Klarinet Archive - Posting 000929.txt from 1998/09

From: Bradley Wong <bradley.wong@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] The Clarinetist's Needs (was The Best Clarinets)
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 19:15:11 -0400

Shouryu Nohe wrote:

> Out of curiousity, had your 'needs' (I'm guess, primary form of playing -
> ie orchestral, chamber, soloist) changed with those horns? For instance
> (and I'm just throwing random combinations together here), when you
> purchased the R13, you were doing mainly orcestral playing, but later
> began to do more solo literature, and found that the REcital fit it
> better. Was that the sitch, or did you just find that each horn had
> successive improvement over the next?
>
> J. Shouryu Nohe

I do play solo, chamber and orchestral music, although my primary
performances are solo and chamber music. I switched from Buffet when I
got the job at Western Michigan University, and could afford to purchase
a new set of clarinets. I couldn't find any Buffets that I liked (this
was 1982, does anyone else think there were more quality control
problems for Buffet back then?), so I drove to the Selmer factory to
look at 10G's (an influence from studies with Dave Shifrin who then was
endorsing that clarinet). I didn't find any 10G's that I liked, but they
had just received their first shipment of the Recital clarinet. They
actually tried to steer me away from them (they thought the design was
too radical and that I wouldn't like them). But they felt great --
extremely even tone, and well centered. And the match between the B-flat
and A was so close that I had to mark the thumb-rests because I would
forget which horn I was playing. I did feel like I needed better
projection, not just in orchestral playing, but even in things like the
Beethoven Septet. At that point, my friend Tom Ridenour called about
some new clarinets he had developed for Leblanc. He came out to
Kalamazoo, and I sat in our Recital Hall and tried these new horns. They
were as even as the Selmers, but the sound was bigger, with a little
brilliance that the Selmers lacked. And so I bought an Opus B-flat, and
a Concerto A (they hadn't started making the Opus A at that point). The
Rossis, for me, are an improvement to the Leblancs. I occasionally pull
out my Buffets and Leblancs (no longer have the Selmers), and am not
unhappy to play on them. And I find when looking at new instruments with
my students, that there are many good clarinets out there that I could
also use.

Brad Wong

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