Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2008-12-14 16:25
I heard a performance last night by a young conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Philadelphia Orchestra of the Tchaikovsky 6th Symphony. Once again, those 4 notes at the end of the 1st movement exposition were played by a bass clarinet instead of by a solo bassoon as specified by Tchaikovsky. I know this is an old question - probably no longer even qualifies as minor controversy - but does anyone know who originated this revision and whether or not there was any other reason than that conductors simply value the 6 'p's under the notes more than the fact that they appear in the bassoon staff? I'm always puzzled every time I hear it played this way. I imagine bassoonists hate playing it, so they aren't running up to conductors in protest. But Tchaikovsky knew about the bass clarinet - you don't need to go back any farther than a year earlier in St. Petersburg when Nutcracker was first performed - same city, so the instrument should not have been unavailable. If he could have had a bass clarinet and chose a bassoon anyway, why do conductors of major orchestras, as far as I can tell all over the world, insist on this substitution? I don't think I've ever heard a live performance using a bassoon. This tradition has even outlasted the use of horns instead of bassoons in the recapitulation of the first movement of Beethoven's 5th. Tchaikovsky must have known by 1893 how softly a bassoon could (or couldn't) play in that range, and pppppp is simply dramatic overkill for "as softly as possible." In fact, he, perhaps cleverly or not, only put ppppp - one less than the bassoon - under the preceding clarinet part.
I'd love to hear a real explanation other than the tongue-in-cheek ones I usually get from bassoonists. After all, having a bass clarinet sit on the stage through the whole exposition while the reed gets dry and the instrument gets cold (last night the 2nd clarinet player played the bass, so it had even more time to dry and chill than when a separate player is used) isn't exactly a guarantee of reliable control and precision, either.
Karl
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The Clarinet BBoard
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