A couple of weeks ago I was listening to some classical music on my car radio, and I caught the tail-end of a piece that featured the tuba. That reminded me of the time I listened to and commented on Giovanni Bottesini’s Concerto for Double Bass (HERE), a work written for an instrument rarely featured on the concert stage.
I thought I’d do that again this week – spotlight a piece for an oft-neglected instrument – and I chose Jonathan Russell’s Concerto for Bass Clarinet. Mr, Russell, if you ever happen to stumble across this page, please know that my low rating is no reflection on you as a person – and I’m sure that you compose beautiful, interesting pieces. I just didn’t think this was one of them. However, many people did like it – just check out the comments below the video linked above. Perhaps some of the issues I have with the piece were due to poor recording techniques? One commenter on the video said, “it’s too bad the soloist wasn’t mic'ed better; hard to hear in the tutti sections.” Another said, “Everyone sounds just fantastic, but I would like to hear more bass clarinet and a little less orchestra, esp. in the tutti sections. This sounds less like a concerto rather than an orchestra piece with bass clarinet obligato.” So maybe my response was due to bad mic’ing? Well, perhaps that played a part in my low rating, but I also found the piece to be bland and uninteresting. There was too much bass clarinet played at a high register. I was hoping for more of a focus on the low register to showcase the nature of the instrument – and often when it was playing in the low register, there was an annoying raspiness to the tone. Plus, the orchestral part was banal – no contrapuntal melodies or harmonies – just everyone playing the same notes at the same time with the same rhythms. It sounded amateurish. Am I being too harsh? I dunno. Another comment under the video stated, “But the paltry audience applause is what stuns me. This piece deserves much better than that.” Hmm. Maybe they heard what I heard?
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A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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