Klarinet Archive - Posting 000027.txt from 1995/02

From: Donald Oehler <dloehler@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Goodman and the Nielsen Concerto
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 21:05:42 -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
>
Dear Christopher;
Frank and I were students together in the 60's at Juilliard. I
recall Frank working on the Nielsen as a student but he would hardly be
preparing to record it at that time. Now I can't recall when B. Goodman
recorded the work but it was before Frank ever began working on it. (My
memory serves me well enough that this would have been about 1966 or 67
and goodman's recording was already out.
I will tell you about the recording as I first had to defend the
work as less than the definitive American recording of clarinet performance.
My first job was with the Teheran Philharmonic Orchestra in Teheran,
Iran. Yes, Teheran, Iran. The orchestra was very international at the
time and we performed in what I believe to be one of the greatest
concerts halls anywhere. Anyway, as the only American clarinetist ever
to perform in Iran to that time on a regular basis, I was asked
to a large musicians party where all the clarinetists in town, and there
were more than you would ever imagine, seemed to show up. I was asked
many questions about American clarinet life and then, much to my
surprise, someone produced the only recording of American playing that
anyone had in that neck of the woods. It was Goodman's Nielsen! Now,
with all due respect, this is not the recording I would have picked to
represent our style. I was hoping for the Mozart with Marcellus, or the
Contrasts with Drucker and Mann, or even some of David Glazer's works.
But, alas, here was Goodman's Nielsen blaring away on full sound at this
party. Why could they not have had Drucker's Nielsen?
At that time - 1968 - B.G. WAS American clarinet playing anywhere
in the the world, except in the States, I guess. Glazer's records were
pretty popular in Europe, but the few others, Drucker and Marcellus, were
considered rather boring! by my European colleagues. All this talk of
the "the three queens" seems to remind me how provincial we can become,
and defensive, about our own playing style. I recall standing in that
room going on how B.G. had missed so many opportunities in that
performance of the Nielsen and that they should really hear the Drucker
version, etc., etc. and all the time the glazed stare of wonderment that I
would speak so of Mr. Goodman's playing. They heard it as free and full
of life, I heard it only as a sound that didn't match Marcellus' and a
technique that didn't come up to Drucker's.
Well, anyway, Frank C. graduated in 1968, the same year I did. If
he had any influence on Benny G.'s recording dates we didn't hear about it.
I did learn from that recording to listen to clarinet performance with
non-clarinet ears. Highly recommend it, too.

Don Oehler

   
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