 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Lam
Date: 2012-02-15 15:10
Hello. Last 2 days I attended the concerts of Concertgeboew orchestra in their Hong kong tour in the hong kong arts festival. I have been watching the youtube video of this orchestra for long time. The conductor for these 2 concerts is boring, but the clarinet section, flute principals and the spanish oboe principal are awesome.
Their solo clarinet Jacques Meertens has been one of my favorite player, I always enjoy listening to his playing in youtube, and hearing it live is so exciting for me. He sounds darker and more compact when hearing him live, my friend describe his sound as a silk that would'nt break, thats true. and his playing in the encore hungarian dance no.1 is really breath taking, those double-tougue-like quick semiquavers were easily done by him like playing games.
In youtube I always find that the second player Arno Pieters always sounds larger than the principal player, and in live he actually sounds bigger than the principal, but I found out that the reason for his bigger sound lies on his connection with the 2nd basson and also other harmonic parts. His sounds is extremly wonderful, a big rich and warm sound which I like the most and he would remain a model for me.
The second concert features Kodaly's Galanta dance, Mendelssohn violin concerto and Bartok's concerto for orchestra, and its time for me to see is their new principal good or not and could also see if his buffet blend could with the reform boehm players or not. I have heard his playing in youtube and a guest concert in Berlin philharmonie (brodcast by digital concert hall) playing brahms symphony 3 &4 and I found that he sounds very small and shallow. however, hearing him live is totally contrary to what I heard before. For tecnique I would call him a wizard with his long fingers moving extremely fluently and fast. and for sound he has the best I have ever heard from a Buffet. For dynamics he has again the widest I have heard, it all depends on what volume he wants, and musically he has the extremly accurate rhythm and ensembleship, he is extremely solid and really a top class wind player.
and the clarinetist play with him on 2nd is Hein Wiedijk who is a extremly solid player and great musician, and he plays a reform boehm, and there are no problem with the blending between his instrument and the Buffet player, as easily heard in many passages in Bartok's concerto for orchestra.
After these two concerts I learned a number of things: 1. the second players in a great orchestra are actually top musicians 2. Andreas Sunden is a top clarinet player, thats why he won the audition 3. I love the sound of reform boehm clarinet 4. a Buffet could sound extremly wonderful, depends on who plays it. 5. there is no problem for a Buffer to blend with reform boehm. 6. concertgeboew has the strongest clarinet section I have heard live (I never hear the Berlin, Vienna and Chicago live). 8. I would never sounds better on a Buffet
than Andreas Sunden, its time to give it up 9. I decide to save money and buy a reform boehm A clarinet in the coming future.
hope that its not a stupid post
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2012-02-15 15:53
Thanks. Most interesting and appreciated. The acoustic environment makes a difference, apparently. I listen, by radio ,to the RCO.
richard smith
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-02-15 17:45
Good post! Thank you for your detailed, first hand (ear) descriptions.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: The_Clarinetist
Date: 2012-03-30 13:11
Yea, there sure is something special about them reform boehms. I was in Austria last summer and visited a folk music concert. The clarinetist sounded wonderfully and I thought he must be playing on a german clarinet as he held it angled from the body like an oboe and had a dark yet distinct and smooth tone. During the break I approached the scene carefully and took a glance at the clarinet left on stage. To my surprise it did not look like a german clarinet, more of a 3/4 boehm. That was my discovery of the reform boehm clarinet!
However, I think it is funny with people playing jazz on wurlitzers, I mean, what is the point? There are also some clips of mozart clarinet quintet on youtube played on a wurlitzer 185, nice tone but maybe not the best quintet. Then there is this british guy playing on wurlitzers but with a more stuffy tone, probably due to the choice of MP and reeds.
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Author: Lam
Date: 2012-03-31 02:52
Yes, I think the sound of reform boehm is fantastic, and the sound of the RCO clarinettist really sound like a german clarinet, warm and full of resonance. However still there are many R.B player play like English sound or very french sound, for example the british younster that you mentioned, the former RCO principal and also some Japanese soloist. Actually I don't see their point in using a R.B instrument too.
btw, the youtube Mozart quintet is a better example of reform boehm tone, i suppose he tried to resemble the tone of Leister
Post Edited (2012-03-31 03:10)
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