Klarinet Archive - Posting 000700.txt from 1999/09

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] A 10-Worst List of Clarinet Works
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 22:11:11 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.31
> Subj: [kl] A 10-Worst List of Clarinet Works

My goodness. I don't even remember writing some of this. Perhaps
I plagiarized it. I do remember playing the arrangement by
Friedlander of the Meistersinger for a trio of clarinet, violin,
and piano. It was awful. Three people trying to duplicate that
monster of a piece.

The Waterson is hard for me to comment on. I never finished
playing it. We were always laughing too hard to conclude it.
Once we played it in Queens and the host for that evening had
a very pregnant wife. She went into labor about half way through
the second movement and all we said was "Keep breathing, we'll
be done with this turkey soon." We all went with her to the
hospital, laughing about that quartet. She had the baby on the
guerney in the emergency room and her husband asked me to cut
the chord. I fainted.

I must have mellowed. I hate only about half of the music below.
The rest I don't remember.

> Ok here it is - the infamous "bottom 10 list of all time" as
> compiled November 1975 by our own Dan Leeson:
>
> 1. Unaccompanied Clarinet - Luigi Arditi 3 Valses de Salon - Shott Publ.
> 2. Clarinet Sonata by a Famous Composer - Felix Mendelssohn Sonata ( G.
> Schirmer Publ.)
> 3. Most Pretentious Trio Arrangement - Richard Wagner - Die Meistersinger
> for Clarinet Violin Piano - Friedlander arr. (Schott publ.)
> 4. Funniest Clarinet Quartet - James Waterson Grand Quartet for 4 Clarinets
> (Southern Music)
> 5. Piano / Wind Quintet by an Aristocratic, Dead, Left-Handed Composer who
> could have doubled as a Naval Officer when required - Nicolai
> Rimsky-Korsakov Quintet in Bb (International Publ.)
> 6. Wind Octet - Georg Druschetsky - Six Partitas (Doblinger Publ.)
> 7. Ten Instruments - Geore Enesco - Dixtour (Salabert Publ.)
> 8. Solo Clarinet and Band - Rimsky Korsakov - Concerto (Omega Publ.)
> 9. Least Favorite Cadenza - Offenbach - Orpheus in the Underworld -
> (everybody publishes it)
> 10. Least Favorite Free-style Work - a 3 way tie
> Mozart - Cassation (Southern)
> Barrington - Nip and Tuc (Fischer Publ.)
> Khachaturian Trio (Leeds Publ)
>
> The original article also had various really funny commentary - I'll share
> with you the one about the Trio of
> Khachaturian - "A nightmare of Armenian folktunes in which the instruments
> come in one at a time while the audience goes out one at a time".
>
> We love ya Dan!!
>
>
> David Blumberg
> playit@-----.com
> http://www.mytempo.com
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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