Klarinet Archive - Posting 000265.txt from 1998/03

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Memorization
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 14:42:08 -0500

On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, Karl Krelove wrote:
> Toscanini was one well known example. Eugene Ormandy was another. I have no
> first hand experience to base testimony that either Bernstein or Toscanini
> ever had memory slips that adversely affected performances, and their
> reputations didn't include the tendency to need bailing out by their
> orchestras. Ormandy, on the other hand, almost brought two performances (of
> different works) in which I was personally involved to a grinding halt
> because of serious memory lapses, and stories were told by many others in
> Philadelphia about similar snafus throughout his career. The point I am
> lumbering toward is that individual people have different capacities for
> memorizing and different ways of doing it. If it is easy for a performer and
> he/she can rely invariably on his/her memory, then it doesn't constitute a
> distraction for that individual and he or she may actually feel more
> comfortable.

I saw Ormandy live with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the spring of 1979 -
he did the Love of Three Oranges Suite.....and gave a beautiful slow prep
beat only to have the orchestra jump in on the next movement.....a very
fast movement! They played the entrance perfectly.......all from a
quarter=46 upbeat!

Roger Garrett
IWU