Klarinet Archive - Posting 000878.txt from 2000/08

From: rgarrett@-----.edu
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: singing helps playing
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 17:35:43 -0400

At 09:27 PM 08/27/2000 +0100, you wrote:
>Nevertheless, I have never got over hearing the version of West Side
>Story, done by, among others, Jose Carreras and Kiri te Kawana. This
>'operatic' approach, dedicated to sustained line at the expense of the
>words, as opera so often is, totally subverts the point of the piece.

This is an interesting statement. The version you describe was conducted
and overseen by the composer of the music who, I assume, was aware of the
point of the [music].

>And these artists aren't stupid. How could they have produced such a
>travesty? Bernstein himself, caught up in a stunt that he probably
>wished he'd never begun, showed understandable irritation during the
>film of the recording.

This isn't true - I asked him personally about those recordings in 1987
after a concert in Ann Arbor, MI (where he conducted the Vienna Phil with
the Mahler 5th symphony and the Mozart Clarinet Concerto) and he said they
were among his favorite recordings. I am aware of the rumors surrounding
those recordings, and I have a copy of the video of "the making of.....",
but it wasn't a stunt, and I know from visiting with him that he didn't
feel that way. Irritated? Yes......but only because Jose Carreras
wouldn't respond to his passes at him!

Sincerely,
Roger Garrett

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director, Symphonic Winds
Advisor, IWU Recording Services
Illinois Wesleyan University
School of Music
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
(309) 556-3268

A Clarinetist's Revenge is sometimes personified by the following excerpt
from the London Daily News, circa 1926:

"The saxophone is a long metal instrument bent at both ends. It is alleged
to be musical. As regards markings, the creature has a series of tiny taps
stuck upon it, apparently at random. These taps are very sensitive: when
touched they cause the instrument to utter miserable sounds suggesting
untold agony. Sometimes it bursts into tears. At either end there is a
hole. People, sometimes for no reason at all, blow down the small end of
the saxophone which then shrieks and moans."

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