Klarinet Archive - Posting 000588.txt from 1997/10

From: Leslie Andersen <LeslieA@-----.ORG>
Subj: Further comments -
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 14:23:40 -0400

My comments about technique can be summed up as follows: A
clarinetist once told me that he spent 8 years at least an hour a day
trying to perfect Daphnis (my favorite example this week!) for orchestra
auditions. How ridiculous! Correct me if I'm wrong (especially Dan) but
the intention of that excerpt in my mind is to present a "wave" of
continuous sound without regard to individual notes. Indeed, one does
not want to hear the individual notes because it destroys the effect.
Thus, why is that used as an "eliminator" in orchestra auditions?
Because its convenient. Playing every note in that excerpt does not a
musician make.

As to the comment, "it is possible to take a great technician with no
musical sense and develop a fully professionally capable player," how
sad that this is our standard of music today. Justifies my comments
completely.

And finally, to respond to Gary whose "pithy" reply really deserves no
more than silence, my short list of "musicians" (as if I have to prove my
comments):

Robert Wojciak
Leon Russianoff
Itzhak Perlman
Eddie Daniels
Hans Rudolf Stadler
Rachmaninoff
Oscar Peterson
Anne Sophie Mutter
Eliane Elias
Eric Dolphy
sitting in the very last row in Carnegie Hall listening to Chicago and Solti
play Mahler 9
and many more I can't think of right now -