Klarinet Archive - Posting 000722.txt from 2003/03

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] The wrong Rossini
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 21:33:44 -0500

Here's a story about 'the Rossini variations' I find amusing to recall.

In 1972 I was principal clarinet in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
and was invited by them to play 'the Rossini' as soloist for a concert
in the Royal Festival Hall. But, I was also the clarinet player in the
London Sinfonietta, and we had a week-long engagement at the Holland
Festival, followed by an Italian tour conducted by Berio. It seemed
there was a clash. (The co-principal clarinet was covering the concert,
which is why I'd been able to take on the tour.)

However, I worked out that there might not be a clash. There was only
the one rehearsal for me on the afternoon of the concert with the RPO,
and it so happened that the date coincided with a travel day on which
the Sinfonietta moved from Amsterdam to Florence. With clever travel
planning, it *was* possible....

(I of course quite fancied this. Young, jet-set clarinet player flies
in and out to play his concerto....:-)

So, I organised it, and duly turned up on the afternoon of the concert.
It so happened that the programme also contained Henryk Szeryng
performing both a Mozart concerto and the Ravel Tzigane, so what with
one thing and another, I didn't get onstage until towards the end of the
rehearsal. I think there was about 35 minutes left -- but it's not a
complicated piece to put together.

Anyhow, the conductor shook my hand, and then said to me something like,
do you want to give the upbeat, or shall I, and you follow me?

Which surprised me, because 'my' Rossini began with a few bars played by
the orchestra alone.

So we quickly found out what had happened. The orchestra and I had
different pieces! They had, 'Theme and Variations' for clarinet in C
and orchestra, while I had 'Introduction, Theme and Variations' for
clarinet in Bb and orchestra. We desperately tried to get the material,
but of course it was too late.

So I had a very large gin-and-tonic, and listened to the concert, in
which the orchestra played 'Oberon' as a replacement for the Rossini.
It was a very curious sensation to be angry and frustrated, but at the
same time also relaxed and relieved. Not a mixture you often encounter.

Of course the next day I then had to go back to Italy, and everybody in
the Sinfonietta asked, how did it go? Because of course they all knew,
not only because I'd been practising it, but because I'd told them.....

I now think it's a shame that the beginnings of the pieces differed
enough for the conductor to ask me how I wanted to start. Otherwise, it
would have been my very own real example of the famous nightmare, in
which the orchestra begins another concerto than the one you've
prepared!

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

... Here I am! Now what are your other two wishes?

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