Klarinet Archive - Posting 000385.txt from 1997/09

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: RE: Well, here we go again
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 15:51:29 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.84
> Subj: RE: Well, here we go again

> Dan Leeson related his anecdote about showing up to play the Beethoven
> Missa Solemnis with three clarinets and being taken aside by the conductor
> to discuss the C clarinet.
>
> Dan, you left out the conclusion. Was it:
>
> (a) You held your ground and were, in fact, fired.
>
> (b) You held your ground and convinced the conductor that you were correct
> to use the C clarinet (also forcing the 1st player to rush out to acquire
> one of his or her own).
>
> (c) You gave in to the conductor's whim (and to that of the unnamed
> "magnificient clarinet player") and transposed the part on the Bb or A
> instrument depending upon the preference of the principal player.

At the request of the conductor, I simply transposed the entire part. But
I made certain to put her in a quandary by saying, "Do you prefer the
sound of an A or B-flat clarinet? I'll do it on the one you say, but you
must tell me which one you want." She said, "Play it on the same kind
of clarinet that your colleague is using." After that she no longer
spoke to me, nor would she cue the clarinet section. So I asked my
colleage (who was Bill Shadel, the 1st in the NJ Symphony) which clarinet
he was using, and I chose the other. When he went to A to transpose,
I went to B-flat, and vice versa.

Oh yes. I never got hired by that woman after that job.

As far as I was concerned, I would have played it on an accordion if
she requested it. I must tell you about this woman.

She was one of the wealthiest women in New Jersey. Her name was
Charlotte Bergen and she hired orchestras to rehearse in her home
in Bernardsville, NJ. She used the NYP to do the concert, but she
would rehearse with a privately hired orchestra so that, when she
got in front of the big guys, she would know what to do.

At the time I worked with her she was over 80, wirey, and a former
oboe pupil of someone who had died 60 years earlier in Paris. It
was a a very weird set of circumstances. Her mother had died in that
house 45 years before and she refused to uncover the furniture. It
was like playing for Miss Haversham in Dickens' "Great Expectations."

>
> ***
>
> Incidentally, I have always believed in the
> play-it-on-the-indicate-instrument doctrine, and the reason hit home
> clearly at a rehearsal last week. I showed up with both Bb and A clarinets
> to play 2nd clarinet in a rehearsal of Rhapsody in Blue. Now we all know
> that Gershwin (the composer) played this work as a solo piano piece and
> that the original instrumental scoring was for big band (saxes [doubling
> clarinet], trumpets, trombones, and rhythm section). So why should he have
> cared which clarinet I used? Well the orchestral arrangement is that of
> Ferde Grofe, and he really knew how to select instrumental tone colors.
>
> Anyway, when we got to the lush section that calls for clarinets in A on
> the first read-through, both the first clarinetist and I dutifully switched
> instruments. (There is a long rest to facilitate the switch.) Shortly after
> we had completed that passage and had switched back to our Bb clarinets to
> prepare for our next entrance, however, the conductor stopped the orchestra
> and restarted near the beginning of the passage that calls for the A
> (unlikely to happen in a concert). With no time to switch, we both
> tranposed the part on the Bb clarinet. Try it; it's easy to play on the Bb
> clarinet, but the color was all wrong. Completely wrong. It sounded like a
> different piece.
>
> I wonder if anyone outside of the clarinet section noticed or cared. But I
> did. And I promise, Dan, that I'll never play that passage on my Bb
> clarinet again.
>
> On the other hand, Grofe left the bass clarinet part in Bb during that same
> passage. Hmmm.
>
> --Mitch Bassman
> mbassman@-----.com
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================