by Jószef Balogh

The Béla Kovács Hommages is one of the scores that every clarinetist should preferably have two copies of—in case something happens to one. (The other is the Mozart concerto, but it’s only for people over 35…)

THE HISTORY OF THE HOMMAGES

Béla Kovács was appointed clarinet teacher at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 1975. I remember this date well, because with my other two colleagues, Géza Bánhegyi and László Gy. Kiss, we were his first students. We had two full hours of clarinet lessons in one week. In one of them we worked with etudes and scales, on the other with performance pieces, accompanied by piano.

Photo from Brahms: Two Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano LP cover, 1988

At the college, you had to play scales and etudes at the semester and end-of-year exams. No one liked this, neither the committee nor us students, but it was necessary. In the lessons, we tried to cheat with the scales; we would have played the easier ones hour after hour, but the teacher found out! Therefore, so that nothing could be left out, he asked for the scales and their variants chromatically. (This system is the basis of Kovács’s book Everyday Scale Exercises that was published later.) The three of us “ate the clarinet”(to put it mildly); we played the etudes better and more confidently. The more enjoyable (not just mechanical) etudes had slowly run out. Something had to be invented!

At that time, Béla Kovács was still the first solo clarinetist of the Opera House. This period was one of the most outstanding artistic periods in the life of the Budapest Opera House, with world-famous conductors and soloists, a great orchestra, and great musicians playing in the orchestra. It functioned as a repertory theater, where it was not uncommon to see 50 to 60 opera productions per year, with more performances of the “hits” (Kodály: Hári János, Khachaturian: Spartacus, Bartók’s three stage works: Bluebeard’s Castle, The Wooden Prince, The Miraculous Mandarin [in one performance, one evening], Richard Strauss: Rosenkavalier, Salome, Elektra, Gershwin: Porgy and Bess). So many beautiful roles for the clarinet! (And how familiar these names are from Hommages.)

Photo from Mozart Clarinet Concerto LP cover, 1979

The Hommages had another source, which stems from the personality and clarinet technique of Béla Kovács. He literally “played” the instrument—played with the instrument. He liked to joke, fool around, create new sounds, make transcriptions, improvise, mix special effects and sounds, and reveal possibilities that he had never used before. He was an excellent arranger, and he even wrote a few of his own popular compositions. We listened to his “warmups” (“noodling” according to Eddie Daniels) with open mouths. In these, there were often motifs from the opera or ballet that was to be played that evening, or from the previous night, seasoned with characteristic clarinet solos, interwoven in a brilliantly new formulation by a wonderful clarinet player, in a very virtuosic way. We tried to imitate, eavesdrop. We asked him to play it again or show us how he did it! We slowly came to the end of the year with the exams. The Opera and the Academy of Music went on their usual three-month sum­mer break, and Béla Kovács also went to his vacation home at Lake Balaton.

Returning from the break, he brought sheet music with him to the college; the scores of his pieces composed in the sum­mer, in which these “noodles” appeared, were neatly collected, molded, and provided with introductions and striking endings! We happily discovered in them what we would have liked to play before, and what other clarinetists are so happy to play nowadays. This is how the Hommages were created! The term “Hommages” was already on the cover of the original manuscript.

They were considered a very big treat back then. We were very happy; we gladly threw ourselves into their practice. I remember the first ones well: Strauss, de Falla, Khachaturian. These have been my favorites ever since.

The Kovács department after the football match against the other clarinet department. We won! The first Hommages were created during this time. From left: Kálmán Berkes, Béla Kovács, Géza Bánhegyi, László Gy Kiss, József Balogh

Then, during the next summer break (very likely either the summer of 1978 or 1979), came Kodály, Bartók, Bach, or maybe Paganini, or both? Finally, Debussy, Weber. There would have been another, the tenth, Hommage à Mozart, much, much later. It arrived too late compared to these earlier pieces. It was later issued separately with a piano accompaniment, but it was not included in this series.

We learned the pieces based on the instructions of Béla Kovács. We soon performed them in the following year’s exams, with great success. The pieces “sat,” everyone liked them. They were easy to play, they were interesting to listen to, and they immediately showed the performer’s strengths and their mistakes. They were good and “hitting” etude-exam pieces. Today, they are frequently programmed works for competitions and professional recitals.

A few years later, Béla Kovács was appointed professor at Graz College (Austria). To my great pride, he asked me to be his teaching assistant at the Budapest Academy of Music, and entrusted me with teaching not only the etudes but also the Hommages. This is how I met them for the second time, now as an instructor. Teaching these pieces is just as enjoyable as playing them. They are logically structured, very idiomatic works, although they require a very high level of knowledge, so they are not exactly easy to play. These are pieces that require quite a lot of knowledge of style, but are enjoyable at every moment for the listener as well as the player. (Perhaps the Hommages also had a part in the fact that so many of our students won or placed in the ICA Young Artist Competition!)

Here is Béla Kovács’s foreword from the opening page, with which I largely agree:

Writing Hommages was inspired by my pedagogical work. I intended them to be studies that, as a supplement to the usual “dry,” mechanical—although indispensable—exercises, represent a more diverse task for the student. Performed with impressive technical preparation, appropriate tone and knowledge of style, as well as some imagination, they will—hopefully—take their place on the podium as well.¹

The Kovács clarinet department; from left: assistant teacher József Balogh, Nándor Götz, Lajos Rozmán, Zsolt Szatmári, Bálint Szabó, professor Béla Kovács, Csaba Klenján, and Pál Sólyomi

ABOUT THE VERSIONS OF HOMMAGES

Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the very first version that I played as a student. No significant changes were made in the subsequent versions, though small details, interpretations, and notes were changed. We played the first three from the original manuscript! We still had to wait for the Hommages to appear in print.

Figure 1: Ending of the Hommage a Kodály by Béla Kovács, second version

Figure 2: Ending of the Hommage a Kodály by Béla Kovács, third version as published by Edition Darok

The second version was refined by Béla Kovács based on the corrections of the first sheet music, and we copied them together with the new ones for teaching purposes. I also taught from these. So this was the second, already supplemented, corrected version. The photocopies are dated 1989 by me.

Later, I received a copy dedicated to me from Lajos Darók, in 1995, right after its publication. This is the third version. (As the ICA Hungary Chair at the time, I tried to help promote performances in the United States. After the Richard Strauss or de Falla Hommage was performed at the ICA ClarinetFest®, I notified several publishers about the availability of the new printed edition. I still played the old [second] version, but by then the new [third] version already existed.)

In the Darók edition (third), the Hommages were changed again, and I think that’s when they reached a total of nine. I only have knowledge of the writing of the first seven, because that was all that was ready at the time. Debussy and Weber were written after I left the Academy of Music, and the tenth (Mozart), was not published in the 1994 edition.

Figure 3a/3b: Hommage a R. Strauss manuscript from Béla Kovács

I don’t know why the Mozart piece wasn’t published with the others. Maybe that’s when the inspiration came for pieces with piano accompaniment and notated with separate titles? Maybe this also “jumped in” in connection with an improvised accompaniment? Did Mozart fit better among these? Was the material ready? Maybe a submission deadline was missed, or there was too much work for the score writer and the printing press was pressing.

It is clear that the widespread distribution of the pieces outside the Budapest Academy of Music is due to the Darók publication. Therefore, the previous older versions are no longer relevant. In any case, there is no significant difference between them compared to the third version. Some rethinking, perhaps an easier, more striking solution. That’s it!

My own opinion is that there is often no reason to change, because both solutions are brilliant; either way is good. Many times yes, I approve of the new one, and often I like the old one better. But I emphasize that this is my personal opinion and it doesn’t change the Hommage! The older versions are close to my heart. The fact is that the second version is no longer in circulation—no one plays them anymore, and only a few people know about them.

Figures 1 and 2 show a detail about the differences between the second and third versions at the end of the Kodály Hommage.

PLAYING THE HOMMAGES

Anyone who can recall the times when Béla Kovács warmed up remembers that almost every note on the clarinet sparkled and his lightness was captivating, and he played the Hommages very well and stylishly. He had already found the key to the Hommages!

The score of the Hommages is written down very precisely and accurately (look at the manuscript). It is not allowed to add, take away, or change—and it’s not even worth it. Everything that belongs there has been written, and there’s nothing there that shouldn’t be there!

Performances of the Hommages, to me, are acceptable only as they were imagined and precisely described by Béla Kovács, as they were explained and presented to us in the classes. He strictly adhered to this description.

“With love to my dear friend! [Me] Leverkusen
[Germany] 14.02.1995 Lajos Darok”

Kovács rethought the metronome markings in many places, compared to the previous version, but these changes do not change the internal unity of the individual works. As is written in the foreword by Béla Kovács: “with the right tone and knowledge of style.” That’s really the point! Here, two types of stylistic knowledge are required; one is the summoned composer, and the other is Béla Kovács. There is no third party: dancing, shaking your head, adjusting your hair, etc.! Such individualization has nothing to do with the performance of the piece. (Even if it comes from within, you have to show restraint, especially if you only want to achieve a fashionable stage effect with it.)

The music, the musical material of the Hommages, is more than enough for that! I know it’s not easy to find (let alone observe) where the score, the author, and good taste set limits for individuality, but it’s not impossible. (It’s not just true for the Hommages!) Let’s not forget this and always keep one important thing in mind when playing the Hommages: artistic humility! (Like most endangered species, this one is on the verge of extinction these days.)

We clarinetists follow so many traditions; we play instruments of several systems and makes, not to mention mouthpieces, reeds, ligatures. Thousands and thousands of variations! These often determine our diverse performances. “Stand out from the crowd” could be one of the most important artistic principles of our time. The answer given to how is often incorrect, and completely unacceptable! We are becoming uniform, we are becoming more and more globalized. In the Hommages, we avoid less correct and unacceptable answers. (How good it would be for other pieces as well!)

The Hommages are excellent, brilliantly written pieces of bravado. Played well, they also achieve their pedagogical goal and the desired effect is not lost on the part of the audience when they are on the stage or are listened to with a professional ear.

Let Béla Kovács have the last word:

“I offer Hommages to all my old, current and future students, as well as to all those who consider it worthy to deal with it in depth.”²

At the rehearsal of the concert organized on the 45th anniversary of the beginning of our studies;
(from left) Laszlo Gy. Kiss, Béla Kovács, Geza Banhegyi, Jozsef Balogh (in the end, the concert was
canceled due to COVID, then impossible due to the death of Béla Kovács and Géza Bánhegyi)

ENDNOTES

1     Béla Kovács, Hommages, Edition Darók, 1994.

2     Ibid.

József Balogh is a Hungarian clarinetist, composer, and teacher. He performed with the Hungarian State Opera, and Hungarian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, and held the Sir Georg Solti scholarship at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He served as teaching assistant in the clarinet department of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and guest professor of clarinet at the Universty of Oklahoma. Balogh was a founder of the Interclarinet ensemble, was the recipient of competition awards in Prague, Graz, and Budapest, and recorded numerous albums of clarinet music including his own original compositions. Balogh currently lives in Lübeck where he is a lecturer in various music schools, private teacher, concert artist, and founder and owner of Artmusic and Style. He has played Frank Hammerschmidt clarinets for 35 years and uses Silverstein ligatures. Balogh was a witness to the composition of the Hommages more than 50 years ago, as a former student, teacher’s assistant, friend, and great admirer of Béla Kovács!