 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Katfish
Date: 2001-05-02 20:55
When I was in college, my room mate had a recording of this concerto with Benny Goodman playing! We had a few laughs comparing it to the Drucker recording. Has anyone heard the Goodman recording and do you know what orchestra was playing?
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2001-05-02 21:28
Chicago Symphny/Morton Gould on RCA
It's maybe not one of the best recordings of this piece but what I like about it is Goodman's sensitivity in some of the slower sections, where he outruns some other early interpretations from the days when the Nielsen Concerto still was a technical sensation to perform. It's only now, when it has become a standard piece, that you actually can hear musical interpretations with people who don't necessarily feel the erge to only show off by playing it. It's just not so technically difficult anymore.
Alphie
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Author: Ken
Date: 2001-05-02 21:58
I can't imagine laughing at Benny Goodman about anything not alone his classical playing. If anyone's heard of or got a "Swing" recording by Stanley Drucker let me know, I could use a good chuckle too. <:-(
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Author: joseph o'kelly
Date: 2001-05-02 22:15
In reading a biogrophy on Benny Goodman I read that when playing classical based works he had trouble loosening up. Imagine, this from a guy who could improv on the licorish stick like there was no tomorrow.
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Author: William
Date: 2001-05-03 02:50
I'll pick Benny's classical recordings over Richard Stolzman's jazz ventures any day. By the way, one of Benny's great contributions to the world of clarinet are the many works he comissioned from world class classical composers like Copland, Mihaud, and others. And it is a credit to his talent and commitment for promoting the clarinet as a versatile musical instrument that he tried to record many of these comissioned works in this historic album. Thank you, Mr Goodman, it was GOOD CLARINETING!!!!!!!
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Author: Robin Henry
Date: 2001-05-03 04:24
You have to hear Benny Goodman playing the Contrasts by Bartok. It's just mind blowing - the ideal combination with Szigeti on violin. His freed up jazz influence is exactly right for the crazy folk dances. It's not exactly technically perfect, but the effect of really playing on the edge is quite sensational and, in my opinion, preferable to many of the modern note-perfect recordings.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-05-03 17:43
Katfish -
Benny Goodman was a great jazz player and an important classical player, too. However, his recording of the Nielsen Concerto is really feeble. He wasn't anywhere close to being up to it technically, and musically he didn't have a clue either. The central, aggressive snare drum part is played in the background like a jazz combo background drum part played with brushes. This may be the most misguided classical record since Florence Foster Jenkins.
This isn't just my opinion. I've talked to several Chicago Symphony players, who said they had all they could do to keep from laughing out loud at the recording sessions.
There are two superb articles on the Nielsen concerto here in Sneezy:
http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/Nielsen.html
and
http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/NielsenNotes.html
The first article discusses recordings. The one it recommends is by Niels Tomsen, which, since the article was written, has been issued commercially.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Katfish
Date: 2001-05-03 20:26
It seems certain clarinet saints are above criticism. The question remains: Why did he record a piece for which he wasn't adequately prepared?
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Author: joseph o'kelly
Date: 2001-05-03 22:30
Where can I get copies of these recordings? I would like to hear for myself the King of Swing playing these pieces. I have a recording of him playing the Motzart clarinet concerto and quintet. Any coments on him playing these pieces?
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Author: Danielle
Date: 2001-05-04 03:00
I've got a recording of him playing the quintet. I listen to it a lot, and although I'm not a good music critic (being 13...), i like it. I just like...the sound. his tone...it sounds like silver, in some parts. The 2nd movement, especially. Darn. now that i'm thinking about, i have to listen to it again!
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2001-05-04 17:56
Joseph -
Back in the 40s and 50s, Goodman had pretty good classical chops. He recorded the Mozart Quintet with the Budapest Quartet on 78s and the Mozart Concerto and Quintet with Boston Symphony players in a studio recording on an early LP. Both have been reissued and are worth buying. As a jazz player, Goodman heard the underlying harmony, so his phrasing was very shapely. Also, he had a freedom that many classical players lack. Finally, he was used to being a soloist, standing up in front of a group.
Many recordings of the Mozart Concerto and Quintet by the first chair players of various orchestras are tonally and emotionally flat and rhythmically strait-jacketed. I think this is because orchestral players have learned to think first about precision and blending with the orchestra, and only second about being soloists. Goodman was a soloist from the start. His Mozart recordings don't have the ultimate degree of refinement, and there are occasional technical fluffs, but they're still quite fine.
Avoid his live recording of the Mozart Concerto made in England. Goodman was in dreadful form that day. Also, there has also been a reissue of the Concerto in a live performance at Tanglewood, done at the time he made the studio recording, which I think is not as good as the studio recording.
Goodman's recording of the Bartok Contrasts, with Bartok on piano and Josef Szigeti on violin, is one of the great classics. Goodman had to work hard, and he didn't have the absolute security of Bartok and Szigeti, but the piece was written for him, and it's an essential part of every clarinetist's record collection. Everyone should also have the Drucker/Mann/Hambro version and the Bela Kovacs version on Naxos, as well as the Kalman Berkes version. Kovacs and Berkes are Hungarian and have the music in their blood. Drucker, at age 17, is beyond belief, particularly in the cadenza.
Goodman's recordings of the Copland Concerto are unique and probably the best. There were two early, monaural ones with Copland conducting. The second of these two has been reissued, and I think it's better than the later stereo version. Avoid the world premiere aircheck, with Fritz Reiner and the NBC Symphony, which has several train-wrecks, and neither Reiner nor the orchestra has a clue as to how it should sound. I think the best modern recordings is by William Blount and (as I recall) the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Stoltzman is a close second.
A number of other Goodman classical recordings have been reissued. I wrote about his really bad recording of the Nielsen Concerto a couple of days ago. His Brahms Sonata (# 2, I think) with Nadia Reisenberg is worth looking for. His chamber music recordings with the Berkshire Quartet made toward the end of his life are star vehicles rather than real chamber music. They are worth listenting to once, but not much more.
Of course Goodman's immortality comes from his jazz recordings. Everyone should have the famous "Jazz at the Philharmonic" set and go from there.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: James Marioneaux
Date: 2001-05-04 21:25
Goodman's Premiere Rhapsody is not a bad rendition. He does have good phrasing and a good feel for this piece if I recall. It has been a while since I have listened to it.
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