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Re: Molter Concertos

Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2018-01-13 04:06

I very much agree with Liquorice. When you hear the JC Veilhan recording (on a period-copy D clarinet) you realize the baroque D clarinet is not the same instrument as the modern D clarinet, which is used more as a vehicle for sarcasm (Mahler), incision (Bartok and Stravinsky), and satire (Strauss). The baroque D clarinet has an intrinsic tone much more downy and subdued than a modern D clarinet.
For the Molter Concerti recording, Veilhan had a GH Scherer 3-key D clarinet copy made by Agnes Gueroult, at A420, the diapason thought to be in Karlsruhe at the time of the concerti's composition (ca. 1750).

Several excellent modern clarinetists have recorded the Molter Concerti on a modern instrument with a mindset similar to one they would employ when playing modern D clarinet repertoire. As a result their high notes are often aggressive, tortured, even repellent.

I have played a copy of a baroque D and C clarinet mouthpiece on my baroque C clarinet copy, and the high notes pop out easily and without force. In fact it is a challenge to get out the lower registers with baroque C and D mouthpieces. From a modern player's perspective, the notes want to always skip up to their upper partials. One could say the baroque instrument and mouthpiece were conceived to play those high notes effortlessly. Which is perhaps why on the period instrument, the high Gs do not sound so ludicrous.

By the way, over a decade ago, in my correspondance with the music librarian of the Karlsruhe Landesbibliothek (where Molter manuscripts are housed), he mentioned he had found most of a 7th D clarinet concerto in their archives.

Simon

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