in a line that stretches all the way to the present day.
I once asked Tibor Dittrich, a professor at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, about the Hungarian style of playing. His response? "We play Bela Kovacs style."
In case anyone is wondering, Mr. Kovacs and all his students play French instruments (Buffets, Selmers) and French mouthpieces. Most also play Vandoren reeds. A very few, like Balogh, can play both French and German system instruments with equal control and facility -- amazing. Bela Kovacs himself plays strictly French. He's also a first rate pianist.
Hungary is really clarinet central. Everywhere you look you find players who can play the pants of clarinetists in other parts of the world. It's astonishing.
Paul Globus
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Author: NorbertTheParrot
Date: 2008-03-02 19:26
It is interesting that Hungarians prefer French instruments. With the historic links between Austria and Hungary, one might have expected Austrian instruments to be preferred. The tarogato, a Hungarian invention, certainly has keywork based on the German clarinet.
When searching for information on him, it is worth knowing that Bela Kovacs (or Kovács Béla as it is written in Hungarian) is about as common a name in Hungary as John Smith is in England. In fact kovács actually means (black)smith.
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2008-03-02 22:32
The Rose store can be found on the Web at Rose.hu. Rose sells all the Kovacs CDs. No clarinetist should be without them. Rose also sells all the Kovacs compositions and arrangements.
Rose is a really neat place: music store, music cafe, clarinet club. Many of the city's top players congregate and hang out there. It's in a historic part of Pest, facing the opera house.
You could get lucky. Mr. Kovacs lives not far from the opera house and makes frequent trips to Rose to schmooze. If you pay a visit, you could run into him.
I met him once but under different circumstances.
Paul Globus
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-03-18 01:50
I just heard his marvelous playing of the Mozart Quintet, in collaboration with the Tatrai Quartet. Terrific control and projection of clarinet sound - quite a unique sound - and very musical. I'd tend to wishing for more contrast in some spots, but this cooly emotive rendition still becomes one of my favorite recordings of this piece.
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