Klarinet Archive - Posting 001729.txt from 1998/04

From: RCLARINET <RCLARINET@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] auditions/leblanc or buffet?
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 07:38:50 -0400

In a message dated 4/29/98 7:03:23 PM, you wrote:

<<Here's a question for those of you on the audition circuit:

Are most symphony audition winners (perhaps in the last 2-3 years
or so) playing on leblancs or buffets?

Lori Lovato, Santa Fe Symphony
clarinet@-----.edu

Lori,
Of course it is Buffet. But since such a large per centage of clarinetists
play on Buffet clarinets, and have for some time I would think that would
certain be the case, just from the reality of the numbers of players and the
years Buffet has had to establish themselves.
I think Ricardo Morales and Larry Combs has proven to any one who has an open
mind that Leblanc clarinets can do the needed to job in top
orchestras......Ricardo won his position on a Leblanc Opus, beating all the
Buffet players in all the high powered music schools of the east and
elsewhere.
One might say Ricardo could have won on another instrument, and I think that
would be so. But the fact is that he did not. And the fact is that he CHOSE
to play Leblanc's.......even when he had to buy his first set of horns and was
being offered clarinets and contracts from other makers. Great as he is ,
there must have been a very sincere, personal reason he chose Leblancs. Two
reasons I can think of right of .....not three.......are:
1. They play better
2. Over all they sound better
3. They tune better

The bottom line is that people need to pick the right clarinets for
themselves....the ones they sound best on and the ones they feel the most
comfortable playing.........not because more players win auditions on Brand X
or what ever.
The fact is, there are Yamaha's, Selmer's, Leblanc's, and Buffet clarinets all
being played beautifully and successfully by a wide variety of players,
playing in a wide variety of contexts. All these makers and others make fine
instruments.
Personally, I find a lot of Buffet's that I think are good horns, and some
that play pretty well. If I had never played a Leblanc I would probably think
they played great! But by comparison, they don't...........not for me. I
just can't give up that extra smoothness and security I get in the Leblanc
clarinets.
But getting back to your original queerie:
Even if you got an answer to your question what remains is several other
questions, all of which, when answered, profoundly changes the meaning of the
first answer. Questions like:
If that's so, what are the reasons?
If players playing other instruments than the "status quo" win sometime, what
does that mean? Better players? Better instruments? Both?......Neither? If
it is a better player why does he play the non-status quo instrument? Out of
choice? Or is it endorsement PERKS?
I repeat: The bottom line is that clarinetists ought to stop being a bunch of
bleeting sheep and start using the ears God gave them to hear and the mind He
gave them to think with, and by those means select the right clarinet for
them....the one they sound best on the one that matches.....not Eddie Daniels'
or Michel Arignon's or Acker Bilk's personality, skills and needs, but theirs!
for heaven's sake!
Of course, it's easier to be a sheep than to actually think and understand.
tom

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