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Re: Pines of Rome Please Listen

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2016-10-30 01:08

As far as tempo is concerned, better to be prepared to play it that slowly than to be squeezing out your last drop of air because the conductor wants it slower than you practiced it. I have heard recordings that took very similar tempos. The conductor will have something to say about it.

It's hard to know whether the second entrance is too soft, because dynamics can be dependent on hall acoustics (and because I don't know anything about the mic and recording equipment you used or how far away the mic was). So, again, being prepared to play it at an extreme pianissimo isn't such a bad thing. Just realize you may not need to be that soft in an orchestra in a large hall.

The end of the third passage (6 and 5 before 14) is too soft. I would agree with others here. You still are playing through strings, and the end of the passage needs to be heard, so it's likely you'd need to play louder than you do in the recording. There is no dynamic marking at the end, so pianissimo is probably not appropriate.

Same a bar before 15. I know there are really well known clarinetists who don't really seem to care if anyone can hear them in the low chalumeau or not, but IMHO the ending shouldn't disappear under the strings. There's only so soft the conductor can get the violins to play, and they're above you pitch-wise. You're in the same range as the violas. You need to come through.

I have heard recorded performances of really excellent orchestras with excellent clarinetists in which the large intervals weren't as clean as yours. I'm not sure I agree with the comment about making the long notes go somewhere - the entire passage, I would say, is about moonlight and gently waving (pine)treetops and the timeless temple of Janus. It isn't, I don't think, meant to be active or forward-drawing. So long notes that just exist without "going" anywhere seem OK to me *in this specific context*.

I've offered these comments because I think your playing on this passage shows a great deal of skill and control but maybe not so much awareness of the context that surrounds these solos. So much needs to be judged in the context of a particular orchestra with a particular conductor in a particular hall. I think you sound well-prepared to play the piece if you have the opportunity.

Karl

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