Draeseke Clarinet Sonata

[Alan Howe]

An incredibly beautiful - and utterly characteristic work:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Kilian-Herold-Amir-Katz-Brahms-Reinecke-Draeseke/hnum/3156739

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Don't see why that comment shouldn't be amended to "Three incredibly beautiful...and entirely characteristic works".

I fear my potential Christmas tree has insufficient branches on which to hang all those gifts adequate enough to outweigh the miseries of foul weather and (curmudgeon that I am) the contemplation of Christmas itself!

[petershott@btinternet.com]

In the above I neglected to ask you, Alan, whether you've heard this recording and, if so, whether it is preferable to the older recording of the Draeseke sonata by Hideaki Aomori and Joshua Pierce on a MSR Classics CD that I've just fetched down from the shelves, and where it is coupled with the early Beethoven Clarinet Trio (which seems to be very rarely performed) and pieces by Burgmuller and Mendelssohn?

But clearly a silly question, for I fear you'll reply that any recording of Draeseke is a thing to be treasured!

[Alan Howe]

FWIW I found the MSR Classics performance rather too relentless. This new recording seems considerably more relaxed in feel, much to the benefit of the music. I say 'seems' because I'm judging by the excerpts at jpc.
BTW I agree: the other works on the new CD are lovely too. But the real interest lies in the shamefully neglected Draeseke work.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Thanks you your view, Alan - or rather your provisional view.

'Relentlessness' is not necessarily unwelcome in Romantic music - plenty of it in Brahms and R Schumann, for example. And sometimes better than a too relaxed, lingering, wistful, yearning, droopiness! (But then there's also a lot of that in Brahms and Schumann).

The new CD will be ordered - and then I shall have the best of both worlds. (Besides it has got to the stage where I can't imagine what it would be like not to wish to acquire any new disc of Draeseke). The thread has led me back, after a couple of years, to Draeseke's Cl Sonata - what a fine and lovely work it is!

[Alan Howe]

This is certainly the best played, most nuanced recording of Draeseke's lovely work to have been released so far. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that this CD reveals the Draeseke Clarinet Sonata as not one whit inferior to the better-known pair by Brahms. Its themes are thoroughly memorable and its idiom is absolutely typical of the composer - put simply, no-one else could have written it. Such a glorious performance as this also tells me that Draeseke is one of the few unsungs whose oeuvre can stand comparison with the greatest composers whose works populate the current repertoire. Roll up, clarinetists, a masterpiece awaits you!

[eschiss1]

The only thing to my mind that counted against the first recording- when it was still available... - was its redundant coupling (violin arrangement of the same work, together with the violin scene which seems to relate to the violin concerto.) Even knowing just that recording I've found myself humming especially the first movement repeatedly (but this is true of many Draeseke recordings on that apparently now defunct label )

[Alan Howe]

The new recording is simply wonderful - the mysterious central section of the third movement scherzo is worth the price of the CD on its own. The finale also has a virtuoso swagger which totally transforms the piece. Marvellous.