Klarinet Archive - Posting 001405.txt from 1998/03

From: Dodgshun family <dodgshun@-----.nz>
Subj: Re: Anna and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 16:07:06 -0500

At 06:18 AM 30/03/98 EST, you wrote:
>Am I incorrect of thinking of Christchurch as the southernmost
>large habitable city in the world? Or do I have that mixed up
>with some other town?

There are cities south of us in NZ, but they are smaller. One, Dunedin,
does have an orchestra - the Dunedin Philharmonic - but they don't play at
the level of the CSO - I don't think they're a full-time pro orchestra. As
for the rest of the world, I'm not sure whether there are any cities further
south than us, and as I can't find my atlas, I can't check. Just as a point
of interest, our population is about 350,000.

>And the reason why I found this possibility fascinating, would be
>that every time Anna plays a concert there (or even if Anna happens
>not to be present for a particular concert), the works being played
>are receiving their southernmost live performance on the globe.

This is likely!!

>I have no idea what I could do with this information, but it sure
>would be neat to say, "Oh I did the Ginastera variations and no
>one in the world south of me played them as well!"

As the CSO are playing very well at the moment (they've imported a few
players, including a Auckland clarinettist who is wonderful - I now learn
from her, and I didn't realise how little I knew until I went to her!) this
is fairly possible. They did "The Pines of Rome" the other night, as well
as Vaughan Williams' 5th Symphony and some other stuff, all of which was
excellent.

>I once played the Mozart Requiem in El Centro, CA. Now I don't
>know if many of you know of this city in California but it is
>really remote, lying halfway between Los Angeles and Yuma, Arizona.
>So I was sitting in the motel room practicing basset horn when
>it dawned on me that I was probably the finest basset horn player
>in El Centro. It pumped up my ego so much that I began to look
>for places where I could assert that there was no one better than
>me in this or that respect. But the idea of living in
>Christchurch and being the finest southernmost basset horn player
>in the world would really be a distinctive thing.

Um, if any basset horn player moved here they would most definitely be the
best - we don't have any basset horns in Chch. There are two in Wellington
(NZ capital - further north) with the NZSO which are flown down here
periodically, and one in Auckland, but none here. I've never had the chance
to play one, and we usually just do without.

I'll have to find out about whether Chch has the southernmost pro orchestra
- just as soon as I find my atlas.

Anna