Klarinet Archive - Posting 000272.txt from 1995/02

From: Josias Associates <josassoc@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Michelle Zukovsky
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 18:15:32 -0500

On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, James M Norsworthy wrote:

> Mr. Cohler would be correct that Drucker commissioned and premiered
> Corigliano's concerto and that Meyer did the premiere of the Berio/Brahms
>
> Michael Norsworthy
> Norswort@-----.edu
> >
> > I thought that Stanley Drucker commissioned and premiered the Corigliano.
> > And I thought that Sabine Meyer premiered the Berio/Brahms?
> >
> >
> > Jonathan Cohler
> > cohler@-----.net

Messrs. Cohler, Cassara, and Norsworthy:

When you corrected my assertion that Michelle Zukovsky premiered
the Corigliano Clarinet Concerto, your report that it was commissioned and
premiered by Ducker made a lot of sense, considering that Corigliano's
father had a long and distinguished career with the orchestra.

I decided that I should offer an "I-stand-corrected"
acknowledgment to the Klarinet participants -- except that there was
another piece of unfinished business, the Berio/Brahms. Could I have been
wrong on both counts?

I called the Archives Department of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Association and spoke to Orrin Howard, who, among other things, is
the annotator for the LA Phil concert program notes. In a radio
interview, he once introduced himself as the grandfather of David's and
Gail's child. (He was referring to his son, David Howard, a clarinetist
in the LA Phil, and his daughter-in-law, Gail Eichenthal,
a noted radio music commentator.)

Howard verified that Drucker performed the world premiere of
the Corigliano Concerto in 1977 (no surprise there), but said the
commission was from the N.Y. Phil (probably at Drucker's recommendation).
He said I could at least claim a few points for Zukovsky's west-coast
premiere of the work in 1979 (which I had heard during its live broadcast
on the radio and had mistaken for the world premiere).

But then he said that the Berio/Brahms was a different matter and
that, if there were a poker pot on the subject, I could lay claim to it.
The Berio orchestral transcription of the Brahms Opus 120 F Minor Sonata
was jointly commissioned by the New York, Boston, and Los Angeles
orchestras. The world premiere was performed in 1986 by Michelle Zukovsky
with the LA Phil.

I guess I'm going to have to be content with one out of two,
which, I guess, isn't too bad as baseball averages go.

Connie

Conrad Josias
La Canada, California