 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2016-05-09 21:43
On YouTube, a Japanese channel, Hachiro.com, has what purports to be a live performance by Robert Marcellus with the Cleveland Orchestra (conducted by Pierre Boulez) of the Debussy Premiere Rhapsody for clarinet. It sounds authentic to me but I had no idea anything like this existed. Anybody know more about this performance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P15YijgV_bY.
Post Edited (2016-05-09 22:12)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-05-10 04:36
Thanks so much for posting!!!
I heard this recording posted here maybe a year or so ago (or perhaps from the series but recorded somewhere else).
So many little points I recall as what Marcellus would say must happen in this piece and yet there are some lovely gives and takes in the pulse that I was surprised to hear.
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2016-05-10 05:24
I should have researched this and would have found that on this list in 2012 there was quite a lively discussion of the Marcellus performances (evidently there were 3 different ones from April 1969, in different halls all with Boulez conducting the Cleveland Orchestra) that were then available on Sound Cloud.
Still glad I posted this because all three seem to have disappeared from Sound Cloud. One striking feature of this performance for me is how light and pleasant Marcellus sounds in the altissimo, not the slightest bit of forcing or shrillness there that often mars performances of this peice.
Post Edited (2016-05-10 06:26)
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Author: DAVE
Date: 2016-05-11 07:00
I have all 3 of the performances on a hard drive.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2016-05-11 15:14
At least one of the performances was in Akron, Ohio. There was also a Mozart Concerto and Shepherd on the Rock with Valente and Szell.
RM plays D before the last run in the Debussy rather than the now-preferred Eb.
Ken Shaw
Post Edited (2016-05-11 15:17)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-05-11 18:32
I don't know who 'prefers' the Eb. That is one of the misprints of the original edition that was debunked by Robert Marcellus et al.
Musically, that is the foreshadow of the last four notes, hence 'D natural.'
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: brycon
Date: 2016-05-11 19:18
Quote:
I don't know who 'prefers' the Eb. That is one of the misprints of the original edition that was debunked by Robert Marcellus et al.
Debussy apparently preferred eb/d# at the end--it's in his manuscript.
Quote:
Musically, that is the foreshadow of the last four notes, hence 'D natural.'
There may be a case for d natural (though Debussy didn't write it and it doesn't work particularly well with the g dominant chord in the piano/orchestra). So could you explain?
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-05-12 07:27
I don't have any more substantive argument than what seems more musically correct. And that this was pointed out specifically by Mr. Robert Marcellus himself. There was always some reference to errors that exist in the published version but I do not have enough memory of what the documentation side of the argument was. In fact there are at least three or four moments in the piece (as published) that fall in this category, but without the music in front of me I don't want to venture any further comment.
There was a lot of definitive work done (both research as well as performance) by Dennis Nigren, so I would think researching this piece with Nigren's name should pop up most of this stuff.
...................Paul Aviles
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Author: brycon
Date: 2016-05-12 07:59
To be clear, we're talking about the triplet in the lower register that's often played d-eb-g rather than d#-e-g, correct?
Post Edited (2016-05-12 18:43)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-05-12 14:18
Thanks for the clarification.......and forcing me to dig out my part. Yes, "D#-E-G" (and spelled differently in the fourth to last bar. I wrote in (during a Marcellus master class) "Claude's own correction." But I cannot tell you from where this correction was gleaned.
So the other corrections in the mix (as noted on my Durand 1910 edition):
o in third bar of square one, slur from first quarter note triplet to next; breathe after half note in sixth bar.
o eighth and ninth bars, slur from 'E' up to 'B' (both times);breathe between half and quarter the bar before square 2 (making that a four bar phrase).
o at Scherzando (between squares 6 and 7) second bar crescendos into a mz forte not a piano.
o eight bars before square 7 the beginning figure is a dotted sixteenth and thirty second note (not two even sixteenths) ...... I think we all know that one.
o and the tricky on for me is the last page triplets going into the "Plus Anime." If I have this correctly, Marcellus has the eighth note pulse of the "Plus Anime" equal to the length of "2" of the triplet notes prior (so just that much faster). If you listen again to the recording you notice just how organic that relationship is.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: brycon
Date: 2016-05-12 20:16
Gotcha, I thought you were saying you preferred the d-eb-g that's more often played. But I think we're on the same page: d#-e-g works better.
As far as Marcellus's corrections, the first one you give may be a mistake in the part. If you look at each iteration of that melody, however, you see it's broken up by slurs in a different place until the final time it's played at reh. 9, where it's under a single slur.
I think it can be very beautiful to follow Debussy's slurs and break up the melody each time. Then at reh. 9, make a point of playing it as a long unbroken phrase.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-05-14 16:15
Let me deeply apologize for getting one thing wrong about that. The slur over the the quarter note triplet is "correct" from the Marcellus standpoint, but the first breath is ALWAYS after the eighth note of the fourth bar of square 1. I was looking also at my own editorial markings without thinking.
VERY SORRY FOR THAT !!!!
And upon listening to the recording (again) I think Marcellus speaks best for himself !!!!
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: eddiec ★2017
Date: 2016-05-14 19:24
I wonder how this wonderful recording has come to us. It sounds like a tape (there's a little bit of flutter) transfer to disc (just a little surface noise), to me. Maybe they routinely did house recordings and this one slipped out somehow. Or possibly a recording for later radio broadcast? I'm glad we have it.
It makes you wonder how much stuff is sitting in archives somewhere, unreleased.
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