Lovely. He was always my hero. I heard him play the same piece back in the early 80's at a clarinet convention and got a chance to tell him he was my clarinet hero. Love that dark tone!
What an absolutely marvelous performance! I think it is a characteristic of his performances to be completely unassuming and just a conduit for the music. I wish he would let his lovely staccato loose a little more often. I have his four Spohr Concertos. Can't fault them. So lovely to see him play, rather than just hear. Puts a name to the face! Bravo!
wow. i just started playing clarinet lik 2 years ago so ive been listening to alot of clarinet players on youtube. My favorite is karl leister. something about his sound. jus absolutely amazing!!!
I had the pleasure of meeting Karl Leister (AND Leon Russianoff!) at KlarFest 1981 in Washington, D.C.
15 років тому+4
I studied with Leister years ago in Berlin. I worshipped his recordings especially of the Mozart and Weber Concerti. But when I heard him play in my lessons and with the BSO, his tone was pretty but a bit muffled. He is a giant in the clarinet world but a lousy teacher. The greatest teacher of clarinet was David Weber. Mr. Tone who cared about his students like family. I will miss him very much. He passed away several years ago.
Karl Leister is one of the best, if not the best, clarinettists I've ever heared. To hear hear him play Mozart is bliss, but that's just me. LetsReason is absolutely correct.
I love his tone; it's so perfect. I reminds me of milk chocolate melting in your mouth, creamy and smooth. But, I also think of dark chocolate, especially when I listen to his recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, tastefully rich.
@Norbert161165 As all professional clarinetplayers he has a set of Wurltizer clarinets (i.e. an Bb and a A clarinet).. this piece (and thus at this video played by Mr Leister) is written for Bb-clarinet.
1. Not everyone thinks piano tuning for all pitches is "in tune" especially considering that the ensemble is mostly strings! Welcome to tuning chords... 2. His sound is beautiful! 3. His articulation works well to shape the phrases in this particular work. Especially consider how well he matches note lengths with the strings.
I myself am a player of the french system, which was created and adapted to overcome some of the fingering problems that occur with the Ohler system(german), but it is not the system that dictates the tone, it's the setup and skill level of the performer, I've heard people playing the german and albert system clarinets that have great tone and technique.
Great I love him too have 4 cd with him and he is fantastic. But it was so sad to hear that he had one of his lounge removed because of cancer several years ago. Smoking kills.
you can't HEAR any expression, but it really is in his eyebrows, shoulders and knees! i also think it's a great achievement to finally bringing the clarinet back to being a piece of wood! hadn't been done before!
I read an interview with Mr Leister, where he says that he does not consider his sound to be German and many German players also think this. He said that he based his tone on his father's bass clarinet sound.
Maybe so. I respect your point. However, him being the principal player of the BPO signifies something important: Karl Leister embodies the "German" clarinet playing, which is representd by the repression of emotion and strictly adhering to the "originals", if you get my meaning.
Mr Leister is playing German clarinets. The Vandoren M13 mouthpiece is not suited to fit on those clarinets but are made for "French"(Boehm) clarinets. Mr Leister will probably play on moutpieces made by Wurlitzer and/or Zinner
You have to remember Leister is playing a German system clarinet(i think its called the Oehler System), not the commonly used French System(Boehm), so the fingerings are gonna be different. As the clarinet has developed their have been many types of fingerings, like the Albert System which is a simpler fingering system used by alot of Klezmer players.
Karl Leister plays on a plastic mouthpiece, which has been custom-refaced to suit his reeds (of which brand I am not certain). You won't find it anywhere - not in a book, catalogue or store etc. Don't bother looking. In his younger years he played a wooden crafted mouthpiece, but found they were prone to too much warping. Hence, his choice for plastic.
another thing is that Karl Leister ws the last to have his original playing style and tone. The tone of younger clarinettist can hardly be discerned from one another. Although I do like Sabine Meyer's style and all, I do not like the fact that she brought about the "unification" of clarinet tone-everybody copied her tone and playing style. I would go to a concert by Karl Leister than a 100 of those young players who disregard the basics and focus only on technique.
@fjamama his sound is perfect. music is to enter through your ears and into your soul. his sound enters my ears smoothly and warms my soul (: most clarinetists can sound kinda....obnoxious.
@SpartanG600 Leister is probably NOT double tonguing. He had a very nice fast single tonguing. You can usually hear the difference - single tonguing is smoother and nicer, but double can give a much better speed boost. You basically do somthing like this - da-ga-da-ga-da-ga. Try practising on any scale, as long as for each tongue hit you are playing a different note. Playing on the same note at the beginning might lead in the wrong direction.
i dont often go for leisters tone, but here he is really fantastic! he is sooo technically smooth, and his tone is centered and full, even in the altissimo!
My Music teacher has a book that tells what equipment different professional clarinet players use if you want I can look it up what kind of Mouthpeice he plays on. Most proffesionals in that book play on the Vandoren M13 Lyre but I can see what he plays on.
@mjs5155 here his high notes do seem weak but he most definitely has his high notes down now. listen to brahms clarinet trio mv1 by karl leister and listen to his high notes their. They sing beautifully. Especially at around 5:30 or a little past that point.
each system has its own qualities.... for example, the French system has easy fingerings and relative easiness to control of tone and volume, while the German system usually has a denser tone and correct pitch. Still, if you fall asleep watching this, you don't know how to appreciate music by maestros of the time.
If playing clarinet was all about smooth then no problem for Leister. But it's also about painting pitcures on a wall/paper with colors which is for the first thing very difficult to do on a German system clarinet. He sounds just the same from begining to the end . It's like clear and still water nothing happening. Only if he had such tone colors like the string quartet playin with him. I would rather watch an emty tv screen or something.
I thank good that we now have a new genertation of clarinetist. No more straight,smooth and boring playing in the German school of clarinet playing(but I think that school doesn't exsist any more).
@Tarcila62078 i agree his sound is perfect but ever think it had to do with the clarinet just sayin, im not trying to put him down just stateing an opinion
I also respect your point. I then have to tell you that player like George Pieterson which I like very much played with the Concergebouw orchestra in Amsterdam one of the best orchestra in the world.
uh, why are you so biased against the German school? Sorry, but the German tradition is continued by many, many young German clarinetists. Although I agree that it might sound boring, I disagree with you in that I value the German tradition as somehing left from the oldest maestroes: Stadler, Baermann, and Mulfeld. In an age in which everybody plays flashly and extravagantly, Karl Leister's extreme precision and beautiful tone stands out.
Nothing wrong with German school! I'd like to see ANY musican take more risk though... I admire perfection and control, but it's a high price considering that today's classical music seems to have completely lost the expressiveness of for example the great violinists (Oystrakh, Stern, Kreisler etc), who were exceptions in an already declining tradition themselves... Precision AND expressive risk (agreed: not just for the sake of standing out), that's what we admire with the great masters!
Yes, Mr. Leister does have a nice sound, but I believe the acoustics in this performance hall takes away from his beautiful sound. The room is absorbing too much of the sound. I prefer the hollow echoe-type performance spaces, that way the sound is only absorbed by the clothing of the audience. However, Mr. Karl is a great player!
Personally I really loved Frost's recording of Brahms and Mozart, but not in other recordings. His Crusell didn't really show any forte, while the Weber he messed up by trying to be too expressive. Still, I agree that Frost has a very wonderful tone, which is most beautiful when he doesn't exaggerate.
then how do you think that he was principal clarinettist of the Berliner Philharmoniker for 30 years? I bet that you're not as half as good as Herr Leister. Even professionals regard him as the best player in the "conventional style"
Well with Homeblest Chocolate biscuit from Burton we say good on both sides but with Leister it's the same taste on both sides. Boring taste. The same taste from beginning to the end.
I haven't listened to either Kell or Boeykens but I can say for sure that Gervase de Peyer's tone isn't really good. His Brahms and Mozart were terrible. Excessive vibrato, shaky tone. But people call that the "British" style. ha. On the other hand, listen to Karl Leister's Brahms, Spohr, or Weber with a good speaker. You can grasp the beauty of his tone.
i have always loved him but something really is missing!!!! his Crusell Concertos are so BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but he is technically great!! Sabine kicks his ass though!!!!lol
He is maybe a fine musician but as a clarinet player he is just so awfuly boring.For German clarinet playing I would take Sabine and Wolfgang Meyer anytime over Leister. And for the reason he was pricipal in the Berliner Philharmoniker has maybe something to do with the conductor at the time of the audition and maybe not who knows.
![Louis Spohr - Clarinet Concerto No.1 - [Karl Leister]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Pmlit4IRFfo/mqdefault.jpg)
What is great is that he doesn't move too much like many soloists and can really concentrate on the piece!
Lovely. He was always my hero. I heard him play the same piece back in the early 80's at a clarinet convention and got a chance to tell him he was my clarinet hero. Love that dark tone!
what a perfect sound. what else can anyone want from a clarinet player besides a perfect sound?
This guy is probably the most effortless clarinet player I've ever heard. Much better than even the best players in the U.S.
yo pienso que Kar Leister ha sido el mejor durante mucho tiempo y sobre todo se nota en su forma de hacer musica y en su sonido
What an absolutely marvelous performance! I think it is a characteristic of his performances to be completely unassuming and just a conduit for the music. I wish he would let his lovely staccato loose a little more often. I have his four Spohr Concertos. Can't fault them. So lovely to see him play, rather than just hear. Puts a name to the face! Bravo!
he truly is the best clarinetist ever!
Excellent control, he is really fantastic.
wow. i just started playing clarinet lik 2 years ago so ive been listening to alot of clarinet players on youtube. My favorite is karl leister. something about his sound. jus absolutely amazing!!!
I had the pleasure of meeting Karl Leister (AND Leon Russianoff!) at KlarFest 1981 in Washington, D.C.
I studied with Leister years ago in Berlin. I worshipped his recordings especially of the Mozart and Weber Concerti. But when I heard him play in my lessons and with the BSO, his tone was pretty but a bit muffled. He is a giant in the clarinet world but a lousy teacher. The greatest teacher of clarinet was David Weber. Mr. Tone who cared about his students like family. I will miss him very much. He passed away several years ago.
aghhhh!!! Thats a master in action... Man this is awesome.
Karl Leister is one of the best, if not the best, clarinettists I've ever heared. To hear hear him play Mozart is bliss, but that's just me. LetsReason is absolutely correct.
a perfect sound. what more could anyone what from a clarinet player.
meraviglioso, come sempre
I love his tone; it's so perfect. I reminds me of milk chocolate melting in your mouth, creamy and smooth. But, I also think of dark chocolate, especially when I listen to his recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, tastefully rich.
There's purity to his sound that you just don't hear in other players.
I dont know how people can play music like this on a German system clarinet.. Thats amazing..
@Norbert161165 As all professional clarinetplayers he has a set of Wurltizer clarinets (i.e. an Bb and a A clarinet).. this piece (and thus at this video played by Mr Leister) is written for Bb-clarinet.
what a beast
1. Not everyone thinks piano tuning for all pitches is "in tune" especially considering that the ensemble is mostly strings! Welcome to tuning chords...
2. His sound is beautiful!
3. His articulation works well to shape the phrases in this particular work. Especially consider how well he matches note lengths with the strings.
I myself am a player of the french system, which was created and adapted to overcome some of the fingering problems that occur with the Ohler system(german), but it is not the system that dictates the tone, it's the setup and skill level of the performer, I've heard people playing the german and albert system clarinets that have great tone and technique.
Superb!
Muy bueno.... El mejor....
wonderful how full and dark his tone is in the high register.
you're welcome! Thats the reason i posted it! :)
Great I love him too have 4 cd with him and he is fantastic. But it was so sad to hear that he had one of his lounge removed because of cancer several years ago. Smoking kills.
you can't HEAR any expression, but it really is in his eyebrows, shoulders and knees!
i also think it's a great achievement to finally bringing the clarinet back to being a piece of wood!
hadn't been done before!
wow so good~
I read an interview with Mr Leister, where he says that he does not consider his sound to be German and many German players also think this. He said that he based his tone on his father's bass clarinet sound.
Thank you for the music...great performance. Greetings from OK-Dreamband. Cd "Clarinet-Dreams" is available for download (iTunes, emusic).
Excellent, I wish I ever get to be even as half good as he is =)
Maybe so. I respect your point. However, him being the principal player of the BPO signifies something important: Karl Leister embodies the "German" clarinet playing, which is representd by the repression of emotion and strictly adhering to the "originals", if you get my meaning.
Come to think of it that makes sense but i'm still planning on looking it up.
Mr Leister is playing German clarinets. The Vandoren M13 mouthpiece is not suited to fit on those clarinets but are made for "French"(Boehm) clarinets. Mr Leister will probably play on moutpieces made by Wurlitzer and/or Zinner
You have to remember Leister is playing a German system clarinet(i think its called the Oehler System), not the commonly used French System(Boehm), so the fingerings are gonna be different. As the clarinet has developed their have been many types of fingerings, like the Albert System which is a simpler fingering system used by alot of Klezmer players.
Karl Leister plays on a plastic mouthpiece, which has been custom-refaced to suit his reeds (of which brand I am not certain). You won't find it anywhere - not in a book, catalogue or store etc. Don't bother looking. In his younger years he played a wooden crafted mouthpiece, but found they were prone to too much warping. Hence, his choice for plastic.
another thing is that Karl Leister ws the last to have his original playing style and tone. The tone of younger clarinettist can hardly be discerned from one another.
Although I do like Sabine Meyer's style and all, I do not like the fact that she brought about the "unification" of clarinet tone-everybody copied her tone and playing style.
I would go to a concert by Karl Leister than a 100 of those young players who disregard the basics and focus only on technique.
@fjamama his sound is perfect. music is to enter through your ears and into your soul. his sound enters my ears smoothly and warms my soul (: most clarinetists can sound kinda....obnoxious.
Please tell me who you like ? I couldn't agree more with you.
@SpartanG600 Leister is probably NOT double tonguing. He had a very nice fast single tonguing. You can usually hear the difference - single tonguing is smoother and nicer, but double can give a much better speed boost. You basically do somthing like this - da-ga-da-ga-da-ga. Try practising on any scale, as long as for each tongue hit you are playing a different note. Playing on the same note at the beginning might lead in the wrong direction.
i dont often go for leisters tone, but here he is really fantastic! he is sooo technically smooth, and his tone is centered and full, even in the altissimo!
@ipmoic he played single lip while he was in the berlin philharmonic. but now he has switched to double lip.
@megakrazydave1 you are right about it having alot to do with the clarinet but sabine uses the same clarient but her sound isnt as pure as his.
mooie muziek, mooie video, 5:35 e.v. ... geweldig
Hey at least you got to meet see him. I wish I was there.
My Music teacher has a book that tells what equipment different professional clarinet players use if you want I can look it up what kind of Mouthpeice he plays on. Most proffesionals in that book play on the Vandoren M13 Lyre but I can see what he plays on.
I admit that periodically I have return to listen Leister, which is not the case with other clarinet more exciting, maybe due to fast saturation.
Overwhelming!!
Personally I like Eddie much more in jazz but I really enjoyed Charel's Neidich version of this movement.
@mjs5155 here his high notes do seem weak but he most definitely has his high notes down now. listen to brahms clarinet trio mv1 by karl leister and listen to his high notes their. They sing beautifully. Especially at around 5:30 or a little past that point.
@green291 it is a german system. its a fritz wurlitzer clarinet, get it right
@dunedinnz91 what clarinet system you play with? That only works with german system clarinets.
ja he :-D (grtz jeroen; degene die het hier op internet heeft gezet!)
each system has its own qualities....
for example, the French system has easy fingerings and relative easiness to control of tone and volume, while the German system usually has a denser tone and correct pitch.
Still, if you fall asleep watching this, you don't know how to appreciate music by maestros of the time.
@SpartanG600 He doesn´t need double tonguing.
is he using a "double lip" embouchure?
well he does use a german system clarinet. in fact his clarinet is a very very expensive german clarinet. and for a good reason
fantastic, although my hero is still Walter Boeykens
in a chamber group, you can really achieve a beautiful pianissimo, but in a concerto it's not really possible with the full orchestra behind you...
other movement?
Hello.. mr Leister was born in 1937...
If playing clarinet was all about smooth then no problem for Leister. But it's also about painting pitcures on a wall/paper with colors which is for the first thing very difficult to do on a German system clarinet. He sounds just the same from begining to the end . It's like clear and still water nothing happening. Only if he had such tone colors like the string quartet playin with him. I would rather watch an emty tv screen or something.
I thank good that we now have a new genertation of clarinetist. No more straight,smooth and boring playing in the German school of clarinet playing(but I think that school doesn't exsist any more).
@Tarcila62078 i agree his sound is perfect but ever think it had to do with the clarinet just sayin, im not trying to put him down just stateing an opinion
Karl Leister is great, just leave it to the clarinetists to decide who's 'poor'
@Norbert161165 Herbert Wurlitzer German System (Oehler) Clarinet
asuuuuuuu k lokazo k envidia ojala algun dia
Gervase de Peyer,Reginald Kell,Walter Boeykens just to name few
I also respect your point. I then have to tell you that player like George Pieterson which I like very much played with the Concergebouw orchestra in Amsterdam one of the best orchestra in the world.
ya@@@@@@@!!!! i know right! hes skilled!
uh, why are you so biased against the German school? Sorry, but the German tradition is continued by many, many young German clarinetists.
Although I agree that it might sound boring, I disagree with you in that I value the German tradition as somehing left from the oldest maestroes: Stadler, Baermann, and Mulfeld.
In an age in which everybody plays flashly and extravagantly, Karl Leister's extreme precision and beautiful tone stands out.
the eddie daniels recording of the quintet is my favorite recording of that piece lol.
bell
yeah!! his recent recordings lack colour but this is really nice
Nothing wrong with German school! I'd like to see ANY musican take more risk though... I admire perfection and control, but it's a high price considering that today's classical music seems to have completely lost the expressiveness of for example the great violinists (Oystrakh, Stern, Kreisler etc), who were exceptions in an already declining tradition themselves... Precision AND expressive risk (agreed: not just for the sake of standing out), that's what we admire with the great masters!
Yes, Mr. Leister does have a nice sound, but I believe the acoustics in this performance hall takes away from his beautiful sound. The room is absorbing too much of the sound. I prefer the hollow echoe-type performance spaces, that way the sound is only absorbed by the clothing of the audience. However, Mr. Karl is a great player!
Personally I really loved Frost's recording of Brahms and Mozart, but not in other recordings. His Crusell didn't really show any forte, while the Weber he messed up by trying to be too expressive. Still, I agree that Frost has a very wonderful tone, which is most beautiful when he doesn't exaggerate.
My mums maiden name is leister x
el mejor no es karl leister, lo siento pero hay mucho mejor: conoces romain guyot, jean francois verdier?
then how do you think that he was principal clarinettist of the Berliner Philharmoniker for 30 years? I bet that you're not as half as good as Herr Leister. Even professionals regard him as the best player in the "conventional style"
Well with Homeblest Chocolate biscuit from Burton we say good on both sides but with Leister it's the same taste on both sides. Boring taste. The same taste from beginning to the end.
I haven't listened to either Kell or Boeykens but I can say for sure that Gervase de Peyer's tone isn't really good. His Brahms and Mozart were terrible. Excessive vibrato, shaky tone. But people call that the "British" style. ha.
On the other hand, listen to Karl Leister's Brahms, Spohr, or Weber with a good speaker. You can grasp the beauty of his tone.
single lip...
i have always loved him but something really is missing!!!! his Crusell Concertos are so BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but he is technically great!! Sabine kicks his ass though!!!!lol
He is maybe a fine musician but as a clarinet player he is just so awfuly boring.For German clarinet playing I would take Sabine and Wolfgang Meyer anytime over Leister. And for the reason he was pricipal in the Berliner Philharmoniker has maybe something to do with the conductor at the time of the audition and maybe not who knows.
i cant stand this man. hes so boring. i hate the way he plays. he shows no emotion at all, and his tone is very plain.
I dont like his tone. Very poor compared with others. No color, no expression.
@megakrazydave1 you are right about it having alot to do with the clarinet but sabine uses the same clarinet but her sound isnt as pure as his.