Klarinet Archive - Posting 000942.txt from 1998/11

From: Dan Sutherland <dsuther@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: [kl] A little story
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 07:05:32 -0500

What a story: Ettlinger: a brief episode in my own development. Summer 1977
Ettlinger was instructor of clarinet at the Canadian National Youth
Orchestra annual session at Kingston, Ontario. There were 4 youthfully
inspired clarinettists in his charge. His instruction technique was
obsessively negative. The musicians often left the masterclasses in tears.
He performed once during the 3 week session. The Mozart wind quintette. I
remember the performance as a colossal battle of style and will. Ettlinger
performed as if there were no other musicians present.
But, what I found more puzzling was that blind acceptance of his teaching
we sometimes come across in students. Not the teaching perhaps, but the
negative context. The Pay story comes as a coincidence as today a student
and I were going through exam repertoire lists and Ettlinger's name
surfaced as arranger of Mozart's "Church Sonatas" for clarinet and piano. I
immediately thought " We SHOULD NOT explore this work". On second thought
it may be a worthwhile project. One SHOULD explore whats out there before
passing judgement. How am I doing with the use of that pesky "S" word?
Dan
At 23:38 24/11/98 +0100, you wrote:
>When I was young, much younger than today, la la la, I encountered an
>Israeli clarinet player called Yona Ettlinger.
>
>I first heard his records, which were excellent. Then I heard that he
>was Professor of Clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music.
>
>I gave lessons to some of his students at Summer Courses. They were
>good players, but seemed a little stiff, and certainly in awe of him.
>They had a particular story to tell, that when you started to have
>lessons with him, he made you play long notes in the lower register for
>6 months, before you were allowed to play anything else. All of them,
>consequently, had good and resonant sounds, if not much else, I thought.
>
>I invited Yona to play in the London Sinfonietta, of which I was
>principal clarinet, and a director. I thought we might play the
>Schoenberg Chamber Symphony together. It seemed ridiculous that there
>was such an excellent player in London who never played with us. He
>demurred, saying that he didn't like to play in unusual circumstances.
>
>Then I gave a masterclass on the South Bank, in the South Bank Summer
>Festival, to which he came, and which included one of his best students.
>Afterwards, backstage, he said, "You are very free." I didn't know
>quite what he meant, but thought of it as a compliment.
>
>Then, suddenly, he died, of a heart attack.
>
>His students at the Guildhall were stricken. The Principal phoned me,
>and asked whether I would take on the teaching of his students, a week
>or two before their final examinations. Of course, I agreed.
>
>One young girl came and played to me. Yona had made an arrangement of
>some Rameau, and this was what she brought.
>
>At the end, she said, "How should I play the last two bars?"
>
>"Well," I said, "you could do it quite a few different ways. You could
>do a bit of a ritardando, as you did. Or, you could go almost in tempo,
>and place the last chord. Or, you could do more of a diminuendo, and
>end it quietly, because the harmony lets you do that. Or,.."
>
>But at that point, she burst into tears.
>
>I didn't know really what to do, but I put my arm a bit awkwardly round
>her shoulders. (You'd be living dangerously doing that nowadays.)
>
>"What's the matter?" I said.
>
>"Well, he's dead, and now I'll *never know* how I should play it!"
>
>Subsequently, I took over Yona's job at the Guildhall for a few years.
>During this time, I had a couple of dozen students. Many of them became
>professional players, one or two famous in the jazz field (nothing to
>do with me, I hasten to add). One of them gave up the clarinet, and
>became a successful film composer. A few of the others still write to
>me, telling me what they are doing, but there wasn't a particularly
>outstanding soloist.
>
>Anyway, because of my workload at the time, I found it difficult to give
>them the lessons they were entitled to, and suggested that we might find
>someone else to make up the quota. It struck me that Yona's widow, who
>had been his assistant, and had done the same for him, might be
>interested. She was still living in London, and his students had liked
>her.
>
>I invited her to tea, to put the proposition to her. "After all, even
>if we have different ideas, it could be very good for them," I said.
>
>She looked at me.
>
>"You are very naive," she said.
>
>Tony
>--
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
>"...his playing soars so freely, one is aware of witchcraft without
> noticing a single magical gesture."
> (C.D.F.Schubart on the harpsichord playing of C.P.E.Bach)
>
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