Klarinet Archive - Posting 000164.txt from 2007/03

From: Simon Aldrich <simonaldrich@-----.ca>
Subj: [kl] re: Les violins du Roy (to Dan Leeson)
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 03:42:05 -0400

Hello Dan

>I had an opportunity to hear a pre-release of a disk in
>which the Violins du Roy played the Mozart Requiem with a first
>class chorus, Labadie conducting. While the performance was
>stupendous, the orchestra used not basset horns but clarinets. A
>very lovely woman played second clarinet, and a particularly fine
>male player played first.
>Questions: who were these players and are they regulars with
>Violins du Roy?"

Les Violons du Roy have no regular winds per se. In certain important
sections (oboes and horns) they try to have the same players concert
to concert.
Unlike the strings, no wind player is under contract.
With regard to the clarinets, many different people play with them. I
have played with them and most good Montreal freelancers have played
with them.
For the Requiem cd I believe the first clarinet was either Jean-
Francois Normand or Martin Carpentier and the second was either Marie-
Julie Chagnon or Marianne Croteau.

>Why in God's green earth did they play clarinets? The orchestra
>uses baroque bows, 18th century trumpets (with contemporary
>pitch). So why would they use clarinets. The performance of the
>work was negatively influenced by the clarinets, not in their
>performances but in the character of sound produced..
>I can think of only two reasons: (1) Labadie requested it, (2) no
>one in Montreal has basset horns.
>Please don't feel that I am asking for confidences. I'm not. I
>just want to know who those fine players were, and why they
>executed on instruments explicitly uncalled for by the composer.

This is a thorny question to answer. Not only because it touches upon
hot-button issues specific to this discussion list
but also because it relates to someone I deal with professionally
(Vlns du Roy conductor, Bernard Labadie).
I do not know why they chose clarinets instead of basset horns and it
would be irresponsible of me to speculate baselessly.
I might ask Maestro Labadie next time I see him why he chose clarinets.
(I am tempted to offer opinion on this whole issue, based on two
decades of trying to rent/borrow basset horns for myself and
colleagues and coming to grips with conductors' ambivalence toward
basset horns but this would not only be against better judgement but
also tangential to what you asked.)

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Simon Aldrich

Clarinet Faculty - McGill University
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre de l'Opera de Montreal
Clarinet - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
Buffet-Crampon Artist/Clinician

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