Klarinet Archive - Posting 000818.txt from 2003/02

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Clarke's note on Rosario Mazzeo
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 15:36:54 -0500

I loved Rosario dearly but his book is a very pale shadow of how he
behaved in his live teaching environment. He lit up the sky with his
personal involvement, and that may be why I was so disappointed with his
book. Neither he, nor anyone else, could capture in words how effective
he was as a teacher.

Whenever I had a really tough b.c. part to play, I would go down and
work on it with Rosario. He would then tell me how Koussevitsky did it,
and how Munch did it, and how Leinsdorf did it, and how 20 other
conductors did it. It was not at all a lesson in how to play a
difficult part. He figured you could do that. It was a lesson in the
various perspectives that could be brought to a part.

I was no kid when I worked with him, but when I got done, I always felt
like a kid, so encouraging was he. And when he came to concerts in
which I was a participant, just looking at his face light up when we did
something special was quite an event.

Clarke, me, Marc Brandenburg, and two others (I forget who) played the
adagio for clarinets and basset horns for him at a concert. I narrated
that evening, stating how his influence on all of us enabled a greater
understanding of the spirit behind the composition, and that kind of
talk was something I would never think of with anyone other than him. It
was far too romantic and imprecise to use for anyone other than Rosario.

The most treasured compliment I ever got was from him. We were doing
the Mahler Das Lied von der Erde which is a bass clarinet player's
nightmare of exposed passages. And Jessye Norman was the female
soloist. When I got done, he came up to me and said, "Pretty good."
Coming from him, that was high praise indeed.
--
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**Dan Leeson **
**leeson0@-----.net **
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