Klarinet Archive - Posting 001138.txt from 2000/12

From: Neil Leupold <leupold_1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Julius Baker vs. Zoon
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 09:17:40 -0500

--- Tony Wakefield <tony-wakefield@-----.net> wrote:

> And continuing: you are not way out of your league in this list - you are but
> <new>, and you have to get to know us, as we do you. Do NOT disappear to
> lurk again. Stay in touch to voice your opinions. Do that intelligently and
> we will have one more guy to speak to.

Actually, I think Mr. Gallant has been around on the list for a few years.
I've been around for nearly seven, and I seem to remember posts from him
dating back at least a year or two, if not more. I could be mistaken.

> Finally, would you allow me to express how <I> feel about all our "finest"
> instrumentalists. I don`t think any of the adjectives we apply - brilliant,
> perfect technician, style, taste, musicianship, ears, flexibility etc are
> suitable ones to apply to any of them.

<snip> and:

> I say to all students who are just beginning to show signs of big talent,
> don`t place <anyone> on a pedestal. Extract something of worth/value from
> whoever you admire, then continue to work hard in your own quest for, not
> perfect perfection, (because that way will bring lots and lots of anguish)
> but a <competence>, and a level head, which will securely carry you thru`
> your career.

Oh, I must disagree Tony, especially with respect to young musicians, who
are more likely to cultivate fantasy and dreams in their minds than adults.
I started playing clarinet when I was around 8 years old, but I didn't be-
come truly inspired about the instrument for another 3 or 4 years...when
I heard Sabine Meyer play Weber's Concertino for the first time on KDFC
radio in San Francisco. Those fifteen minutes (or however long it was)
were a revelation for me, an epiphany, and suddenly I realized how in-
credibly much I wanted to play like she did. Her technical and musical
polish were beyond my ability to conceive, and she truly was a "goddess"
to me in those days. Not long after hearing that recording, I heard an-
other one (now quite famous for its flash) that boggled my mind even fur-
ther: Stoltzman's rendition of Rossini's Intro, Theme, and Variations.
I spent days afterward denying to myself that it was humanly possible
to produce the high C with which he had modified the very end of the
piece. Granted, neither of these pieces of music is particularly pro-
found -- certainly not the Rossini -- but to my young ears, the feats
of musical expression and blazing fingers that Sabine and Stoltzman
demonstrated were easily enough to lend them the status of clarinet
deities -- husband and wife in the firmament of the gods, as it were.
And so they reigned supreme for a few months, until Papa Leister came
along and blew the doors wide open on the whole issue...

These players and others were sources of incalculable inspiration for me
when I was growing up. Daydreaming as an 11-year old about being on stage
someday, playing Weber's Concertino, but with Sabine Meyer's sound coming
out of my instrument...this was the kind of inspiration that spurred me
steadily onward through middle school and high school, straight into an
undergraduate degree in clarinet performance. At my worst moments of frus-
tration, when I was just seconds away from smashing my instrument to pieces
against the practice room wall, I'd hit "play" on my Walkman and listen to
one of the Gods playing Galanta or Pines or Ginastera -- pick one: Wright,
Combs, Drucker, Meyer, Leister -- and it was like receiving a transfusion
of new oxygen rich blood. It wasn't discouraging -- it was electrifying,
largely based on how dearly I idolized these people who I so very much
wanted to emulate.

I doubt my experience is unique, or even terribly colorful compared to
some others' stories about who their first clarinet gods were. I still
fantasize about and idolize these players, with the addition of dozens
of others whose level I will never reach. I certainly don't see how
my adoration for their playing could be detrimental to my own progress.
Fantasy and dreams are an important part of any person's growing process,
I think. We have to envision things far beyond ourselves, things that
seem impossible or forever out of reach, in order to stretch what we
believe to be our own potential. All the better if there are actually
models of that potential already extant, available for us to appreciate,
examine, and aspire to.

-- Neil

P.S. Sorry about that -- I hate dangling modifiers.

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