Reflection Of A Clarinet Concert

During my spring break vacation in Germany, I went to a clarinet concert on March 8th. Since I play clarinet, I thought it was quite interesting to listen to what can be done with my own instrument. The concert was composed of classical pieces, small ensemble pieces, and even certain things that showed off what the instrument can do. The concert consisted of two sections with an intermission in between, and the musicians would often switch off with each other. The first piece that was played was “Concertino fur Klarinette, Faggot und Orchester B-Dur op. 47” by Franz Danzi. It consisted of a piano, bassoon, and clarinet. While it was a trio, the bassoon and clarinet were the leading two voices, with piano being mostly background accompaniment

This performance was somewhat of a duet between the second and third clarinet players. The entire piece was performed in the dark, with lights on the musicians’ foreheads that got turned on and off during the performance. I am not sure whether to call this a piece or just a performance, because it included a lot of screaming, stomping, growling, etc. Instead of a sweet classical piece, it was really a performance. I got very mixed feelings about this performance, and I am still not quite sure what the message or story of it is, but parts of it included a sort of fighting and arguing between the performers that included dramatic licks on the clarinet, growls on the clarinet, and several mean noises. Other parts of this performance included them holding out notes as they were hugging, and later on it even showed a choreographed kiss like things between the two musicians. It seemed as if maybe it portrayed an argument at the beginning and then making up at the end. This “piece” confused me a lot and I feel like, if someone that has no experience what performances in the area are like saw that, they would probably think the place is filled with crazy people. Even though I am not quite sure how to feel about this piece, it really stood out to me, and there is a part of me that really enjoyed it, especially being a clarinet player myself, I enjoyed getting to see what some of the crazier

This piece is a solo clarinet piece with an accompanying clarinet tape. I did not particularly care for this one since, in my opinion, it sounded like a clarinet exercise that one would use when practicing, and it was accompanied by a tape, which I feel goes along with the feeling of it being an exercise, and it also took away from the feeling of seeing a live performance. Much of this piece was a lot of repetitive, quick, tonguing, exercise like things that even stayed on the same notes for longer periods of time than I would have liked. I must admit though that it was relatively quick tonguing that the performer did quite well, but when looking at some more professional musicians, that speed is practically nothing. While I thought that this was a sorry piece to end the concert with, the musician looked really proud when she finished the seemingly difficult piece; seeing how proud the performer was, and that she did play it well, made it easier for me to be able to put aside my dislike for the piece