Klarinet Archive - Posting 000021.txt from 1995/02

From: Josias Associates <josassoc@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Goodman and the Nielsen Concerto
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 16:59:12 -0500

On Wed, 1 Feb 1995, Christopher G Zello wrote:

> I had heard a far fetched story which came to mind after reading a recent
> posting. Is there any truth to the following--
>
> Frank Cohen was in a music shop or somesuch many years ago. In walked
> Benny Goodman. Here was this young Frank and Goodman was kind of ripping
> on him and somehow he discovered that Frank was working of the Nielsen. .
> .getting ready to play (maybe even record) it. Goodman kind of laughed
> and then went out and decided himself to record the Nielsen (partly to
> not be shown up by FC).
>
> Obviously a lot of details were taken out and a lot of facts ommitted.
>
>
> Christopher Zello
> czello@-----.edu

Chris,

There may be more to the story than I know about, but I must
agree with you that it does sound far fetched.

What I can tell you first hand is that Morton Gould, who was a
close personal friend of Goodman's and was the conductor of the orchestra
that accompanied Goodman on the Nielsen Concerto, told me that Goodman
was initially extremely averse to Gould's repeated suggestions that he
perform the concerto. He also told me that Goodman rebuffed him several
times (some of the reasons having been mentioned in my last posting
on this subject) before he acquiesced.

It's possible that there could have been some external "last
straw" -- something or someone like FC who pulled Goodman's chain. But,
from what I know about Goodman, he had an extremely high regard for the
clarinetists in the major orchestra (as well as certain newcomers) and
didn't regard them as his rivals. But more important, with his existing
accomplishments in the classical field (commissions, recorded performances,
etc.), he was secure enough in the knowledge of what he had done to make
it hard to believe that he would succumb to such a knee-jerk jealous
reaction.

I believe that what eventually happened is that Gould prevailed
on Goodman that, while he was still on the scene, he would be remiss
by not performing such an important work.

Connie

Conrad Josias
La Canada, California