Klarinet Archive - Posting 000473.txt from 1998/10

From: "John Gates" <cadenza@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] re:French / German sound styles
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 12:09:41 -0400

I knew Michele before she switched to German clarinets. This goes back to
when she studied with Kalman and Mitchell Lurie and then got into the LA
Phil. She was real young. I mean like 19!. There were three very young
women, all winds, who passed the audition. Michele Bloch, Louise DiTullio
(fl/picc), and Barbara Winters (oboe). I remember it was very
controversial. If I had to but a date to all of this, I would think it
would be about 1963. She sounded wonderful on Buffet back then.

As I recall this all happened about a season or two before Zubin Mehta came
to be music director. Zubin Mehta, who had spent time studying in Vienna
prior to coming to LA adored the Viennese clarinet playing Leopold Wlach.
In fact I remember he said that he wanted the LA Philharmonic to sound like
the Vienna Phil. and of course wanted Michele to sound like Wlach.

At about this same time Michele Bloch met Charles Zukovsky, another
clarinetist taught by his father. Years before Peter Zukovsky, Charles'
father, was a student in Chicago of Lindemann. There was a strong German
influence there. However what really clinched her determination to switch
was when Zubin, in his drive to make the LA Phil sound Viennese, found the
money for Michele to fly to the Wurlitzer company and buy a set of
instruments. Zubin always loved Michele's playing

In talking with Michele recently I get the impression that if she had to do
it all over again that she probably would stick with a French instruments.

Incidentally although Kalman Bloch studied with Bellison in New York he
admits that his greatest influence was Bonade.

John Gates
-----Original Message-----
From: David C. Blumberg <reedman@-----.com>
Date: Saturday, October 10, 1998 7:31 PM
Subject: [kl] re:French / German sound styles

>There is a timbrel difference between the French, and German fingering
>system. I hear the fingering played whether it is with the German system,
>or French system - the timbre is different. A "C" scale on a French system
>sounds different then a C scale on a German system. Michele Z. plays the
>German System Clarinet because "it gave her luck", that is what she told
>me. She never even had a lesson from a German system player on the
>instrument (she studied with her dad, even for many years after getting the
>L.A. Phil. job). She plays what feels good to her, and what she is used to.
>Some German music lays quite well on the German system, and not as well on
>the French. If a player on a German system played a high C, I may not be
>able with one note to tell that it was on a German Clarinet, but if the
>player played more then one note, I could hear what fingering was used to
>get there. I think that a player will sound basically the same no mater
>what system they play. It's much more the player then the instrument that
>matters.
>Dan Leeson a while ago, wrote a great article on playing styles, and myths
>on the OCR. The web site is
>http://www.sneezy.org/OCR/articles/leeson4.html
>Check it out (and yes Dan, I do hear the timbres).
>David Blumberg
>reedman@-----.com
>http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Music/Blumberg.html
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