Klarinet Archive - Posting 000903.txt from 2003/04

From: Peter Stoll <peterstoll2000@-----.ca>
Subj: [kl] stage movement
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:43:59 -0400

I've always thought about stage movement as part of
the visual entertainment factor for a live audience.
But there are definite limits. Some of my formative
experiences:

-I was at the Belgrade clarinet competition many moons
ago. There was a young Japanese lady who was pulling
out all the stops, circular breathing, double tonguing
(and this was in standards like the Weber
Concertino!), flowery low-cut dresses, and enough
on-stage gyration to put a belly dancer to shame
(don't laugh; I had to improvise an accompaniment to
belly dancers 2 months ago at the intermission of a
concert performance of Mozart's "Abduction from the
Seraglio!")But I digress...this young lady while very
impressive was so over the top that it was getting on
some of our nerves, so imagine the reaction when, near
the beginning of the Brahms f minor, she gyrated
around so completely in a 360 that the clarinet
actually popped out of her mouth at the end of the
phrase! An open G made a huge and flat squawk! The
look of shock on her face was priceless...

-While in the Jeunesses Musicales World Youth
Orchestra in Berlin we taped an opera exerpt show for
outdoor performance at the Victory Statue (a
"Sternstunde" evening). Spectacular, at one point in
something from Aida I looked up and there were 2
elephants being led around in front of the stage.
Bizarre! But because we were faking to playback (the
20 000 auditors were quite far away on an encircling
lawn if I remember correctly) we clarinetists got a
tap on the shoulder and there were the
ever-mischievous trombonists wanting to "trade"
instruments and places. Let me tell you, watching
those guys imitate our over-the-top sturm-und-drang
motions had us laughing so hard I couldn't see the
music for the tears. Very funny but probably a grain
of uncomfortable truth there.

-Ever watch the oboe section of the Berlin Phil?
That's movement! (see the video of Abbado taking over
the helm and them playing Mahler 1)

-wasn't it here on list that I read of a newspaper
critic commenting that photos of clarinetists always
look like we're being bitten by a very determined
black snake?

But I still move a bit, it adds to the visuals for a
crowd used to MTV style kinetic energy. Just not over
the top or out of the mouth!

=====
Peter Stoll

University of Toronto
Toronto Philharmonia
Continuum Contemporary Music
ERGO ensemble
Ocean City Pops, NJ

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