 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: GBK
Date: 2012-01-15 23:09
Neither one.
Both are too long, meander all over the place and are a virtual snooze fest for audiences.
If you really have to choose one, play the Sonatina (1st movement only)
...GBK
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Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2012-01-16 01:31
I suspect both pieces could be snoozers depending on who is playing them. Tom Puwalski
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2012-01-16 16:44
Good point Tom. That could be said about just about anything that's longer than one minute. :-) ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2012-01-16 17:52
Hmmm....I think that the Sonatina is very strong work and is effective if done correctly by a competent player.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2012-01-16 18:46
Both of Rozsa's clarinet works (Sonata, Sonatina) suffer from the same shortcomings -
Each would have been more effective if they were shorter and with less padding. His thematic ideas are trite and too often Rozsa's development of them merely consists of repeating a motive or theme in different octaves, sometimes trying it in all three octaves. When that composing trick gets tired, he then moves the thematic idea up a half or whole step and does the entire process all over - again in different octaves. At times, one starts to wonder if he is just merely filling up pages because he is required to. I distinctly remember on first hearing, my initial reaction to each piece was "Yes...I get it, let's move on."
His meandering through different key centers soon grows tiresome and doesn't give the listener anything of substance to hang on to. Yes - It does give the performer a chance to explore different modulations, registers of the clarinet, but so too does any Opperman exercise.
Innovative composing? I think not.
I've played both of Rozsa works and listened to other performances of them. While the Sonatina or the Sonata might interest clarinetists in a Clarinetfest type setting or in a college clarinet studio class, they do not hold enough weight to program them for a non-clarinet savvy audience.
Rozsa is an excellent composer, who has written some beautiful melodies. It's just too bad that he didn't use some of his melodic gift and apply it to his clarinet works, because sadly, they fall short of what they could have been.
...GBK
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2012-01-16 19:14
I just listened to these two out of curiosity (I've been looking for decent solo pieces for a student... I think I'd heard somebody do an unaccompanied Rosza thing at some recital but didn't really remember it).
Anyway, they're not bad, but I think solo wind pieces can't help but get a little monotonous- there are, what, maybe four or five solo wind pieces that have achieved canonical status? I'm thinking of Density 21.5 by Varese and the Stravinsky three pieces, probably Syrinx although I don't think I've ever heard that one. The Berio sequenzas too, I guess. I can listen to a piano or maybe even a violin all day, but five or six minutes of just clarinet and my ears are ready for some contrast.
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Author: jeig
Date: 2012-01-16 20:07
The sonatina can be very effective when performed as a complete work or when broken up into individual movements.
I once performed a Rozsa Duo with an early opus number for violin and piano. I transcribed it (there is no published clarinet version) and it worked quite well. It sounded like bad bartok. (I like Rozsa, but to me his music sounds like bad bartok.)
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