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Re: Exceptional YouTube Channels/ Videos

Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-11-01 04:39

Thanks for the links to the 3 Crussell Concertos with you performing on the 9-key Grenser copy. Your approach is clear and vigorous with great rhythmic demarcation and resounding climaxes. You bring out more of a ringing clarinet sound than many who hue closer to a softer recorder-like sound on the period clarinets and you certainly give the lie to any misconception that old clarinets were limited in agility. I have several questions. What pitch was your clarinet and the orchestra tuned to? It seems to be that one striking difference in the sound of this Grenser (and many other period clarinets I have heard) is that the lowest tones of the chalumeau do not have the depth and resonance of post-Romantic era clarinets. Fortissimo in the clarion and altissimo sound like fortissimo but fortissimo at the bottom is at best mezzo-forte and rather veiled in timbre. So when you play the same concertos on a modern instrument clarinet, do you hold back in the chalumeau in deference to the sound of the period instrument or do you play full strength?

More broadly speaking, when you play any baroque or classical era piece, on a modern instrument do you let the sound and response of the older instrument significantly shape your performance?

Another more technical question. In the Baroque and Classical eras it seems clear that most clarinetists played the mouthpiece with the reed turned up toward the upper lip. According to Kornel Wolak, this ubersichblasen (as opposed to the untersichblasen style used today) occasioned a method of articulation called "diaphram puffs and glottal stops" that players felt most closely approached the vocal way singers articulated. The sound was begun not with a tongue stroke but with a glottal "GA" sound and a puff of air. Kornel Wolak in the link below describes this style of articulation that was most probably used by J. X. Lefevre and other famous players.

Would time practicing in this style with the reed on top and articulation done by glottal means be worthwhile for a player attempting historical authenticity in baroque and classical pieces? Have you experimented with this?

https://clarinet.org/2017/10/06/articulation-types-for-clarinet--kornel-wolak

Finally, are there techniques you use on historical clarinets that do not work well on modern clarinets?

Post Edited (2017-11-01 05:15)

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