 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-07-13 14:26
Last evening at the Marlboro Music Festival, Charles Neidich, Miho Saegusa (violin), and Ranana Gutman (piano) performed Bartok's Contrasts. This was the first live performance I've heard of this piece.
Neidich not only managed the technical aspects of the piece cleanly and with flair, he also seemed well attuned to Bartok's style. He made a great impression on me. Neidich frequently puffed his cheeks, and I decided he must have been circular breathing, though I may be wrong - he did this even in passages short enough to allow breaths elsewhere. It didn't seem to affect his tone in any way.
Unfortunately, I frequently could not discern the violinist's contribution, and that part is of great importance - she seemed to play well but did not project much of the time. Perhaps she was worried for her bow - early in the piece, several hairs from it began hanging.
I also got the impression that both the young violinist and young pianist were less well acquainted with Bartok. The more I listen to music, the more I think that performers should become at least passingly familiar with as much of a composer's ouvre as possible. Some of the attributes I listen for in this piece were not presented, especially in the Verbunkos. May be just me.
But despite those caveats (from an admitted amateur) I enjoyed the performance for the atmospheric slow movement and for the breakneck pace of the Sebes (probably faster than any recording I've heard.) And Neidich's playing, again, was a clarinettist's delight.
Incidentally, the violinist and clarinetist stood throughout. No dance moves! Also, I was impressed how easily Neidich could remove just his mouthpiece to quickly switch instruments in the Sebes.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2008-07-13 15:49
If the mouthpiece fits right, it can be done really quickly.
Charlie most likely was circular breathing as you wrote.
Would love to hear a recording of him playing it.
Glad that it wasn't a stage show like some players are doing nowadays..........
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2008-07-13 21:15
You can bet if CN is playing it, it will be faster then anyone else plays it, because he can. Does it always make musical sense; well I'll let you be the judge of that. Is faster always better? He is an incredible playere though. ESP www.peabody.jhu.edu/457
(Listen to a little Mozart, live performance, at a musical tempo)
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
Post Edited (2008-07-14 00:42)
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-07-14 00:20
I just returned from Marlboro's next day matinee concert. Neidich again played, this time in Varese's Octandre and in Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat. Again, his playing and style impressed me. In these works he was well matched by the other performers.
It was good to hear the Varese in concert, after hearing some recordings long ago an being unimpressed. The performance today really sparkled, and the musicans seemed excited about playing it. It was fun to hear.
The Stravinsky also received, in my opinion, a fine performance. However, still in my opinion, this music is tedious at best. Most of Stravinsky's music made good initial impressions on me, but it's never worn well.
All the musicians stood throughout these performances. Is that usual? I wondered if the bassoonist would experience back pain - the Stravinsky was fairly long.
Neidich is relatively small of physical stature, slender and perhaps wiry. He seems highly energetic, but his energy isn't expressed by a lot of movement in performance, though naturally he moves some. Rather, he seems highly alert to what's going on, both in his part and in his colleagues'. He appears both intense and professional. Amusingly, after each performance, during the applause, Neidich, with a big smile, sort of directed the other musicians off and back onto the stage, gesturing the applause in their directions, etc., as though he'd been conducting.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-07-14 12:12
Philip Caron wrote,
>>Unfortunately, I frequently could not discern the violinist's contribution, and that part is of great importance - she seemed to play well but did not project much of the time. Perhaps she was worried for her bow - early in the piece, several hairs from it began hanging.
>>
It's likely the violinist, not the bow, was responsible for the inadequate projection, unless she was extremely (unusually) remiss about re-hairing. It's normal for some bow hair to break in music such as this. Pros play with bow hairs flying all the time, though it's a good idea to yank a loose hair off during a rest, just to make sure a hair doesn't flop itself over the fingerboard or somewhere else inconvenient. (The hair is so strong that a finger coming down on a hair that's lying across the fingerboard can stop the bow momentarily.) A bow can lose a lot of hair before it urgently needs re-hairing, and when it does get to that point, the violinist can still play loudly. Control of note-duration and staccato-legato expression suffer long before volume.
The high-quality bow-hair professionals and most amateurs use is Siberian horse hair, carefully harvested from those lovely long tails, which grow back surprisingly fast in the frigid climate. It's extremely strong hair, but a good hard scrape of the bow will break it. I've had to talk to my violin-playing husband a few ... um, a few hundred times about dropping his bow hair on the floor (when there's a wastebasket right behind him), because it only takes a few horse hairs, wrapping themselves up around the vacuum cleaner's beater bar, to break the rubber drive belt. We keep a supply of spare belts. (Not all his fault, though: Unfortunately, my own hair is almost as bad. So far, Kevin hasn't threatened to shear me and use the hank for bow hair....)
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2008-07-14 12:22)
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Author: redwine
Date: 2008-07-14 12:43
Hello,
I heard Charlie at the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium this summer. It was the first time I heard him live. Of course, I'd heard recordings and many, many stories--most in a somewhat negative vein, similar to Ed Palanker's post, always with the caveat that he's a great player. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how great he sounded! He played a very difficult program-Prokofiev Violin Sonata, Mendelssohn Violin Sonata, and an unaccompanied piece he wrote. I had heard stories about bad intonation, funky sound, questionable musicality, and, of course, monster technician. He certainly was a monster technician, but the other points were not true. He sounded like a mainstream clarinetist at the top of his game. He was by far the best performer that I heard at the Symposium this year. Also, he dropped by the booth and we chatted for some time. He's a very nice person! Perhaps all these stories I had heard were from clarinetists that were jealous?
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: mrn
Date: 2008-07-15 00:40
Charles Neidich studied in Moscow for a while. Maybe that's why folks think he sounds like he's rushin'. :-)
On a more serious note, though, I do sometimes wonder how much his Russian training has influenced his style, particularly with respect to music written by Eastern European composers (Stravinsky and Bartok being examples). We seem to make so much to do about French and German composers, players, and schools of playing. What happened to the Russians (and the Hungarians, etc.)?
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