 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ruben
Date: 2016-11-25 01:11
I've just listened to the two Brahms Sonatas for clarinet played by this wonderful artist who played with the Vienna Philharmonic. He takes fairly forward-moving tempi. I imagine he was too young to have heard Mühlfeldt, but must have heard the latter's students (if he had any) or people that had heard him. The first movement "allegro amabile" of the second sonata is often played these day as an andante. Is Wlach still remembered?
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2016-11-25 02:27
The first classical clarinet playing I ever paid any attention to came from Leopold Wlach's Westminster label recordings of the Brahms Trio and the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, which I heard around the same time as I discovered Louis Cahuzac's Angel label recording of the Hindemith Clarinet Concerto. So I got a "double whammy" of Viennese and French clarinet playing that opened up my ears to just how different the clarinet can sound even in the same genre of music.
Using the "search" feature here brings up 50 hits for Wlach and 21 for the clarinet he used, an old Viennese Koktan. Bill McColl of Washington told me he took lessons from Wlach and measured the Koktan mouthpiece. It had one of the longest and closest facings McColl ever measured, 27.5 mm long and
0.79 mm or less at the tip. Wlach's reeds were equally distinctive. Those were the days when regional differences in clarinet sound were striking and easily recognizable.
Wlach played without a trace of vibrato and was not afraid to take slow movements really slow and relish each moment. I believe the Koktan Wlach played was large bore, and some clarinet makers, such as Rossi, have used that model as a benchmark for designing their own Viennese style instruments. It would be a mistake, however, to characterize Wlach as some sort of hidebound conservative bent on continuing old traditions. Wlach, after all, encouraged Rudolf Jettel to write his very challenging, non-traditional etude books and promoted efforts to update playing technique to accomodate the increasing demands of modern composers. Victor Polatschek, who also played Koktan clarinets and was roughly in the same Viennese tradition as Wlach, also may have been influenced by him to write his well-known Advanced Studies for Clarinet.
Post Edited (2016-11-25 22:28)
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Author: ruben
Date: 2016-11-25 16:49
I would add another European clarinetist to the Cahuzac, Wlach generation: the great Italian, Luigi Amodio. Thank you for telling us Wlach's equipment. I imagine Amodio played an Italian clarinet. There was so much more variety back then than now.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2016-11-25 21:51
Wlach's LP of the Mozart concerto was the one I played along with when I was learning the piece as a 12/13 year old. (I'd started with a Kell 78rpm – but that was just part of the last movement.) I even remember that the disc had a scratch that made the needle jump a few bars before the clarinet enters, and nowadays when I play with an orchestra I still 'hear' that jump when the moment comes...
People don't seem to do that sort of thing nowadays – indeed, perhaps they disapprove of it. But a positive outcome has been that I've always heard the piece as an orchestral one, not just as a clarinet solo.
The bassoon concerto by Oehlberger on the other side is also well worth a listen. I remember sort of liking the bassoon concerto better even at that age. Mozart at his simplest is very winning: compare the Oboe Quartet and the Clarinet Quintet.
I also own a pair of Koktan clarinets in pristine condition, courtesy of Jon Steward. I've never properly investigated them, partly because I don't get along with the mouthpiece – and he told me that that was a significant factor in understanding how Viennese players produced their results.
Perhaps I'll make an effort...
Tony
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2016-11-25 23:13
I also loved the Mozart bassoon concerto on the other side of Wlach's Mozart recording!
Are you playing an original Koktan mouthpiece on the Koktan clarinets? If that doesn't work, Nick Kuckmeier in Austria might be able to come up with something that does. Or Ramon Wodkowski, who said a while back that he might venture into making some mouthpiece models for Oehler as well as for Boehm clarinets.
Post Edited (2016-11-25 23:17)
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2016-11-26 19:56
I suppose the trouble is that I can't really see an occasion on which I could play them. I'd use earlier instruments for the classical Viennese repertoire, Piatets for the French –Berlioz, say – and much of the later music on early Buffets or my Ottensteiners. And it's non-trivial to get another new instrument to professional level...
I lent the Koktans to Nick Shackleton for a time, just because he wanted to have them sitting in his collection; but I got them back when he died, before the rest of the instruments went to Edinburgh.
I'm very glad I did, because now Edinburgh University, quite against the terms of Nick's bequest, are making it impossible for the instruments in his collection to be used for performance. They SAY they're not; but they've started imposing conditions that are completely unworkable – like demanding that the instruments be returned to 'an accredited museum' at the end of each day they're away from Edinburgh.
I recently tried to borrow the piccolo clarinets in F and G in Nick's collection for a performance of Semiramide (there are Banda parts for these instruments) but had in the end to settle for having the player use a modern Eb clarinet with a shoelace dangled inside to get the pitch to A=430Hz.
Quite possibly, this was the most efficient solution, because we never got as far as even TRYING the old instruments; but I was very annoyed at the time. It's a disgrace, and quite against Nick's vision for his wonderful collection.
Tony
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Author: ruben
Date: 2016-11-26 20:16
Tony: Have you tried JF Simiot clarinets from the early 19th century? Nick Shackleton had two, if I remember right, and they were the prize pieces of his wonderful collection. He even named his cat after Simiot! If I could get my hands on one-they're not easy to come by-I could have some copies made.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2016-11-27 02:02
I've played on copies of those Simiot clarinets since 1984. I recorded the Weber concertos on them, in I think, 1986.
Tony
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2016-11-27 05:53
Attachment: Simon\'s Simiot low-res.JPG (422k)
Ruben, If memory serves, I believe Nick Shackleton had 10 JF Simiot clarinets in his collection (if you consider a Bb/A corps de rechange a single instrument).
The Simiot is indeed a good model to copy. Daniel Bangham uses a 5-key Bb Simiot as his model in his historical clarinet-making course:
http://www.cambridgewoodwindmakers.org/info/courses/classical-clarinet-making+162.html
I took the course and I have attached a photo of the Simiot copy I made.
Simon
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Author: ruben
Date: 2016-11-27 12:12
Simon and Tony: Many thanks for the information. I think boxwood gives these period instrument a very distinctive tone. Unfortunately, it warps; is very hard to stabilize. If there were so many clarinet makers in the Mante-la-Jolie area, it must have something to do do with the fact that boxwood trees grow/grew abundantly there. The same craftsmen that made clarinets also made chairs! -presumably for clarinetists to sit on while playing.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: hinotehud ★2017
Date: 2016-11-29 02:07
His Mozart Concerto was the first classical recording I owned. I was in 10th grade (1961-62) and was working on the 1st movement. I ended up listening to Oehlberger's Bassoon recording more than Wlach. I think Oehlberger's cadenza is the best I have heard. He made me fall in love with the sound of the bassoon. I perform on both.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2016-11-29 21:12
In orchestration class, a professor once said while playing Oehlberger's recording of the 1st movement of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto, "now this is a prime example of how staccato articulation can be used." Also, "note the conversational dialogue between bassoon and strings--the imitative patterns." And, "consider how the cadenzas organically grow out of the thematic material."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgv4CDQKg6Q.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-11-29 22:04
Just listened to the Oehlberger performance of the whole concerto - marvelous. I love it when threads digress.
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Author: wkleung
Date: 2016-11-30 19:59
What mouthpiece and instrument would best enable me to produce a sound in the direction of Wlach? Used Koktan clarinets are not easy to come by ...
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2016-12-01 02:03
Hi Simon,
I know roughly what your Simiot copy would look like; but the attachment won't open for me.
Tony
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2016-12-02 05:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjIa-xffhXg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqi0AdQpIf4
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Author: ruben
Date: 2016-12-03 21:13
Dear Simon, Do you sell these clarinets?
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: efsf081
Date: 2016-12-09 07:25
Making Clarinet Reeds the Viennese Way; Demonstration by William McColl, Video by Edwin Rodriguez
A demonstration of how to make clarinet reeds, as taught to his students in Vienna in 1954 by Leopold Wlach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=268zi0fENMs
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2016-12-11 04:06
Hello Ruben - I thought I might sell them if there was enough interest, but the period-instrument scene for classical-era instruments is tiny in North America.
Tony - None of my uploaded attachments work. The best way of seeing the instrument I made is to go to the Cambridge Woodwind Makers clarinet-making site: http://www.cambridgewoodwindmakers.org/info/courses/classical-clarinet-making+162.html
In the rotating series of small photos, there is a photo of 3 clarinets and a photo of a single clarinet. My instrument is the single clarinet (without rings on the barrel) and the following photo of the keyless joints on the garden table.
Simon
Post Edited (2016-12-11 05:31)
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Author: Dibbs
Date: 2016-12-12 18:14
Simon Aldrich wrote:
> ...
> In the rotating series of small photos, there is a photo of 3
> clarinets and a photo of a single clarinet.
> ...
And I made the one on the left of the three. Since then I've put a C#/G# key on it. The one in the middle is Daniel's.
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Author: maxopf
Date: 2016-12-13 10:48
I was curious after watching that reed-making video efsf081 posted, and decided to pick up some reed blanks and give it a go. My second reed was functional, and now I'm on my 7th reed and it works quite well! It takes more work and time to get it right than the video might have you believe, but once you get the taper right and balance the sides/tip, the reeds play pretty well.
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