Klarinet Archive - Posting 000583.txt from 1998/05

From: Dodgshun family <dodgshun@-----.nz>
Subj: Re: [kl] A clarinets
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 01:52:13 -0400

At 02:21 PM 10/05/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I took my daughter to a concert by one of the better local "community"
orchestras
>here a month or so ago. One of the pieces on the program was the Wieniewski
>Second Violin Concerto, performed by a guest soloist from the St. Louis
Symphony.
>During the opening tutti, there is a fairly long clarinet solo and, you guessed
>it, the orchestra's principle clarinetist played it (untransposed) on the wrong
>clarinet. He later explained that the cue telling him which instrument to
use was
>rather small and he missed it. After a couple of notes, he got this look
on his
>face, like "What is wrong with this instrument?" and several of the nearby
>orchestra members turned and looked at him as if he had just done something
>extremely unpleasant -- which, of course he had. Someone finally told him
that he
>was using the wrong instrument. Needless to say, at intermission, he was
>extremely embarassed over his error and I don't think the conductor was amused.
>Of course, I have to wonder how often he had practiced the piece and how
often the
>orchestra had rehearsed it. This was the first time I'd ever seen that happen
>(though there is a wonderful story in the archives about a prominent English
>clarinetist who only needed his Bb for a pit job and managed to show up
with the
>upper joint from his Bb and the lower joint from his A).
>
>Oh yes, after that little problem, the soloist played beautifully and I really
>don't think most of the audience even noticed the mistake ( it was Wieniewski
>after all ;^) ).
>

I did something not too different. When we did Peter and the Wolf at
orchestra recently, I got the lovely job of playing the Cat solo. Well, the
Cat tune comes in several different keys at different places. At one point,
you start on F#, and the next one starts on F - this was how it worked for
me, because I'd got hold of copies for both Bb and A and cut and pasted so
that I was in the best key the whole time. Anyway, I played both solos
starting on F#. It sounded pretty terrible, and I completely threw the
flautist, but the conductor thought it was the cellos and basses! No-one in
the audience noticed, except my parents who say my expression of horror when
I reached the end and realised what I'd done!

Anna

---------------------------------------------------------------------
For additional commands, e-mail: klarinet-help@-----.org
For other problems, e-mail: klarinet-owner@-----.org