Klarinet Archive - Posting 000243.txt from 1998/12

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] It's all Tony Pay's fault!
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 02:05:43 -0500

I am really angry at Tony Pay. He has set me back a day's work.
Let me explain.

I was working hard this morning trying to come up with a list of
all Mozart autographs in the United States by repository as well as
a list of those autographs that are in America but whose locations
are unknown. The data is needed for the next edition of the
Koechel catalog which is expected to be out early in the next
millenium. I figured with a day's hard work, I could catch up from
an already late schedule.

So I am sitting working like a beaver when I decided to put
something on my CD player, something that would be innocuous and
would not distract me from my work. And that is why I am angry at
Tony Pay.

I made the bad mistake of selecting the Mozart and Beethoven
piano/wind quintets, K. 452, and Op. 16 respectively, slipped in
the CD and then went back to my pile of papers.

But within 30 seconds, I was lost. This performance was so
exquisite, so intelligent, so remarkably different that I stopped
work and started to listen HARD. The performers were Tony Pay,
Frank de Bruine (oboe), Danny Bond (bassoon), and Tony Halstead
(horn) with Bob Levin on forte-piano, and all the players executed
on original instruments.

Now most of you know how I feel about improvisation in performances
of Mozart's music. I am a bull on the subject, and here is this
absolutely gorgeous performance with ALL FIVE MEN improvising
cleverly, challenging each other, passing performer-created lines
from one to the other. It was absolutely breathtaking!! With
intonation that an icepick couldn't crack. I think they were
enjoying themselves (and that made me especially angry - I'm being
interrupted by men enjoying themselves).

So did I listen and then go back to work? No. I played the damn
thing again, and then again.

If I miss my schedule it will be Tony's fault and that is why I am
very angry at him. That he should play so imaginatively and so
beautifully (as did all the other players, too but he was the
clarinetist so I am most angry at him out of jealousy) caused me to
forget all about what I was supposed to be doing.

So now I am a day behind and it is all Tony's fault.

I'll fix his wagon. I'll give you all the recording information,
you can go and buy it, and then you will all be angry with Tony.
When enough people are in that emotional state, he'll be sorry.

DECCA: 455 994-2, Mozart-Beethoven: Quintets for fortepiano
and wind instruments. Robert Levin with The Academy of
Ancient Music Chamber Ensemble

Furthermore, the next time Tony stays at my house, I will make
certain not to feed him!

How am I going to get back on schedule? Well, no more Pay
recordings, that's for sure!

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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