Klarinet Archive - Posting 000019.txt from 2005/02

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] K388
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 22:32:18 -0500

I owe a great deal to this work. In the late 1960s I was hired
to play 2nd clarinet with what was the Lincoln Center Chamber
players but for a concert in Washington. Charlie Russo was
playing first clarinet and I have no idea why they hired me,
considering who they could have gotten.

The c minor was one of the works and I had played it many times.
But at that particular time, I was editing the material based on
the manuscript so I knew exactly what Mozart wrote and where. We
had a rehearsal in New York and the next day was the concert.
The rehearsal went well and we were playing the Breitkopf &
Hartel edition of 1875. In the middle of the first movement we
came to a passage in which the 2nd clarinet has an extended
alberti bass eighth note figure while the oboe and clarinet have
a sustained melodic line. Knowing that the manuscript had that
passage all tongued for 2nd clarinet, I ignored the B&H edition
which had the notes all slurred.

After 8 measures, the contracter, Loren Glickman, called a halt
and very politely said, "clarinet, don't tongue that passage." I
should have shut up. A rehearsal is not the time for a
musicological discussion. But what I said was, "OK, but the
manuscript in Mozart's hand has the passage tongued."

Glickman, who was playing bassoon with major orchestras when I
was wearing short pants said, "That doesn't matter. It sounds
better slurred."

End of discussion. We did it the way he wanted it played. There
was no fuss.

But it really bothered me. How does Loren Glickman decide what
sounds better or worse? Was that his standard for concluding how
to play something; i.e., how he liked it? And by what mechanism
did he come to that conclusion? As magnificent a player as he
was, where did he come off blithely contradicting what Mozart
wrote?

It was at that time that I began to realize how empty opinions
based on taste were. It was Glickman who made me into a radical.
I never again after that time accepted such statements at face
value. I tried not to create a scene and did what I was told,
but whenever someone said, "It sounds better that way," my dander
would get up. And it was years later when at a performance of
361, Glickman wanted to use a contrabassoon because, he said, "It
sounds better," I said, "Why Loren? I don't think it sounds
better at all."

I was not hired again. Little lessons in life in the NY music
scene. Don't debate the contractor.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: GrabnerWG@-----.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 6:42 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] K388

In a message dated 2/1/2005 5:35:23 PM Central Standard Time,
tony.p@-----.org writes:
Yes, I think it works best without a conductor -- though it's
difficult if
not everyone has the same stylistic approach, which sometimes
means it's
useful to have some one person in control.>>

We agreed that everyone would be listened to in rehearsal.
However, if there
were differences of opinion, we agreed that one person would be
the "musical
director" and make the final decision. The principal oboe and I
worked out
the ornamentation in advance of the rehearsal.

Walter Grabner
_www.clarinetXpress.com.ebstyle.com_
(http://www.clarinetXpress.com.ebstyle.com)
World-class Eb clarinet mouthpieces

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| Jan 31 10:25:22 EST 2005 - end of day 10 - 103 donors |
| The 2005 Woodwind.Org Donation Drive is Underway. |
| Please visit http://secure.donax-us.com/donation for more |
| information. Help Keep the List Going! |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org
Sat Jan 29 11:56:46 EST 2005

   
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