Klarinet Archive - Posting 001006.txt from 1998/09

From: Donald Oehler <dloehler@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Bassett
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 09:29:40 -0400

Ted Planas. I read with interest your account of the clarinets and Ted
Planas' work, etc. Ted Planas certainly was a genius of the first order.
I have never seen work to match his in 30 years. I had the wonderful
experience of having him make mouthpieces for me and working on
instruments - boxwoods. We had a great time and I especially enjoyed
"hanging out" in that old cold workshop just outside his kitchen door. Not
only could he do great work he would take the trouble to make his own
tools for the job! You may not want to know this but he was actually born
in the US! On one visit he brought out a "visa" issued in the 40's - hand
written by some British official allowing him to stay in Great Britain as
long as he had work! He told me that was the only paper work he had
keeping him in Britain, and thought it was a real hoot.

Donald L. Oehler
Professor of Music
University of North Carolina

On Sat, 26 Sep 1998, Tony Pay wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Sep 1998 19:50:07 -1300, leeson@-----.edu said:
>
> > > From: MX%"klarinet@-----.68
> > > Subj: [kl] Bassett
> >
> > >
> > > In a message dated 9/25/98 3:15:46 PM, Tony Pay writes:
> > >
> > > <<Of course, every instrument has its defects, and sometimes a
> > > player finds it worth putting up with some non-workability in one
> > > area, and getting round it, for the sake of greater workability in
> > > another. >>
> > >
> > > Spoken by one who has played (and recorded) on every period of
> > > clarinets out there! By the way, when you perform the Mozart on a
> > > new instrument, are you using your regular A clarinet with an
> > > extension?
> >
> > Tony will, of course, answer for himself, but it so happens that when
> > he did K. 622 with San Francisco, he was my house guest and I had
> > occasion to see and inspect the instrument. It was an off the shelf A
> > basset clarinet by Selmer. Played like a dream!
>
> Hi Dan!
>
> Thanks for your kind words. Actually, though, it wasn't off the shelf.
> We moved lot of the holes in the extension on the suggestion of the
> British clarinettist and genius artisan Ted Planas. (He'd worked with
> Selmer on the prototype, but was never really satisfied with the
> production model.) The actual work of moving the holes was undertaken
> by the craftsman Jon Steward, who works at T W Howarth in London, and is
> responsible for the new Howarth clarinet, which is still being
> developed.
>
> But that was a long time ago, and I sold that instrument about a year
> after staying with you (thanks again!) to Joy Farrall. I think she's
> recorded the Mozart on it, too, so you can hear it in other hands.
>
> I now never play the Mozart on a new instrument! At A=440, with a
> modern orchestra, I use the instrument that Alan Hacker had Ted Planas
> 'bassetize' in the 70s. It's a German instrument of around 1850 by
> Dolling (umlaut over the 'o'), that has (now) 10 keys plus the 4 basset
> keys. It's quite powerful enough even with a substantial orchestra,
> though anyway, in my view, the piece is better if the orchestra isn't
> too large.
>
> The story goes that Ted got the brass for the basset keys from an old
> water-closet, so perhaps that accounts for the delightful gurgling
> quality this particular instrument brings to passages in the low
> register:-) Be that as it may, you can't tell from examining the
> instrument which keys are original and which were added, so perfectly
> has Ted copied the style of the cups and fittings.
>
> Ted is sadly no longer with us. It's a great loss, because he was
> responsible for very many fine instruments and was a never-failing
> resource when one was in difficulty. He understood clarinets very
> deeply.
>
> I actually bought the instrument not from Alan, but from Lesley
> Schatzberger, whom you can hear as first clarinet in John Eliot
> Gardiner's recordings with the English Baroque Soloists and the
> Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique.
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
> ... No man is an island, but some of us are long peninsulas.
>
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>
>

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