Klarinet Archive - Posting 000311.txt from 1996/03

From: thehat@-----.ORG
Subj: B-flat clarinet
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 17:09:01 -0500

In a message dated 03-09-96 INTERNET: mcheramy=MORGAN wrote to ** ALL **:
Im> >When I played in New York, I invariably wound up playing second to a
>wonderful player who owned only one clarinet, in A. He was born in
>a small village in Italy and his family could only afford one
>clarinet. He played everything on that instrument and he did so with
>such ease and such elegance that I was in awe at his ability to do
>that. He said that it was all due to his training in solfeggio.

>====================================
>Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
>(leeson@-----.edu) ====================================

Im> Good grief! I've never heard of anyone doing everything on A. I did
Im> study with an ancient Italian in Chile fifteen years ago, who told me
Im> when he was my age and studying in Italy they had to learn to read
Im> "the seven clefs", ie do solfeggio in any clef or transposition, and
Im> that it was standard practise to play everything on a B flat clarinet
Im> with low E flat.

Im> Ahh... the good old days (not)

Im> LGB

My understanding is that Professor Jeanjean also performed everything but the
Mozart Concerto and Quintet on the B flat clarinet. I was told this by a
student of Duques, who played second to Jeanjean at the Opera Comique in
Paris. Duques said that Jeanjean had the most formidable technique he had
ever heard, at least until an NBC Symphony performance of Daphnis and Chloe,
when a youngster named Drucker filled in on e-flat clarinet!

I have heard tantitlizing rumors (I believe from my friend, RObert DiLutis)
that there are extant recordings of Jeanjean's playing, possibly from radio
transcriptions. These I would love to hear! Mr. Marcellus was also very
interested in how Jeanjean might have played. He wondered if there wasn't
some Hungarian in Jeanjean's backround, based on something he heard in the 18
etudes, to which he (and thus I) was devoted.

David Hattner
clarinetist-at-large, NYC
-> Alice4Mac 2.4.4 E QWK Eval:04Feb96
Origin: Hat's Nut House