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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000024.txt from 2006/02

From: Jackie Kovach <jl.kovach@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] RE: Ray Still/Heinz Holliger
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 09:28:35 -0500

Wonderfully put, Rhondda.

Jackie Kovach

On Feb 1, 2006, at 9:40 PM, Rhondda May wrote:

> American oboists tend to be rather parochial - it's the result of
> living in a very large isolated country. I heard a lot of what you
> describe when I was a student in the US. I'll never forget the
> first time I listened to the Das Lied von der Erde recording with
> the New Philharmonia - Sidney Sutcliffe was the oboist, and his
> playing absolutely knocked me over with its expressiveness and
> beauty. I was lucky to meet up with an experience like that as a
> young player, because it served to innoculate me against the more
> severe kinds of oboistic xenophobia.
>
> I was thinking more over the last 24 hours about this discussion
> and I realized there's something that I don't think anyone has
> mentioned. The kind of physical hand-technique that Mr. Holliger
> has is really a gift, a truly extraordinary talent. We are all
> encouraged, in every aspect of our lives, to "play to our
> strengths." If you have the kind of gift of physical technique that
> a person like Mr. Holliger has, why on earth should you NOT play a
> zillion notes? Why should you NOT commission works from every
> major composer you can, extending the range of the instrument
> farther than had been imagined? I would imagine it to be as natural
> as breathing. And there's a lot of music that the oboe world would
> not have but for him. The same can be said of Jennifer Paull, the
> champion of the oboe d'amore. One knows oneself, and one then goes
> forward. Think Paganini.
>
> Those of us without an extraordinary finger technique find our
> strengths and play to those. Fortunate indeed is he who is, as the
> Talmud describes: "happy with what he(or she) has."
>
> Mr. Still once told me about a conversation he had with Neil Black,
> of the English Chamber Orchestra. He mentioned that he envied Mr.
> Black all his Mozart concerti; Mr. Black retorted that he envied
> Mr. Still all his Mahler symphonies. Do any of us really like
> everything we have? Probably not.
>
> I put on the CD of Chicago and Reiner playing Strauss's Also Sprach
> Zarathustra last night, with this whole discussion still
> percolating about in my psyche. I remember Mr. Still's playing on
> this recording - there is a very small little section in the middle
> of this piece where the 1st and 2nd oboes trade off a tiny little
> lick that isn't very hard to play, but the difference in the way
> Mr. Still and the 2nd oboist at that time (Jerry Sirucek? anybody
> know?) played that lick is hard to believe without hearing it.
> That, to me, is a precis of what was best about Mr. Still's
> playing: the life, vitality, and rhythmic energy; a level beyond
> simple accuracy. To him, this was more important than Mr.
> Holliger's spectacular finger technique. But that was HIS gift, not
> Mr. Holliger's.
>
> Would I, poor little old ME, would I rather listen to those
> orchestral recordings than to Mr. Holliger's mountain of
> performances of showpieces and avant-garde works? Oh, absolutely!
> But that's just me. That's just taste. (Actually I think it's more
> than "just" taste, but let's not go into that. Whatever it is, it
> is individual.)
>
> Is one better than the other? Only to the people involved! To the
> rest of us they're like facets of the same diamond.
>
> We are awfully lucky, when you think of it, to have both these men
> as examples of what can be done with our poor little oboes and
> reeds. And the other great players of this and previous
> generations. All over the world.
>
> As to whether Mr. Still should have made such a remark.... no,
> probably not. But who among us has never said anything he/she
> shouldn't've?? To quote a dear friend: "...people are not nice,
> people are people."
>

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