Klarinet Archive - Posting 000287.txt from 1994/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Dohnanyi, a great story!!
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 15:49:39 -0400

A request was made about the Dohnanyi sextet and I though you all might
enjoy this story in which I was personally involved and for which I
still have nightmares of embarrassment.

I played with Dohnanyi. It was between 1950 and 1954 and it was with the
Connecticut Symphony in Bridgeport with Daniel Saidenberg conducting.
Actually, I did not play on the piece for which he was invited: the Beethoven
Emperor concerto because I was playing bass clarinet and there is no part
for it, but I was there. After one of the rehearsals, everybody went somewhere
and I got back about an hour before anyone else. Dohnanyi was there practicing
and we chatted. He asked if I played the standard repertoire for clarinet and
piano and when I said I did, he asked me to bring in a work and he and I would
read through it privately. He asked if I had played the Brahms F minor and did
I have the music?

And I said that I did have it but "the piano part is very difficult. Will you
be able to sight read it?" In heaven they have a blackboard on which stupid
people making stupid remarks have their name posted. I made it big that day.
Dohnanyi said that he would try his best.

So the next evening I brought my clarinet, the Brahms F minor and about 2
hours before the rehearsal we set out to play it. Little did I know that
he was considered oneof the greatest sight readers alive and maybe the best
ever born. He tore the damn piano part apart and played it without error
at sight. I asked him if he had every played it before and he said it was
many years ago. He was very laid back about his playing and to him it was
no big deal that he could read the Brahms F minor at sight. It was the very
first time that I realized what it took to survive in the piano playing
world (and in fact the music world).

Fortunately, there was no one around to see my disgrace and humiliation:
I had asked one of the world's great pianists and sight readers if he play
the Brahms F minor. I still shudder at my naivte and ignorance of what that
man could do. I figured that somebody who made a living writing "Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star" could not
possibly sight read like me. Ugh! I was a model T Ford when it came to
sight reading when contrasted with him.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
(leeson@-----.edu)
(dnl2073@-----.edu)
Any of the above three addresses may be used. Take your pick.
====================================

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org