Klarinet Archive - Posting 000483.txt from 1997/03

From: Gary Young <gyoung@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Question for all
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 17:03:14 -0500

Like Gary Van Cott and Thomas Lankford, I'm a "born again" clarinetist,
after a 20 year lapse. So my memories go back before Stoltzman ever licked
a reed.

I have no idea why I started clarinet. It just happened. One was offered
to me in third grade (1947) and I took it -- a metal one, along with the
tutor "A Tune A Day!" (Does that still exist?) I had bad instruction at
first -- it took me a few months to figure out the reed goes on the bottom.
I had no idea what the thing should even sound like -- until we got a
record player and my parents bought a 10" longplay recording of Reginald
Kell playing the Mozart Concerto with the Zimbler Sinfonietta, as well as a
12" record of Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall Concert (then less than ten
years old). I was astonished at what Kell and Goodman did, and still
revere both of them, now more than ever. Both of them make the clarinet
sing. I still have both records. Wish they'd reissue the Kell on CD. I
never tried to imitate Goodman, it seemed so far beyond me, but I got to
play the Mozart with orchestra my second year in college, and I still had
Kell's phrasing and articulation in mind when I did it.

What REALLY blew me away, though, was getting into the Chicago Youth
Orchestra my last two years in high school -- my first orchestra experience
-- and the first thing we played was Brahms #1, which I had never heard.
This was an absolutely overwhelming experience; I lack words to describe
what that felt like, and we even got to play it in Orchestra Hall. That
addicted me to orchestra playing (as well as to Brahms), which I did in
college and grad school until I stopped playing altogether in 1965.

So much for self-indulgent reminiscence. :)