Big Disappointment
Donald G. Hite III | Houston, Tx USA | 05/26/2005
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I am a big fan of Klocker's playing. I have many of his recordings, and I've always really liked his style and sound. This recording, however, doesn't really make it for me.
The Brahms is technically good, but Klocker's playing sounds bored and entirely uninspired. His interpretation is completely unexpressive. All I can figure is that with pieces as widely studied and performed as the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas, some performers just fall into the "here we go again" style of playing, rather than playing the pieces with the excitement and freshness they deserve. This is all I can figure, considering that Klocker is usually dead on in my opinion...
The Trio doesn't really appeal to me either. My main complaint is that the last movement is taken too slow in my opinion. Additionally, the horn player uses a distracting amount of vibrato. I personally do not like when horns play with vibrato, although i'm told this is the convention in Europe. If you want a quality recording of this trio, look for the Perlman/Tuckwell version.
If you're at all familiar with these pieces, I wouldn't really recommend this CD. It will probably just annoy you."