BaL 3.12.11 Brahms Clarinet Quintet

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday, 3rd December at 9.30 Building a Library: Colin Lawson with a personal recommendation for Brahms' Clarinet Quintet

Available versions:
Vladimir Sorokin (clarinet), David Oistrakh (1st violin), Pyotr Bondarenko (2nd violin), Mikhail Terian (viola), Sviatoslav Knushevitsky (cello)
François Benda (clarinet) Verdi Quartet
Thea King (clarinet), Gabrieli String Quartet
Karl Leister (clarinet) Leipziger Streichquartett
Jozsef Balogh (clarinet), Danubius Quartet
Boris Rener (clarinet) Ludwig Quartet
Schoenberg Quartet, etc.
Janet Hilton (clarinet) The Lindsays
Kálmán Berkes (clarinet), Gábor Takács-Nagy, Ryoko Sunagawa (violins), Sándor Nagy (viola), Tibor Bényi (cello)
Ivan Mozgovenko (clarinet) Borodin Quartet
David Shifrin (clarinet) Emerson String Quartet
Sine Nomine Quartet Thomas Friedli
Karl Leister (clarinet) Amadeus Quartet
Karl Leister, Bernd Gellerman, Bernhard Hartog, Wolfram Christ, Jörg Baumann
David Shifrin (clarinet), Ani and Ida Kavafian (violins), Walter Trampler and Steven Tenenbom (viola), Fred Shery (violoncello)
Karl Leister (clarinet) Vermeer-Quartett
Karl Leister, Brandis Quartet
Ivan Mozgovenko (clarinet) The Borodin Quartet
Lesley Schatzberger (clarinet) Fitzwilliam String Quartet
Stanley Drucker (clarinet) Juilliard Quartet
Eric Hoeprich (clarinets) London Haydn Quartet
Hans Christian Bræin (clarinet), Bjørg Værnes (cello), Atle Sponberg, Per Kristian Skalstad (violin), Nora Taksdal Viken (viola) & Anne Britt Sævig Årdal (cello)
Antoine-Pierre de Bavier (clarinet) Vegh Quartet
Nash Ensemble
Frederick Thurston (clarinet) Griller Quartet
Leif Arne Pedersen (clarinet) Oslo Philharmonic Chamber Group
Roeland Hendrikx (clarinet) Panocha String Quartet
Julian Milkis (clarinet) Borodin Quartet
Vladimír Ríha (clarinet) Smetana Quartet
François Benda (clarinet) Benda Ensemble
Eddie Daniels (clarinet) Composers' String Quartet
Karl-Heinz Steffens (clarinet) Scharoun Ensemble Berlin
Bernard Walton, Hugh Bean, Frances Mason, Christopher Wellington & Eileen Croxford
David Campbell (clarinet), Bingham Quartet
Alfred Boskovsky (clarinet) Vienna Octet
Sabine Meyer, Carmina Quartet
Juan Enric Lluna (clarinet) Tokyo String Quartet
Paul Meyer (clarinet), Renaud Capuçon (violin), Aki Saulière (violin), Gautier Capuçon (cello) & Béatrice Muthelet (viola)
Sabine Meyer (clarinet) Alban Berg Quartett
Gerard Causse, Michel Portal, Melos Quartet
Reginald Kell, Busch Quartet, Aubrey Brain, Adolf Busch,
Alan Hacker (clarinet), Fitzwilliam String Quartet
Walter Boeykens (clarinet) Walter Boeykens Ensemble

[Barbirollians]

What a scandal that the Gervase de Peyer/Melos recording appears to be deleted ?

[rauschwerk]

What a scandal that the Gervase de Peyer/Melos recording appears to be deleted ?

Oh for heaven's sake - surely you don't expect all recordings to be available all the time?

[Barbirollians]

What rattled your cage so early in the morning ? It is a recognised classic and another sad example of how EMI treats its back catalogue endlessly deleting and then reissuing.

It is I find in any event available in the Melos Ensemble Icon box .

[rauschwerk]

It is I find in any event available in the Melos Ensemble Icon box .

There you are then. Would you not suppose that the great majority of those who (like me) admire this recording already have it? I'm willing to bet that it has been available for most of the 45 years since it was first issued.

I would imagine that back catalogue is regularly reissued to repeatedly bring it to the attention of buyers in an extremely crowded market (see post 1). No harm in that, surely?

[vinteuil]

given Professor Lawson's background* I hope he will be able to point to an interesting HIPP performance - I love Kell/Busch, but wd really like to get a good HIPP version too...

* http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/inde...ker_detail/41/

[rauschwerk]

Surely the clarinet had assumed its modern form by the time this piece was written? If that be the case, then the only HIPP issue is: gut or metal strings?

[John Skelton]

Surely the clarinet had assumed its modern form by the time this piece was written? If that be the case, then the only HIPP issue is: gut or metal strings?

Mühlfeld played on a Bärmann System clarinet. This was a more elaborate model of the Müller-Heckel clarinet of 1845 and was devised by Carl Bärmann in conjunction with Georg Ottensteiner of Munich about 1860. It was for this model that Carl Bärmann wrote and fingered his famous method between 1864 and 1873. The Bärmann System clarinet seems to have been played mainly by Carl Bärmann and Richard Mühlfeld.

http://www.clarinet.org/Anthology1.asp?Anthology=12

Mühlfeld played on slightly out-of-date Bärmann-system clarinets by Georg Ottensteiner, made of boxwood, at a time where most players were using blackwood instruments and a more advanced mechanism.

http://www.glossamusic.com/glossa/reference.aspx?id=67

(I have Hoeprich's / London Haydn Quartet recording, which I like though haven't played it - or listened to the quintet - in a while. Must give it a re-listen).

[aeolium]

I am particularly fond of the performance by Thea King and the Gabrielis, but I confess I have not heard many of those in EA's list. I'd like to hear something of the Thurston/Griller recording.

[vinteuil]

Surely the clarinet had assumed its modern form by the time this piece was written? If that be the case, then the only HIPP issue is: gut or metal strings?

HIPP isn't only about instruments (tho' I was very interested to read John Skelton's #8 above... ) - it's also about techniques, styles of playing, rhetoric, phrasing, sense of line, degrees of portamento and vibrato etc...