 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: murray519
Date: 2012-01-01 14:46
The NY Philharmonic New Years Eve concert featured Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with an intermission feature telling the account of the premier performance and the birth of the opening clarinet glissandro. Also included was an account by Ricardo Morales on his technique in producing the gliss. The entire concert was broadcast on PBS and is now available online for the next week on pbs.org. The gliss feature is about 52 minutes into the concert. Check it out if you missed it last night.
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Author: LJBraaten
Date: 2012-01-01 15:44
How timely! I'll check this out. I'm currently working on two pieces of music with a total of 3 glissandos. Unfortunately they are all descending, the type I have the most problems with. One of them crosses the dreaded registry key. :^ (
LJ
Edit: I've searched all over pbs and cannot come up with this concert. Does someone have a link they could share?
Edit: Go figure, google came up with it, but searching pbs came up blank.
http://www.pbs.org/programs/live-from-lincoln-center/
Laurie (he/him)
Post Edited (2012-01-01 20:00)
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2012-01-01 15:50
Mr. Morales' good and appropriate funkiness made it a wonderful performance.
Did you note the neck strap?
Post Edited (2012-01-01 15:50)
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2012-01-01 17:37
Sherman Friedland has an interesting post on the Gershwin glissando.
richard smith
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2012-01-01 17:57
It takes a tremendous amount of courage to give the interview Ricardo gave before the performance, detailing the pressure one feels playing the Rhapsody glis, then go out there and nail it.
Blummy, you can brag about him all you want to today: Ricardo sounded great, and even put the pressure on himself--on national TV--before doing it!
Bravo, Mr. Morales.
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
Post Edited (2012-01-01 17:58)
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Author: LJBraaten
Date: 2012-01-01 18:36
rtmyth wrote:
>Sherman Friedland has an interesting post on the Gershwin glissando.
Richard, thanks for the link (easily searched on google). I was very interested in the original Rhapsody in Blue (RB) recording, accessed through a link on the site to the National Jukebox. It was recorded in June 1924, just four months after RB's Aeolian Hall debut, with Ross Gorman on clarinet and Gershwin at the piano (the same group played the concert). I once had (just donated to a school library) an old 78 recording of the piece played in the early 1940s by the Philadelphia Orchestra, with Eugene Ormandy. The Glissando, and much of the rest of the piece in that later recording and anything I've heard since are much more "refined" than the 1924 version. I suspect the jazz style, especially the jazz clarinet (rip) of the 1920s has been made more "acceptable" in recent years. Or is it that the piece has moved farther away from jazz and more toward the "classical" style? Or both? I'm interested now to see what the NY Philharmonic does with it.
(Mr.) Laurie (Braaten)
edited to correct some errors.
Laurie (he/him)
Post Edited (2012-01-01 20:13)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-01-01 20:28
The clarinetist in the Ormandy recording was the great Ralph McLane. It's a terrific classical performance, but for me it doesn't come close to Russ Gorman's jazzy, dirty original.
The Gershwin estate has been very active in policing on-line versions of his music, so Al Gallodoro's amazing performance isn't available. He played it more times than anybody.
Ken Shaw
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Author: LJBraaten
Date: 2012-01-01 21:17
Ken Shaw wrote:
>Russ Gorman's jazzy, dirty original.
Yes, reminds me of the 1928 recording of Benny Goodman, recently circulated here.
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Author: Clarimeister
Date: 2012-01-02 03:42
That NY Phil performance is amazingly good. If you listen, listen to the whole thing!
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2012-01-02 09:29
Thanks for the link, just finished watching/hearing the whole thing.
>> Russ Gorman's jazzy, dirty original. <<
Is that the short clip they play a little before the interview and demonstrations in that clip, with the "laughing" clarinet? That one is truely great!
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-01-02 12:35
The link to the NY Phil. concert is http://www.pbs.org/programs/live-from-lincoln-center/. Rhapsody in Blue begins at 1:32:00, and Ricardo is wonderful.
This link goes away on January 9, so be sure to listen before then.
The entire concert is great. The NYP really has it going these days. As an indication that even at this level, players must get used to one another, Ricardo and Judith Leclair have a tiny loss of coordination starting at 1:21:14, which they will certainly get right once they play together enough to develop the ESP that top players have. Part of the problem may be the VERY loud brass. Notice the deely-bopper earplugs the horn player is using at 1:20:57.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2012-01-02 14:34
It is cool to hear Mr. Morales describe briefly the mechanics of the gliss, and the nerves "gremlin" sitting on his shoulder.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2012-01-02 14:48
I'll try again... in this video of the NYP, a little before the intervew (if I remember right), they talk about the piece (Rhapsody In Blue) and then play a version of the clarinet intro that sounds much older and has it "laughing". Is this the original version with Russ Goreman that Ken mentioned...?
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Author: LJBraaten
Date: 2012-01-02 14:59
That clip sounds like it probably is the original. To listen to the original go to library of congress or national jukebox, google it. It has the 1924 original with Gorman on clarinet and Gershwin on piano. it's in 2 parts, there doesn't appear to be a direct link from the first to the second.
Edit:
http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/9922 gives part 1
The pianest in his interview mentioned he just played the Rhapsody with a jazz band, and that there are 2 versions, the jazz version and the orchestra version.
Ken Shaw mentions the "very loud brass“. Ha! so it's not only us amateurs that have to put up with that!!
Laurie (he/him)
Post Edited (2012-01-02 15:39)
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Author: gkern
Date: 2013-07-28 13:03
Does anyone know what clarinet Gorman played in the 1924 original opening?
And, while the 1924 recording in my favorite, Marcus Roberts has a 28 minute version that starts out like all the other contemporary renditions, but about 8 minutes into it, all hell breaks loose and the notes are scattered from here to kingdom come! After this dissection, almost beyond repair, or so it seems, the notes are wailing and crying for a long period. Finally, Roberts gets them all together again, and they are happy and the piece finishes on a high note.
Gary K
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-07-28 15:01
Gary -
Do you have a link for the Roberts recording?
Ken Shaw
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Author: ABerry
Date: 2013-07-29 01:05
Ken,
There is a recent recording of the original jazz band version of Rhapsody in Blue with Al Gallodoro. The album is: “Gershwin by Grofe”. Steve Richman conducts, Lincoln Mayorga, piano and Al Gallodoro playing clarinet, bass clarinet and alto sax. I believe Al’s glissando was taken from a much older recording and incorporated into the new.
Allan
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-07-29 01:51
Allan -
I bought the Gershwin by Grofe album. The Rhapsody in Blue solo is (unfortunately) not played by Al Gallodoro. You can tell his performance from others by his blindingly fast open G-to-A trill near the end of the solo.
There used to be several versions of the Gallodoro performance on YouTube and elsewhere, but they all disappeared. I think the Gershwin estate forced them to be taken down for violation of their copyrights. That would be fine if I could buy a legal copy, but it has never reappeared. I queried the Gallodoro site, but they didn't respond. Getting reissue permission would undoubtedly involve the Gallodoro estate and the owner of his recording.
There is a "compulsory license" for performance of copyrighted (printed) music. That is, you notify the copyright holder, who is required to permit you to issue a recording of its printed music at a fee determined by ASCAP or BMI.
Alas, that applies only to printed music. The reissue of recordings themselves falls outside of that rubric, due to a disastrous court decision from the time of piano rolls. The court reasoned that piano rolls were not like sheet music, because no human player could read them. Thus they were not copyrightable under the copyright statutes. A piano roll (78-rpm disk/LP/CD/MP3) creates a mere "license" for you to play it, but not copy it. That meant that recordings are covered by "common law" copyright, which is perpetual and has no compulsory license rights. Congress in its wisdom has corrected that, but the change won't take place until (as I recall) around 2050. And if Sonny Bono is still alive, the date will undoubtedly be extended indefinitely.
For far too much more, see my earlier rants.
Ken Shaw
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