Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not definitive, yet still enjoyable, January 5, 2000
Simply put, I bought this CD because of Benny Goodman. Knowing his jazz artistry, I wanted to experience his classical works as well. While the performances were not awful, they were by no means perfect. Technical mistakes on Goodman's part are spotted several times throughout the concerto. However, the quintet is beautifully played. While this is not the definitive recording of the two pieces, I will have to admit that Goodman plays with quite a charming style. The orchestra and the string quartet were also quite capable and nicely balanced. I would recommend this CD to Goodman fans; it shows the less familiar side of Benny Goodman. However, students studying these pieces should consider recordings by different clarinetists (Robert Marcellus and David Shifrin come immediately to mind).
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Remembering Benny in classical music...., October 26, 2004
I saw Benny Goodman play in person in 1967. The first half of the program was the Weber Clarinet Concerto (which he never recorded); the second half was the Goodman quartet and sextet with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa. I absolutely loved his warm yet penetrating tone, even more beautiful in person than it was on the old 78s. Then I heard this recording of the Mozart concerto on LP and was enchanted all over again.
Over the years, however, I have had arguments with clarinet students over the "correctness" or "aptness" of Benny's playing in classical. They hate his tone, call it either thin or woody (depending on how much they hate him), but I have heard many many "correct" clarinetists since and have always found their tones to be chilly and cold. I'm sorry, but I don't appreciate an icy-sounding clarinet tone. I'm too spoiled by Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Artie Shaw, Ed Hall and Benny to put up with that! (Just as no classical trombonist can compete with Tommy Dorsey, Britt Woodman, Lawrence Brown, Jack Teagarden or J.J. Johnson!)
I admit that Benny fluffs a few notes, especially in the first movement. Recording classical music was always nerve-wracking for Goodman: on the famous Toscanini performance of "Rhapsody in Blue," Benny the perfectionist cracks the top note, and playing with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony was bound to be somewhat uncomfortable for him. But the bottom line is not "how technically perfect is Goodman?" but rather, "how does the music sound?" And to my ears the music sounds damn fine. I have a legitimate classical clarinetist, Robert Oppenheim, playing the quintet with the Budapest String Quartet on Columbia, and though I like that version very much it is only because the Budapest quartet is more "together" than the Boston Symphony Quartet heard here, not because Oppenheim plays that much better than Benny Goodman.
So stop griping and just enjoy it, for crying out loud!!!!!
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant and should get 6 stars, May 21, 2004
Brilliant and slightly different: I think that the BG version is something Mozart would have approved of. Music is all about interpretation and as a musician I beleive that BG was the greatest ever all round clarinet player. This might not be technically perpect but hey, don't knock it 'till you've tried it. It is wonderful, if only limited by the recording technology available in the mid fifties. This is my favourite CD.
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