 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: klarisa
Date: 2020-10-31 15:32
I guess some will not aprove, but personally ik think this works very well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJD-6YwXyvM
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-10-31 16:30
Michael Collins plays Beethoven's Violin Concerto.
It's ok. I find that the absence of double stops takes away from the intent a bit. Otherwise you can argue that Mozart did the same thing recycling his oboe concerto for a flute.
..............Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2020-10-31 16:38)
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2020-10-31 17:29
I've always liked this. The performance brings out some important aspects of the music very well. Obviously not the double stops. Such a substitution might not work as well with other composers.
I once heard a brief radio interview with Collins about this. He recounted that he'd been scheduled to play this with an orchestra, but when he showed up with a clarinet they cancelled - they'd assumed he was a violinist.
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2020-10-31 17:53
Apparently Michael Collins was not pleased with either the arrangement or his performance because he has stated that he will no longer perform this.
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Author: donald
Date: 2020-11-01 13:41
I'm in complete agreement with Mr Pay, despite sincere respect for Mr Collins and his abilities.
Post Edited (2020-11-01 13:44)
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2020-11-02 04:14
I'm curious as to others' reactions to the following recording, which might be said to suffer some of the same weaknesses that the clarinet transcription of the Beethoven concerto does. It's played here on saxophone, but every time I listen to it I wonder how it would work on clarinet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdUWPA_AX6o
When wearing my Omniscient Listener's hat, (the only music hat I owned for several decades,) I prefer hearing Collin's performance of the Beethoven to hearing quite a number of concerti originally written for clarinet, including some that are fairly prominent in the repertoire for the instrument. That may be because I really like Beethoven, particularly his violin concerto, and his music is still largely there in the clarinet transcription, especially when played well.
Naturally clarinetists will turn first to works written for them and expend whatever efforts necessary to present those effectively. However, some people, I've read, automatically reject the idea of transcriptions by anyone who's not the original composer, regardless of how the piece may affect average omniscient listeners. Maybe that's part of "fidelity to the score" thinking.
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Author: jim sclater
Date: 2020-11-02 18:07
I think sometimes the "fidelity to the score" thinking cuts off other possibilities which may be very attractive. The Glass work that Mr. Caron posted is very attractive to me. Since this is the first time I have heard the work, it may well become my "standard." It seems to me that the order in which one hears versions of a piece might enter into the judgment about its "merit." I like the sax version of the Glass; I would most probably like the violin version, too. Apples and oranges.
There are a great many transcriptions out there by the great composers that are played all the time,e.g., the Bach-Busoni D minor Chaconne. Is the piano version any less of a work of art? I think not. If this turns the listener on to the other violin works of Bach, more power to it. If you don't like the clarinet version of the Beethoven violin concerto, don't listen to it. However, that version may put a fire in the belly of someone.
FWIW, I have played on A clarinet the Bach concerto in A for oboe d'amore. Great music; fun to play. Audiences didn't seem concerned about the tone color difference.
That's my 2 cents worth.
jsclater@comcast.net
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2020-11-03 19:07
Philip Caron: without considering the merits of the Glass transcription, many thanks for the pointer to a superb artist.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2020-11-03 21:50
Glass's original violin concerto should be heard, including, naturally, the remaining two movements. (Gidon Kremer's recording is a good one.) In the first movement the violin scoring vividly intensify the drama in the middle section, and it's compelling.
In a homophonic reduction the soloist must "indicate" such intensification by other means. That would seem a disadvantage, but then again, you might say that music is fundamentally made of indications. Dickson uses several means to intensify those points, quite subtly too, but they catch the ear.
I also admire the saxophone's sonority in this transcription - mournful but intense, indicative of unsatisfied need. It's more personal, perhaps, than the violin, which seems on a higher plane. I like both versions.
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