Klarinet Archive - Posting 000393.txt from 1996/04

From: "Daniel A. Paprocki" <dap@-----.US>
Subj: Bartok Violin concerto #2
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 19:21:40 -0400

I'm back from doing bass clarinet with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra this
last weekend. Sarah Chang was the soloist on the Bartok Violin Concerto
#2. Wow!!! 15 years old and just fantastic!!! Tone, technique,
musicianship - all there!! Alot of us were starting to thing about
becoming plumbers or something after the first rehearsal.
An interesting thing happened the first night. About 30 measures
into the Bartok, Sarah broke a string. Nonchalantly, she reached over to
the concertmaster and switched fiddles. He proceeded to change the broken
string and she just continued to play, but could you hear the tone
difference. Sarah plays on a Guaneri dei Gesu (a cool 2 mil!) and the
concertmaster is on a cheap ($10-$20 thou) fiddle. The Guaneri had a deep,
dark, rich sound and the other fiddle had a nice light sweet sound.
Talking later to a CSO violin, he said to me, "Yeah, she plays a canon.
The sound just booms out there." I've never heard a fiddle being described
as a canon but he sure was right.

The conductor was Kenneth Jean and he was great. Fine stick tech,
didn't waste rehearsal time, knew what he wanted, AND was friendly,
personable, and a nice guy.

Dan

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Daniel A. Paprocki
dap@-----.us

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