Klarinet Archive - Posting 000093.txt from 2008/11

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevin.fay.home@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Insulting Americans?!
Date: Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:31:55 -0500

On Nov 8, 2008, at 6:22 PM, Alexander Brash wrote:

<<<But what I want to understand is - *why* do you view that as so "dumb?"
Let us assume for a moment that there is equal value in bringing fresh
perspective to an ensemble as there is to retaining institutional
knowledge.>>>

. . . to which Ed Wojtowicz replied:

<<<Of course, keep in mind that the experience that Drucker, Combs, Cohen or
countless others bring to the job. The knowledge and day to day real life
experience is far more valuable to the ensemble and overall performance than
the just having the technique. There is a different level of playing and
understanding that comes from playing and revisiting works many times. I am
sure that any player who has played for a number of years will tell you that
they have a much deeper and broader understanding of how to do their job and
of the music than when they began.>>>

Mr. Brash's assumption is (sorry) quite brash. It is also absolutely wrong.

An example would be the back row of the Chicago Symphony. One can argue
about he bigness of the Big 5, but amongst brass cognoscenti (brassholes)
there's a fairly universal consensus that they've been off-the-chart
fantastic for quite some time. A Big Reason for this is that they play so
well *together* - after dozens of years, a bunch of old folks with talent
tend to play in tune with each other, on levels much deeper than intonation.

Firing Bud Herseth or Stanley Drucker the day they turned 65 is simply
moronic.

kjf

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