 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: JuanMorales
Date: 2014-08-14 21:07
So lately ive been debating to do Brahms 2 I mean is it really competitive to compete against other major works like the mozart or any big solos on other instruments and place among the top of the list.
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Author: BbMajorBoy
Date: 2014-08-14 21:10
I dont think thats what music is about. The Mozart is too overplayed. I like the Bramhs, maybe even more than the Mozart.
Leonard Bernstein: "To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2014-08-14 21:20
The Brahms is the musical equal of any of the big concertos. It has technical challenges that are different from those of the Mozart, Weber or Nielsen concertos, which are popular audition pieces, but the Brahms sonatas are anything but easy to play well and do not lack real difficulties of their own.
All of that said, they are not flashy, showy pieces full of pyrotechnical displays. So it depends a lot on the competition you're playing in, what the judges expect and whether or not they are musically aware enough to appreciate the Brahms Eb Sonata on its own terms.
Keep in mind, if it's a competition for the opportunity to play a solo piece with an orchestra, the Brahms won't work because its accompaniment is for piano.
Karl
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Author: TJTG
Date: 2014-08-14 21:41
Karl:
I believe one of the Brahms Sonatas has an orchestral accompaniment written for it, as I was advised by my teacher to try it for a concerto competition. He said it was a well orchestrated arrangement considering Brahms never wrote it.
Juan:
If you are asking this question because you're looking to apply for a concerto competition put on by an institution, I'd try and play things the orchestra can easily acquire. Budgeting is often a problem in renting and buying parts. If this is for a competition in which you're simply playing this piece for judges, you should be okay in all practicality. I'm with Karl though, as it doesn't have the flashy techniques of some of the other clarinet works (Weber comes to mind).
Can you give us more information about the competition and the institution it's with?
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2014-08-14 22:15
TJTG wrote:
> Karl:
> I believe one of the Brahms Sonatas has an orchestral
> accompaniment written for it, as I was advised by my teacher to
> try it for a concerto competition. He said it was a well
> orchestrated arrangement considering Brahms never wrote it.
>
I know, but an arranged piece like that may not get equal consideration from judges (or the orchestra's conductor) who are also hearing genuine concertos in which both the solo part and the accompaniment are original and created explicitly to complement each other. Maybe it would. IMO, you would need to know more about the competition and its sponsors before trying to use an arrangement like that.
Karl
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Author: JuanMorales
Date: 2014-08-14 22:42
replying to that its only concerto contest where winner takes money and its just pretty challenging considering the big solos some are playing i mean all i have to do is play a solo and they pick a winner out of that
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-08-14 23:09
Just keep in mind that musicality, and RHYTHM are everything!
Larry Combs stunned the jurors of his Chicago Symphony audition with Weber's 1st Concerto. It was HOW he played it that counted.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2014-08-14 23:58
It is how it is played. 100% agreed with Paul.
BUT that said, an excellent and musically played Francaix or Nielsen will win over an excellent and musically played Brahms Sonata every time, right or wrong.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2014-08-15 01:43
There's an orchestration of the F minor sonata by Luciano Berio. How obtainable is it?
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2014-08-15 03:29
The Brahms sonatas are less clarinet solos than they are clarinet and piano duets, more so than many clarinet sonatas by other composers. The piano part is vital, rich, very Brahmsian, and more technically demanding than the clarinet part. A really good pianist is almost a requirement.
The two players should rehearse enough together, which might be a problem in some cases. I've heard recordings where it sounded all the world like the clarinetist had practiced the piece a lot without piano; the clarinet bits were well played but expressed without making contextual sense, so the music sounded disjointed, not together, and dull.
A familiarity with Brahms's late style would be helpful. Done well, this music can be engaging and memorable. Harold Wright and Peter Serkin made an excellent recording of these sonatas (on Boston records.)
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2014-08-17 19:08
It's not what you play but how you play it. Of course it depends on the competition requirement. Brahms is a great piece to show you musicial ability but many times they will also require another piece as well to show your technical ability. The Brahms 2nd is not "easy" but it's also not very demeaning from that point of view for an experienced player. So that would depend of the competition.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2014-08-17 20:48
David Blumberg wrote:
>> I Produced the recording of the Premiere ...written for Michele. >>
Well, although that may have been how it panned out – and although 'for whom' Berio wrote his pieces is sometimes in doubt (because he was often looking for somebody to generate some cash for the first performance) – it did happen that after I made a visit to play with and conduct the Orchestra Regionale Toscana in the 80s (Berio was the Artistic Director), Berio told me about his idea for this piece, and subsequently invited me to come and play the first performance of it with the orchestra and another conductor.
"Don't worry about the clarinet part," he said. "It will be exactly the same!"
But a couple of days before I went there, I got a call telling me that the piece wasn't ready, and could I play the Mozart instead.
When I got there, Berio showed me the MS of the arrangement. His idea had been to get a student to do a preliminary draft that he would subsequently correct. But clearly a lot of work would have been required on what this particular student had done.
Actually, I think even the final version is really very tricky anyway to bring off in concert performance – as opposed to in a recording – because of balance problems with the overthick scoring. The conductor needs to exert a lot of control.
I did once play it in Berlin with the Radio Symphony Orchestra and a Hungarian conductor whose name I've forgotten – he was standing in for an indisposed Riccardo Chailly.
It happened that the teacher of this conductor was the great musician, pianist and composer Gyorgy Kurtag, and Kurtag happened to be at the final rehearsal. So he came backstage afterwards, saying that he thought it was a pretty poor arrangement and backing that up by playing various bits from memory at the piano.
"How do you know this piece so well?" I asked.
"But of course! It is REPERTOIRE!" he replied. (He seems to know all music.)
"But, I advise you to forget most of the subtlety and mostly just play LOUD in here," he said.
It would have been an even more difficult task with Berio, whose control of things like balance with a big orchestra were quite limited. (Apparently Aldo Bennici was asked to play 'the viola version':-) with Luciano, and 'became ill' after the first rehearsal;-)
Of course, I admire Michele immensely both as a player and as a person.
Did SHE have Berio conducting when she gave the first performance, do you recall?
Tony
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2014-08-18 02:08
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> It was Carno Directing
I suppose I want to reply, why don't I get the courtesy of punctuation?
And, in your style: WTF he?
Tony
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2014-08-18 02:36
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> On my iphone, where spelling/punctuation is a task!!
Bollocks. Try harder. You think you're the only one with an iPhone?
Tony
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