 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: the3n9
Date: 2017-07-24 16:01
Hi everyone!
Last May (in my freshman year of high school!) , I asked my band director for Mozart's "Clarinet Concerto." I've been practicing it all summer, and one part I just can't play well are the sixteenth notes in the first movement that go from the C# to D (in the upper register). I don't take private lessons, so I'm self-teaching myself this piece, but the fingerings for the two notes are really awkward. Is there another fingering that would make this easier?
Thanks!
Nathan
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Author: ClarinetRobt
Date: 2017-07-24 16:10
If it's where I thinking you're asking (measure #?), then use standard fingerings...no Eb pinky RH on the high D.
~Robt L Schwebel
Mthpc: Behn Vintage
Lig: Ishimori, Behn Delrin
Reed: Legere French Cut 3.75/4, Behn Brio 4
Horns: Uebel Superior (Bb,A), Ridenour Lyrique, Buffet R13 (Eb)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-07-24 16:42
the3n9 wrote:
> but the fingerings for
> the two notes are really awkward. Is there another fingering
> that would make this easier?
>
Let's start out by finding out what fingerings you're using. And exactly where is the passage you're having trouble with. Is it the series of 16ths that move back and forth between D and C# at the end of the exposition?
Karl
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Author: the3n9
Date: 2017-07-24 16:50
The passage I'm having trouble with starts on measure 150.
For the C#, my left thumb holds down the thumb and register key and the fingers are on the second and third holes. My two right fingers hold down the first and second keys.
For the D, my left hand is the same as above, but my right hand only covers the first hole and the key that you press down for the clarion register E flat.
(Sorry if it's not clear)
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2017-07-24 18:10
Some people play this passage quite loud, having done a crescendo through bars 148 and 149. I myself now think of it differently; I imagine those bars like the behaviour of a suddenly disturbed bird rising into the sky, as a reaction to bar 147.
So a diminuendo is in order, 'getting smaller' as clarinet and violins get farther away from the powerful basset notes at the beginnings of bars 145, 146, 147.
The clattery switch between RH2 and RH4 that you don't like is worth avoiding if we want the almost invisible bird. You can either do what Robert suggests, forgetting about RH4 and correcting the pitch otherwise; or – and this would be what I would do if I were playing on a modern instrument – leave RH4 on for the C#.
This creates a 'small' semitone between C# and D, but it's very much the sort of thing that a solo violinist might do deliberately, being unrestrained by their instrument in this regard. And if you want, you can create the same effect on the next two wiggles by playing both the A# and the F# (from the B and G respectively) by just pressing the RINGS of the RH.
I find this solution expressively quite satisfying, I must say.
Tony
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Author: ClarinetRobt
Date: 2017-07-24 18:19
![[C#6]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/db6.gif) to ![[D6]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/d6.gif) in quick sixteenth
Don't worry about the Right Hand Eb pinky key being down on the High D. Leaving it off will only slightly flatten the high D (depending on your horn, it could be a good thing). Conversely, putting the Right Hand Eb down on the C# is an ugly proposition - avoid.
~Robt L Schwebel
Mthpc: Behn Vintage
Lig: Ishimori, Behn Delrin
Reed: Legere French Cut 3.75/4, Behn Brio 4
Horns: Uebel Superior (Bb,A), Ridenour Lyrique, Buffet R13 (Eb)
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Author: Dibbs
Date: 2017-07-24 18:46
ClarinetRobt wrote:
> ...
> Conversely, putting the Right Hand Eb down on the C# is an ugly
> proposition - avoid.
>
Not necessarily in this case. I think the Lefevre book, which isn't that far from being contemporary, states that leading notes should be played as sharp as possible.
I know it's not a leading note in the sense of the seventh note of the scale but it behaves like one, it's not part of the harmony and nobody else has that note so it won't clash with anything.
Tony's suggestion of making the following ones sharp to match is brilliant. I must try that.
Post Edited (2017-07-24 18:50)
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Author: ClarinetRobt
Date: 2017-07-24 20:44
No you guys are absolutely right. I was focusing on the tamber of the C#6 and how it should be 'typically' fingered.
{Fingerings are subject to change without prior notification, depending on mood of performer.} ![[rotate]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley25.gif)
I love the idea of just pressing the RH rings for the next two patterns. Brilliant!
I was thinking (and it's been discussed many times on the Bboard) my is a tad sharp with the RH Eb depressed. Hence in ensemble play - like playing 1st clarinet in an ensemble - I put the RH Eb down more frequently than in solo work.
~Robt L Schwebel
Mthpc: Behn Vintage
Lig: Ishimori, Behn Delrin
Reed: Legere French Cut 3.75/4, Behn Brio 4
Horns: Uebel Superior (Bb,A), Ridenour Lyrique, Buffet R13 (Eb)
Post Edited (2017-07-24 20:51)
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2017-07-24 21:08
Fascinating interpretive insight from Tony - the bird fleeing off. What about the second instance of the figure at the end of the movement? The second instance is pitched lower, so the posted question doesn't apply. The rings-only fingerings don't apply as well there either, and actually they don't really apply to the fourth (lowest) tier of the descent in the first instance of the figure. Of course, I'm going to sound them out and see what I can do! But it's the dynamic interpretation that interests me more.
My inflation-adjusted 2-cents, sans such a good image, is that I've most lately wanted to decrescendo the descent sequence in tiers, like separate voices, followed by the rising triplets in crescendo through the A trill, with full emphasis on the final G. Sort of like passing through uncertainty to (relative) surety. That's the first time the descent sequence occurs.
The second time seems to me decidedly more triumphal, and (lately) I like the four descending tiers to be equal in surety, like four antiphonal voices all proclaiming accord, so I keep their dynamic level equal. But, hmm!
My apologies if I'm being simpletonish. But Mozart's music seems so rewarding to ongoing reexaminations and tiny adjustments.
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-07-24 21:54
Nathan--here's my take.
Perhaps, correctly, you are taking measure 150 slower, playing it correctly rather than at speed incorrectly. If so, bravo.
Playing incorrectly at speed only reinforces mistakes that have to be unlearned.
And if you are taking it slower, the intonation differences on this high D, with and without the right pinky on the clarion Eb lever are more noticeable.
If so, don't worry about these intonation differences, as when you play it at speed it will be less noticeable.
Such tradeoffs of ease of play versus pleasantry of pitch lie in many places on the clarinet as tradeoffs we must come to accept as clarinet players. For example, the trill from throat Bb to clarion C is much faster and easier when taken with a right hand trill key that lies in the upper joint, but its sound/pitch may not meet that of a full fingered clarion C.
Such is clarinet life.
Mr. Pay's compromise of keeping the pinky down for the C# is a good one both from a playability and temperament (the pitch interval between the notes) standpoint, but I'd consider it a more advanced skill. "Time" is always the obstacle in advancement. And time you may have to spend perfecting this has to be balanced with time you are taking away from other obstacles you'll face with playing: this piece or others.
But asking the right hand's middle finger and pinky to go up and down in perfect unison, like a see saw, where the ring finger is the fulcrum, as you were doing, is, IMHO, just too much to ask for the gain in intonation from such steps. Just leave the pinky off.
The second factor you may have to deal with is the mental anticipation of screwing this up. The great irony in play is how we tense up for the hardest phrases, which paradoxically enough is the time we need to be most relaxed to play them well.
If you are experiencing this slow down the metronome. Perfect it at one tempo before going 1 click faster at a time. Then tomorrow, when all of these advancements have seem to gone away, repeat.
They're not gone, as you'll get up to speed faster each day, or each few days.
Then practice this at different slower and faster tempos. See if you can eventually take it faster than tempo so when performance comes, the task will seem relatively easy (like jump training with ankle weights on.)
(When drilling this with students I call it "mystery metronome." Years back I wrote a simple computer program with a [pseudo] random number generator to calculate a random tempo within a window of speeds, that would change tempo after the number of clicks (or randomly) I deemed it to do so.)
Good luck!
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-07-24 22:06
Nathan:
I'm sorry for the chattiness, especially since it's a tad bit off topic, but Mr. Pay's metaphor with birds got me thinking.
One of the best lessons I've seen on how to approach these piece, which also uses metaphors, lies here:
https://youtu.be/Mer3Y2BcHik?t=7m17s
"Daisies are growing in my yard."
These simple and yet seemingly nonsensical 6 words, which will make infinitely more sense if you watch the video, IMHO, may say more about how to approach this work that many of the notes publishers and players have placed into the text about how to play this 1st movement.
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Author: brycon
Date: 2017-07-24 22:08
Quote:
My inflation-adjusted 2-cents, sans such a good image, is that I've most lately wanted to decrescendo the descent sequence in tiers, like separate voices, followed by the rising triplets in crescendo through the A trill, with full emphasis on the final G. Sort of like passing through uncertainty to (relative) surety. That's the first time the descent sequence occurs.
The second time seems to me decidedly more triumphal, and (lately) I like the four descending tiers to be equal in surety, like four antiphonal voices all proclaiming accord, so I keep their dynamic level equal. But, hmm!
Well, both instances are harmonically identical: they're cadential 6/4s. You could say the second one, in the key of I, seems more "triumphal" insofar as it closes the sonata form. But to me, they both sound pretty "sure."
Our ears are accustomed to hearing an authentic cadence in V to close the exposition (theorists call it "essential expositional closure") and an authentic cadence in I to close the sonata movement. Sonata form is rather teleological: we know these moments (at least in Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven) are coming. Moreover, the cadential 6/4 is a major signpost. There isn't anything "searching" about a 6/4; they're a V chord that's about to happen. If I plunk down a 6/4 on the piano, you could no doubt hum the resolutions of 6-5 and 4-3 because you know the dominant is coming. (I once got into an argument here about whether we can "hear" things that haven't yet happened in the music: of course we can; the Classical era, in fact, operates on expectations.)
Tony's interpretation works well in terms of the melodic register and also the rhythm. During the first cadential spot, the orchestra begins by playing quarters on beats 1 and 3, then eighths (and you get the nice moment during which the clarinet plays triplets, tugging against the eighths), and finally sixteenths. There's a notated accelerando, then, moving into the cadence in V.
Although the second cadential moment is harmonically similar, the rhythmic figuration is different. It begins with eighths on 2 and 4, then steady eighths (no triplets in the clarinet this time), and ends with sixteenths. This time, the accel is less pronounced, and the clarinet doesn't rhythmically play against the orchestra.
So the cadence in I, for me, has less musical tension than the one at the end of the exposition, which makes sense given that by the end of the recapitulation, the second theme group has already appeared in the key of I and the demands of the sonata form have been met. (And the tension continues falling away when, a few bars later, the orchestra tonicizes the subdominant.)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-07-25 01:04
WhitePlainsDave wrote:
> Mr. Pay's compromise of keeping the pinky down for the C# is a
> good one both from a playability and temperament (the pitch
> interval between the notes) standpoint, but I'd consider it a
> more advanced skill.
Why is keeping the pinky down for both notes more advanced than putting it down for neither? Neither is hard to do.
Karl
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-07-25 02:14
"Why is keeping the pinky down for both notes more advanced than putting it down for neither? Neither is hard to do[?]"
I agree that holding the pinky down consistently is much easier than applying it for the high D only.
Furthermore, at least for me, if not the OP, holding the pinky down continually *may* be only a slight, if any, degree more difficult than no pinky at all.
That said, my take is that the benefit of this approach, in both intonational and temperamental benefit may even be less, especially when the passage is taken at speed, than the degree of difficulty *the O.P. might face* (not me) associated with pinky down continually versus no pinky down continually choice.
I was trying to look through the "glasses" of the O.P., who as a first time player of this seemingly easier than it truly is piece, will likely face many of its roadblocks, at which time is better spent working on, I think, than continually pinky/no pinky on these notes, should the latter present time to address.
If the OP is ambivalent, I agree the pinky down to be a better option...having just tried it myself doing a practice session I had between this and last post.
Let me offer a conjecture that I, myself might prove to contradict 5 minutes from now....ready:
*minor* intonational differences on the clarinet not corrected with fingerings that are equal or less difficult than those associated with the minorist of pitch defect, may at times serve the interest of not being corrected in their ability to have the intonationally bad notes we can't control, from, relatively speaking, standing out to the listener more, not to mention the time associated with mastering the new fingerings.
Some day I shall right a book called "The Pragmatic Clarinetist" accepting that some of you may have cause to call such logic the subject of a book called "The Bad Clarinetist."
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Author: ClarinetRobt
Date: 2017-07-25 02:24
This is where I politely, point blank, disagree with leaving the Eb pinky down on a C#6. The timbre is going to stick out like a sore thumb.
I'd hope the changes in technical difficulties would be infinitely easier by not touching the RH Eb key in the passage.
But hey, leave it down if you want...eek, good luck. I'm surprised it's even open for discussion.
~Robt L Schwebel
Mthpc: Behn Vintage
Lig: Ishimori, Behn Delrin
Reed: Legere French Cut 3.75/4, Behn Brio 4
Horns: Uebel Superior (Bb,A), Ridenour Lyrique, Buffet R13 (Eb)
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2017-08-14 22:01
>> This is where I politely, point blank, disagree with leaving the Eb pinky down on a C#6. The timbre is going to stick out like a sore thumb.>>
Just noticed this, and I think it needs a comment.
It may be true for Robert in his current situation that there is an unacceptable timbral variation between D and C# with this fingering. But that's not solely dependent on the fingering; it's also dependent on Robert's ability to address the clarinet effectively.
I have no difficulty in minimising what I might find unacceptable about the timbral difference. To claim that a fingering HAS A QUALITY independent of the player is simply a nonsense.
Some people have said here that the fingering SpT xxo/xxo is 'too weak' for a G#. Yet in the last movement of Tchaikovsky piano concerto #1 I can make it work perfectly well, and have done so on recordings.
Inexperienced players should know this. They should also know that the opinions of tyros are not always to be trusted.
Tony
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Author: ClarinetRobt
Date: 2017-08-15 02:47
"To claim that a fingering HAS A QUALITY independent of the player is simply a nonsense."
Come on. Lots of notes have their own quality on any generic clarinet. Isn't that the charm of the horn (or the headache). If the statement where true then why ever bother with a resonant fingering on any throat note. Sure the individual's choice of fingers to use can vary from player to player, horn to horn. But has anyone had an A not sound better doing something? It's doubtful.
For example if someone used 1&1 Bb to start Concertino or fork f# to start Copland because those fingerings offer a different quality, then more power to them.
I just checked, I couldn't find any fingering chart published using RH Eb on C#6. So it's safe to consider the fingering isn't used too much by most.
I realize generalizing is virtually impossible. But surely there's some semi-truths for clarinet...Use a resonant finger on throat notes if advantageous, use chromatic or alternate fingerings to avoid needless sliding, and try to keep your pinky off high C#. Sounds like effective, good advise.
~Robt L Schwebel
Mthpc: Behn Vintage
Lig: Ishimori, Behn Delrin
Reed: Legere French Cut 3.75/4, Behn Brio 4
Horns: Uebel Superior (Bb,A), Ridenour Lyrique, Buffet R13 (Eb)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2017-08-15 05:00
On Buffets and most narrow bore clarinets the altissimo D can be painfully flat without the Ab/Eb key held down, but then the C# can end up sharp. If it's a leading note then that's not a problem as has already ben mentioned string players tend to sharpen their leading notes when it's followed by the tonic note.
On large bore clarinets the Ab/Eb can remain closed for the altissimo D - there's a video of Gino Cioffi playing the altissimo C#-D without the Ab/Eb key as he's playing a large bore Selmer (click on the link below).
https://youtu.be/TQwww-dhQ54?t=36m47s
And a great feature of later B&H 1010 clarinets (with a large 15.2mm bore) was the Acton vent whereby the altissimo Eb can be played in tune with the short fingering (oxx|oxo Ab/Eb) without having to use the full fingering (oxx|xx/o Ab/Eb) which can be awkward.
But consider yourself lucky you don't play a mid 18th century clarinet with no ring keys, but has a closed key that's consciously opened by RH3 to bring up the pitch of the B and F# and quite possibly the altissimo Eb as well. The RH ring keys (for RH fingers 2 and 3) were later added which automatically compensated these notes and significantly simplified things for the player.
While at least one book mentions using the Ab/Eb key for altissimo C#, most charts and most specialist clarinet teachers don't.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: nellsonic
Date: 2017-08-15 06:47
There is certainly an inherent timbre/intonation/response difference in some fingerings. The fact that it can be largely mitigated by an accomplished player, or that the degree of difference varies with different equipment doesn't make the observation invalid. One can just as easily use this difference to one's advantage. Most of us have heard top teachers discuss this in masterclasses and experienced it in our own playing.
"To claim that a fingering HAS A QUALITY independent of the player is simply a nonsense."
There must be something more that Tony is trying to say than is immediately apparent, at least to me. How is his statement any more true than saying that leaving the pinkie down on the C# is going to ruin the note? Both are absolute statements and neither seems to tell the whole truth.
Anders
Post Edited (2017-08-15 06:48)
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2017-08-19 01:22
Maybe it's me. It's not that hard to hit the D cleanly. Just practice the few measures everyday for a few weeks. Try different tempo's speeds, slowly for sure. slurring, articulations, and it should fall into place. Also try accenting the D when you reach it. This lets the rhythms fall into place evenly sometimes.
On some A horns you don't need to use the pinky finger. Some of the early 1960's Buffet's for example. So check the pitch with your meter. If you are off just a few cents don't worry about it. If you are 10 cents off you have to use the pinky. It's just the way it is... That D is important. It is the reason why I am suggesting to accent it just a shade. This gives you that split second to get the pinky in place. We have to remember that Mozart didn't put any slurs nor articulation marks in this piece so you do have some liberties, such as slurring the whole passage. Knowing this I often think some of the recordings are wrong when players double tongue. But lets not go there. Keep the piece simple.
You said you are self taught. This piece may be a good time to grab a few lessons as it is hard to play correctly. Correctly means we want the audience to stand up with joy after you play this. If they do not stand up, well it's just another performance. By the way I think the second movement is by far the hardest, because it needs to be played with so much emotion. These are not just notes. Mozart loved to dance with pretty women, so we have to get into his head as he may have been dancing so lightly on his feet during this movement.These notes must be played gracefully.
Best of luck!
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2017-08-20 03:02
I can see that the post by Nellsonic requires a response.
As so often, an important part of a statement is the context in which it is made. In this case, my context was the assertion by Robert that: "This is where I politely, point blank, disagree with leaving the Eb pinky down on a C#6. The timbre is going to stick out like a sore thumb."
What I was saying was: No, the timbre ISN'T necessarily going to stick out like a sore thumb, because _I_ can easily make it not do that. And how I put it was: "To claim that a fingering HAS A QUALITY independent of the player is simply a nonsense."
I then gave another example of a fingering claimed to be 'weak' by necessity, being adjusted on the fly by a player (me) to be acceptable.
But in saying that, I can see that I'm inhabiting a world that is alien to very many of the people on this list. The idea that a particular clarinet situation might require a player to confront an 'uneven' response but nevertheless produce an 'even' output is here almost never addressed.
Rather, the focus is on the way in which 'unevennesses' should be designed out of the clarinet in the first place. Then, the way is open for the whole 'correct embouchure' and 'correct tongue position' philosophy of clarinet playing to take hold, along with the notion that 'good clarinet sound' is very significantly a function of the particular kit that you happen to have available – or can afford.
So OBVIOUSLY to y'all, if your clarinet produces a crap-sounding C# with your RH little finger on the Eb key at first, then that's a fingering that you have to avoid. The idea that there isn't a one-to-one match between a fingering and a sound just isn't part of your philosophy.
An excellent colleague of mine – though a naive beginner at the time, many years ago – once fell foul of the then feral culture of the LSO. Asked to play a particular note flatter, he unwisely said that it was 'a sharp note' on his instrument, and that if it were required to be flatter, he'd have to take it back to the factory.
Of course, when anything thereafter went wrong in the clarinet department, cries of 'take it back to the factory, Martin!' were to be heard.
We DO have to take some things back to the factory; but not all.
Tony
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Author: donald
Date: 2017-08-20 07:48
I agree with the points that Mr Pay makes above- and I have worked with Trombone players and Violinists with fine intonation who are able to play in so well in tune because they have "learnt to play in tune" rather than because they play instruments that are "in tune". [this issue came up with a colleague here in Auckland a few months ago when we were discussing an article by Dr Benade. He made the above point in relation to the oboe, and like Mr Pay was thinking about tone and musicality as well as intonation].
That said, I have also been harrassed by an annoying Violist telling me (in rehearsal with Auckland Chamber orchestra) that my low F was flat- and found myself having to tell him that he had (in this instance) the choice of the F being in tune, or most of the other notes being sharp. It was in my power to minimise the problem but not eliminate it.
Another time, I spent a few hours working on a friends clarinet adjusting pad clearance and tone holes (closing a few up with carefully applied blue tack). With a more even scale that player was able to shape her sound more easily, and expend more energy on MUSIC, as less effort was being used adjusting for intonation discrepancies. So obviously there is more than one side to this issue [and the "less effort on the clarinet, more energy for music" point was also made to me in 1998 by Tom Ridenour].
Mozart concerto high D/C#? My solution is to play it WITHOUT the little finger key, as by that point in the movement my clarinet has warmed up and I'm tending a little sharp anyway... I like to play the passages before this at a dynamic that helps keep the pitch down, but at the high D I bring the dynamic down a bit, which makes the D (using a flatter fingering) in tune, and the C# maybe on the high side. I've always proposed this solution to any students I teach this piece (not many in the last few years, it's true), and my advice seemed to work for them (ie, the D never seemed badly out of tune, and the C# never stuck out as incredibly sharp).
dn
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2017-08-20 23:10
Donald wrote: "It was in my power to minimise the problem but not eliminate it"
It may be in your power to have a low F correction key installed, or play quieter to get the pitch higher, or push in for that passage? Because, while you may have chosen to be powerless this situation, it's worth keeping in mind that there are other clarinet players in the world who are somehow managing to play that passage in tune.
When I was about 20 I played Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony in a youth orchestra. The conductor told me that I was flat at the beginning of the slow movement. I knew that my clarinet could play in tune at A=442 in reasonable temperatures. I told the conductor that I was pushed in as far as I could and that there was nothing I could do about it. He said: "Well the good players manage it somehow". My ego took a bruising, but fortunately I learnt something that day.
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Author: donald
Date: 2017-08-20 23:53
I didn't say I couldn't play the passage in tune, just that a violist complained that one note was flat compared to the others. I can't believe you just suggested to me that I buy a correction key, quite astoundingly arrogant and obnoxious.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2017-08-21 06:04
Just to say that it would be a shame if two people I regard as colleagues were to fall out. After all, you're both 'proper' musicians, as opposed to the sort of self-aggrandising, equipment-touting louts who normally swan about here.
See, I don't think Robert was being obnoxious – just representing what, after all, is the way it is.
My own story in this vein is that I was once playing 'Mother Goose' on a recording with a very good friend of mine conducting – it was his own orchestra, actually, in which I was playing guest principal. The crucial solo low E was flat on the new (old) clarinet I was using, and when he pointed this out, I had to tell him that there was nothing that I could, at that moment, do about it.
"But, I thought you were supposed to be GOOD?" he said.
Tony
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2017-08-21 11:08
Sorry Donald- didn't mean to be obnoxious. I wasn't suggesting that you get a correction key, just that there are options, of which I'm sure you're aware. But if you heard your statement coming from say, a flute player, wouldn't you find their "powerlessness" a little under par?
Post Edited (2017-08-21 21:58)
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2017-08-21 11:18
And sometimes I just feel sorry for viola players...
If the low F was on your A clarinet and was clashing with his open D string, then I can understand his frustration!
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2017-08-22 10:44
This Concerto is difficult. And we all know it was not written for the clarinet but for the extended clarinet or for whatever we wish to call it. This is why one of my favorite recordings is with David Shifrin and also with the regular clarinet Bob Marcellus. David was the first or one of the very first players to perform it with the extended version. Bob of course is probably my favorite because it is played so cleanly and we have George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra behind him. Tuning of course is perfect. Szell wouldn't permit anything but perfection.
So I don't know. It's a beautiful piece and we should always enjoy it. I won't ever turn down a chance to perform this and the quintet. The quintet is actually my favorite piece ever to play. It's scary and beautiful. All 5 of you must be perfect.
So we must be tolerant and respectful knowing that this piece has probably already been performed by some of the greats listed above as well as Sabine Meyer, Ricardo, Frost, and many others. Instruments fail us. Keys bend, we aren't all privy to expert repairmen and playing with the very best orchestras in the world, plus several retakes when something goes wrong during a recording session.
We have to remember that this concerto is still asked at pretty much every top orchestra audition. Yet every high school student has to play this to get into a good music college.
So lets be more tolerant if a note is out of tune!
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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The Clarinet Pages
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