Musical Balderdash

You’ve got to be careful with what you read, even from me, I suppose.

Last night I happened to pick up ‘Strings’ magazine to check out what was being written in the ‘masterclass’ pages. Boy, did it get my blood boiling. Not the kind of thing you want just before bedtime.

A guy by the name of James Reel wanted to tell us that the Mendelssohn Concerto is often played too fast. He called his article ‘Give It a Break.’ To substantiate his claim he relied on the words of another fellow by the name of Vincent Skowronski. He quoted him freely throughout the piece.

You can see the whole piece of garbage on page 30 of the March issue, if so inclined.

In any case, Skowronski basically trashed Milstein and Heifetz, two of the greatest virtuosi of the 20th century for not only playing it too fast, but for ‘slashing’ their way through it as well.

Well, this is what I think, Mr. So-Wrongski. Take a look at the upper left-hand corner of the first movement. It says, ‘Allegro, molto appassionato.’ Look at the meter. Mendelssohn indicates ‘alla breve’, or ‘in 2.’

Now, Allegro can refer to a quality – i.e. ‘cheerful’, a tempo – i.e. ‘quick’, or it can be a title of a quick-tempo movement. In this case it must be either a title or a tempo. The music just ain’t that cheerful.

Matter of fact, it’s ‘molto appassionato’ – very passionate. And it’s in TWO. Doesn’t sound like a time for lollygagging about to me.

Even more, the last movement is marked ‘Allegro, Molto Vivace.’ Again, I take allegro as a movement title. The key words, in terms of tempo instruction, are Molto Vivace – very quick.

There is one last point to be made to Mr. So-Wrongski. Mendelssohn himself is on record as having stated he wanted the piece to be virtuosic, and worthy of the finest players of the day. In fact, he sought out his good friend, the virtuoso Ferdinand David, for advice on creating virtuosic effects.

Now, there is one point on which I can agree with So-Wrongski. The Mendelssohn is often given to students who are not ready for it. He thinks it is because they play too fast and ‘brutalize’ the work.

I, on the other hand, think they more often can’t play it virtuosically enough.

So there you have it. You’ve got to be careful of what you read.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. They say ‘pictures don’t lie.’ Well, these days you can’t even be sure of them. I can tell you this, however. Everything you see on my performance DVDs is unedited. I believe that if you ‘do as I say’ you will be able to ‘do as I do.’ And I want you to know exactly what that is.