 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-03-23 23:02
Most of Kell's recordings have been reissued. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=reginald+kell&x=0&y=0
The Brahms Quintet with the Busch Quartet is particularly good.
However, a few remain elusive, including
- The Holbrooke Quintet (mediocre music, but he displays dazzling technique).
- Shepherd on the Rock with Margaret Ritchie. I prefer his recording recording with Elizabeth Schumann, but it's fascinating to compare how he adjusts his playing to each singer.
- The Brahms Sonatas with Mieczyslaw Horszowski on an extremely rare Mercury LP. It's nearly impossible to find in playable condition, because it was made before the advent of Gruve-Gard (in which the rim and label area were raised to protect the grooves) and because at that time Mercury didn't use record sleeves.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Caleb
Date: 2011-03-25 08:56
His recording of Stravinky, three pieces is very elusive to me. can anyone tell me about the key in 1st movment. I think Kell was playing in concert B(a minor 2nd lower than the reading pitch) at that movement, but why did he play in that elusive key?
Also, Kell's cd by clarinet classics "swing low sweet clarinet" is a beautiful light music cd.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2011-03-25 09:51
Caleb wrote:
>> His recording of Stravinky, three pieces is very elusive to me. can anyone tell me about the key in 1st movment. I think Kell was playing in concert B(a minor 2nd lower than the reading pitch) at that movement, but why did he play in that elusive key?>>
Kell's (to my mind, disgraceful) recording of the Stravinsky has been discussed both here and on the Klarinet list. I mentioned his transposition of the first movement in this thread:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=237009&t=236814&v=t
Much of what Kell does in this recording needs psychiatric rather than musical explanation, but it's certainly true that the first movement lies more naturally on the instrument a semitone higher.
Tony
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Author: grifffinity
Date: 2011-03-25 11:21
I have a special place in my heart for his Premiere Rhapsodie...that whole Soprano Sax tone he gets somehow makes it seem even more French.
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Author: Caleb
Date: 2011-03-26 14:53
Thanks for Tony's information.
It seem that most people don't like Kell's style of Stravinsky three pieces. But have anyone try to play Stravinsky in Kell's style in a exam or perform? What is the result?
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2011-03-26 17:44
Caleb wrote:
>> It seem that most people don't like Kell's style of Stravinsky three pieces. But have anyone try to play Stravinsky in Kell's style in a exam or perform? What is the result?>>
I don't know about 'most people'. Unlike the scientific community, where there is some sort of consensus about the judgement of a particular opinion, it's very difficult to say what the 'musical consensus of opinion of a recording' consists of.
However, the way Kell plays the Stravinsky clearly contravenes Stravinsky's instructions in so many ways that it could be considered NOT EVEN TO BE A PERFORMANCE of the piece.
Therefore, a copy of Kell's performance would be very likely dismissed in any assessment of a student -- and, rightly so, in my opinion.
Why I have persisted in keeping this thread alive is worthy of consideration, I would say.
It's not that I want to discredit Kell, whose other contributions to the clarinet world are rightly to be celebrated.
It's that I want to identify a notion that begins with people like Kell, and that has become even more relevant today. I want to call it, 'leapfrogging'.
LEAPFROGGING occurs when a performer produces something new, not integral to their own, or their art's development, that is intended to become -- and then becomes -- celebrated by the public because of its newness. It's a performer's TRY AT CELEBRITY. And it's a result of the widespread availability of what people do, and its presentation.
Kell, notice, became famous because of his recordings. And, I would say, he was a CONTRARIAN.
Contrast that with real innovation. As Harrison Birtwistle once pointed out to me, Jackson Pollock didn't drip paint on canvas in order to be different, or notorious. He did it because he HAD TO.
Nowadays, performers -- conductors, soloists, whatever -- can leapfrog what was once the normal process of their development, and -- in some cases really untalented -- become famous because of their superficial appeal to an undiscriminating public. That public then becomes further undiscriminating because they aren't exposed to what they might appreciate as better fare.
I am against that. And therefore, I want here to defend WHAT STRAVINSKY WROTE against WHAT KELL DID. It's the first step down a slippery slope.
I'll write more in another thread.
Tony
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-03-27 13:27
David -
Some of Kell's recordings miss the point, but for many works he was definitive. Examples: the Weber Grand Duo, Shepherd on the Rock with Schumann, the Brahms Quintet with Busch and the Templeton Pocket-Size Sonata. And even though he ignores some of the tempo directions in the Debussy Premiere Rhapsody, it's still the version I turn to for the proper affect, not to mention perfect technique and legato.
Ken Shaw
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