Klarinet Archive - Posting 000524.txt from 2000/11

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Fantastique or catastrophe? (was: [kl] What is it? (Masochism))
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 08:27:07 -0500

Around Halloween, Tony Pay told us about the tribulations of finding the
right vintage Eb (or similar) clarinet to go on tour with an original
instruments performance of the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. He wrote,
>In this concert, we'd agreed to play at 435 because the bassoons have
>recently found a good pair of instruments that won't go higher.
>
>This Eb clarinet, a Simiot of around Berlioz's time, was designed to go
>quite a lot higher, I think. It's missing a mouthpiece, and a more
>modern style mouthpiece that isn't really what would have been used in
>the period puts it at around 438. Hence the dangling of a cord through
>the instrument, and filling in some holes.
[snip]
>So what finally went wrong today, apart from what I was having to
>extemporise with the faulty keywork (oversized sleeves, worn threads,
>pads not closing properly) was that a crack opened in the top joint that
>meant that the instrument wouldn't have been reliable enough on tour to
>Spain and Germany. Plus that the keywork needed more time for me to get
>used to -- everything is very close together, and it was too easy to
>touch the wrong key by mistake, and stop the right note (or indeed,
>*anything*) from coming out.
>
>Fortunately my good friend Lesley Schatzberger was willing to help out,
>and is sending her own instrument by courier to London from York
>tomorrow. I'll have an hour with that before the rehearsal.
>
>She says it knows the piece. I'll let you know!

I'm curious to hear how things worked out. What type of clarinet did you end
up playing? Did it behave itself?

Lelia

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