Klarinet Archive - Posting 000490.txt from 1997/09

From: reedman@-----.com
Subj: Henri Selmer?
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 02:05:04 -0400

In connection with different materials I have an anecdote related to me
by Rosario Mazzeo.

This goes back to the early days of the Boston Symphony when Serge
Kussevitsky was the conductor.
Guess who played in the orchestra one year- no other then Henri Selmer,
one of the founders of the Selmer clarinet factory.
Henri Selmer was a great player, having studied with his father, who
himself studied with Klose and then with other famous teachers at the
Paris Conservatory.

Anyway the story goes like this":
Selmer played a fantastic solo that was acknowledged by Kussevitsky in
front of the orchestra.
Imagine when Henri Selmer stood up, holding aloft his METAL CLARINET.
"What!" said, Kussevitsky ," In my orchestra a metal clarinet!".
And he got fired from the job. This is the story the Mazzeo told me on a
visit to his place.

So don't look, just listen.

Avrahm Galper

That's agreat story, Avrahm, but i think you got the players wrong.
I doubt if Henri Selmer played with the Boston Symphony. Anyway,
I'm fairly certain that the player was Gaston Hamelin who had been
Rosario's teacher at one point.

Clark W Fobes