 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2002-04-04 16:25
i want to buy a recording of the mozart clarinet concerto but im not sure which clarinetist to go with performing it.
who do you guys like performing this peiece?
thanks, JL
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Author: BG
Date: 2002-04-04 16:40
My vote is for the Robert Marcellus recording with the Cleveland Orchestra. I am sure you are going to be offered many opinions on this one. It will be interesting to watch!
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-04-04 17:11
Janlynn -
The Marcellus recording is excellent. You really need more than one version, though. As Artur Schnabel said, this is music that's better than anyone can play it, and there are many ways to make it work. (My own record collection has, believe it or not, over 100 versions.)
The Marcellus recording is very "straight." I think the best balance is Gervase de Peyer, which is very flexible and dancelike.
Anton Stadler's clarinet had a "basset" extension, bringing the range down to a written low C. When you look at the solo part, it's easy to see where the modern edition had to be altered. Sabine Meyer has made an excellent recording on a modern basset clarinet.
Finally, you need a version on a reproduction of a Mozart-era instrument with a basset extension. I think Eric Hoeprich has recently recorded this on an instrument modeled after a drawing discovered in Prague of Stadler's own clarinet. He also made an excellent recording a few years ago with Franz Bruggen's Orchestra of the 18th Century.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: William
Date: 2002-04-04 17:28
I, too, vote for the Marcellus recording as the one to have, if you are only going to buy one. I am however, anxiously awaiting (still.....) the release of the Anker Bilk recording --hopefully on CD format. Just imagine the fluidity of sound he could render the second movement. Stolzman's vibrato????--forget it. I'll take Anker's any day. But Marcellus's recording will still be hard to beat (even by Mr. B)--he is the clarinetist's clarinetist for all time. Good Clarineting!!!!!!!!
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Author: Gregory Smith
Date: 2002-04-04 18:57
Robert Marcellus, clarinetist, George Szell, conductor, the Cleveland Orchestra. On Sony "Essential Classics". About $7 - $8.
The only recording of the work to consistently stay in the active catalog for over 40 years now, even though it does not take advantage of improvisation and use of the basset clarinet - both of which have been popular for at least a decade or two now (these two things were not in vogue in the year of the recording - 1961, at least for those that were at the top of the clarinet world).
Insofar as style is concerned, everyone has their own personal tastes but there are few if any musucians that even come close to the sheer perfection demonstrated by these great artists (Marcellus, Szell, and the Cleveland Orchestra) famous for their interpretations of Mozart, Haydn, and the Classical period in general.
About interpretive style. The great conductor George Szell, perhaps without equal in his interpretations of music from the Classical period when asked why his Classical period interpretations were not more "expressive", "warm", "flexible", "spontaneous", and other such criticisms leveled at him from some in the press would reply, "Gentleman. You don't expect one to pour chocolate sauce over asparagus, do you?".
Another famous and revealing quote pertaining to this subject which appeared in TIME magazine in 1963, an issue that featured him on the cover and an extensive article profiling the Cleveland Orchestra of that era 40 years ago was: "It is perfectly legitimate to prefer the hectic, the arhythmic, the untidy - but to my mind, great artistry is not disorderliness."
Gregory Smith
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Author: Gregory Smith
Date: 2002-04-04 19:01
Having said all that, I also enjoy, for the reasons Ken Shaw points out, the recording by Tony Pay on an original "period" instrument for instance.
Gregory Smith
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Author: Bob
Date: 2002-04-04 21:58
During the recording sessions of Tchaikovsky's 4th many years ago Szell kept asking the recording engineer for more volume until in frustration the engineer said, "But Maestro if I record at higher input it will break the equipment". To which Szell replied, "So break the equipment."
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Author: miftw
Date: 2002-04-04 22:28
Bob what has that got to do with Mozart's Concerto? - I'd go for the "period" instrument style of intepretation anyday - Szell and the Clevelanders might very well have had a good classical approach, but using an orchestra with a large string section for Mozart seems a little "unresearched" as an approach IMHO.
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Author: Gregory Smith
Date: 2002-04-04 23:19
The string section was quite reduced - not all employed at the time to play the later, Romantic works were necessarily scheduled for this one or any concerto.
Gregory Smith
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Author: Sandra F. H.
Date: 2002-04-05 00:17
Ken and Gregory have summed it up nicely. Marcellus-Szell has long been my favorite, long before I asked for anyone's opinion! Gervase de Peyer has a nice interpretation, as does Sabine Meyer. Marcellus, though, just has that edge of perfect effortless that is just magical. Clean, musical, and just filled with a spirit that just captivates me each time I listen to the recording.
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Author: Jamie Talbot
Date: 2002-04-05 07:00
Jack Brymers' recording of the Mozart with the LSO under Colin Davis
is my favourite.
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Author: graham
Date: 2002-04-05 07:21
Here are some other ideas:
Colin Lawson on period basset clarinet, a good choice out of several such recordings. Very pastoral and reflective, but it may not be easily available following Nimbus going bust.
I have the earlier of the Dieter Klocker recordings. Very up beat and perky rather than just beautiful or romantic. Definitely worth hearing.
The old 1960s Alfred Prinz recording is a favourite because I think he reaches depths many others don't. The melancholy in the last movement is brought out particularly strongly by him. Have a box of tissues handy.
Reg Kell's 1940s recording is very fresh and fluid. Well worth having as a "second version".
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Author: Mike Blinn
Date: 2002-04-05 15:33
A good buy is a reissue by EMI Classics' Great Recordings of the Century: Jack Brymer with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. In the liner notes, Brymer recalls the recording session in the Salle Wagram in Paris, 1958: 'At two days' notice, he and Beecham, without interruption and with the tape running, played twice through the concerto. After lunch, they listened to both version and selected for issue the best take of each movement.'
I think I paid $2.99 for the CD from BMG Classical. It also contains the Bassoon Concerto and Sympony No. 41 (Jupiter).
The sound quality is fine. The playing superb.
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Author: David Dow symphony NB
Date: 2002-04-24 14:02
Alessandro carbonare has quite a fine new version. Sabine Meyer's with the basset extension is truly virtuosity personified...she does articulations and ornamentation in keeping with the spirit of improvisation. Karl Leister and Leopold Wlach with Herbert Von Karajan from 1971EMI and 1948(Decca) are truly beautiful. Prinz is truly great in the 6/8 and is with Karl Boehm. When I play it I use Stockhausens cadenzas out of sheer boredom with recent interpretations...multiphonics may be in order but that may be too much(joking).
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