Klarinet Archive - Posting 000101.txt from 2002/04

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: RE: [kl] memorization
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 22:16:54 -0500

On Tue, 02 Apr 2002 19:07:46 -0500, karlkrelove@-----.net said:

> Tony,
>
> Why, for my own curiosity, did you *have to* play the Berio Sequenza
> from memory? Was it your choice? Have you played it often since?

It was required by the composer. I remember being telephoned and asked
to do the date one evening by John Woolf, and his saying, "There's just
one catch...it has to be from memory." So, I'd never done that before,
and wanted to think about it for a bit. "Well, I'm going away tomorrow
early," he said. "You could phone me at 5am!" So I did, and found
myself saying yes. The concert was about 5 weeks away.

It was quite dramatic. All the sequenzas Berio had written up till then
were on the programme, plus a piece written by someone else for the
whole ensemble, based on the material of the sequenzas. We had to
fumble our way out in turn onto a blacked out stage and play in a single
spotlight, and there were poems written by Sanguineti to be spoken in
between.

The interesting thing was the very heavy atmosphere in the green room.
To start with, there was a gloomy, almost total silence.

Then the flute player went out and after a bit came back offstage,
having played her rather slight piece; then someone else; and after a
bit there was a little group of happy people laughing and chatting,
because they'd done their bit.

So at the interval, the room was divided into two roughly equal groups,
one happy, one still miserable!

Still, we all got through it in the end.

I have played it quite often since, but not from memory, I have to say.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Ambivalent? Well, yes and no.

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