Introduction

Recordings of clarinettists made at various times during the last hundred years or so chart some fascinating changes in attitudes to musical interpretation and offer an important glimpse into different national styles of playing. It is to these two main areas that this chapter will be primarily addressed, since in any event there can be no attempt to survey all currently available material within the confines of the space available.

Historic recordings have recently become the subject of much interest, and the evidence of performances on each of the various orchestral instruments through the twentieth century is indeed highly instructive in terms of performance styles. One writer has observed ‘… a trend towards greater power, firmness, clarity, control, literalness, and evenness of expression, and away from informality, looseness, and unpredictability’. Most recorded performances from the earlier part of the century give a vivid sense of being projected as if to an audience, the precision and clarity of each note less important than the shape and progress of the music as a whole. In the late twentieth century the balance has shifted significantly, so that accurate and clear performance of the music has become the first priority and the characterisation of the music is assumed to be able to take care of itself. If pre-war recordings resemble live performance, many of today's concerts show a palpable influence of the recording session, with clarity and control an overriding priority.