Klarinet Archive - Posting 000129.txt from 2011/02

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Tony Pay, David Zinman and OAE at Basingstoke
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:45:26 -0500


On Saturday, Feb. 12, I watched the IC Live Stream of the Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment concert in Basingstoke, conducted by David Zinman, from
the OAE website, http://www.oae.co.uk/ . The program was Mendelssohn's A
Midsummer Night's Dream, Weber's Clarinet Concerto no. 1 (Antony Pay,
clarinet) and Beethoven's Symphony no. 7.

David Zinman's conducting style seemed musician-friendly and confident to
me. He beats time (unlike many conductors today) and shows clearly what
expression he wants without flailing or looking desperate. The seating
arrangement looked good for the clarinets, in the back row: no brasses or
drums roaring in clarinet players' ears or trombone slides poking the napes
of their necks....

People here probably already know that this is a first-rate orchestra, but
because of technical problems with the feed, I'm not going to presume to
review the musicians' tone quality or the audio balance. My audio sounded
muddy, with the timpani way too loud, among other things. I don't know
whether my computer setup or the feed itself or both caused the trouble.
The picture looked grainy and jumpy. It didn't quite sync with the audio.
Sometimes both picture and sound completely froze, from approximately two to
fifteen seconds. At the end of a freeze, the screen would lurch ahead to
catch up with the live feed. After the longest freezes, the lurch included
a squealing noise that sounded like fast-forward on an old VHS tape.

For instance, one of the hangups occurred shortly before the clarinet's
final entrance in the Weber and didn't resolve until just after he'd begun
that entrance. I assume Tony Pay didn't stand on his head or make
cuckoo-bird noises with the clarinet during that dead zone in the broadcast,
but I wouldn't know, and therefore I don't want readers to trust my comments
very much. However, for what it's worth....

The Mendelssohn got things off to a fine start. I enjoyed the sarrusophone
(used for that piece only) - not an instrument that takes the stage every
day. In the Weber concerto, which Tony Pay sometimes conducts himself (as
on his CD of this piece), he used the music and stood at the front while
Zinman conducted in the traditional way, in an exceptional performance.
Tony Pay (who played with the orchestra during the Mendelssohn and the
Beethoven) has all the virtuosic chops, but he means what he writes when he
stresses musicianship over mere technique. I like watching him. Remember
that recent thread on the bulleting board about soloists who jump around
like jackrabbits, as opposed to soloists who go so rigid you could use them
as jackposts? Tony Pay's found the middle ground. He looks as if he lets
the music decide whether, when and how the human part of the instrument
needs to move. He and David Zinman and the orchestra made music with that
Weber concerto and the audience responded with enthusiastic, prolonged
applause.

These pieces compliment each other well. I'd never appreciated before that
there's a kinship of spirit between A Midsummer Night's Dream and the last
movement of Beethoven's Symphony no. 7. Zinman took that last movement
lickety-split and afterwards, the audience went Basingstoke. (Okay,
somebody had to say it. Sorry. Fans of Ruddigore will understand. At any
rate the audience did give a long and clearly sincere, though perfectly
sane, ovation with multiple callbacks, and wanted an encore but didn't get
one.)

Jane Feline made herself useful throughout. First she made me miss about
two minutes in the middle of the Mendelssohn by offering a bargain: If I
wanted to attend to the rest of the concert in peace, I could feed her
early. So I fed her early, but she reneged on the deal. The clarinet
especially excited her. I held her on my lap for awhile but she got too
antsy for mere affection. Odd thing - Shadow Cat hated the clarinet and
would leave the room at the first sound of one, but it seems to be Jane
Feline's favorite instrument. Tail happily aloft, she climbed the stairwell
curtain; she climbed me; she gnawed my shoelaces; she hunted toys she's
trained me to throw for her (we don't call this "playing fetch" - dogs play
fetch...); she walked teetering around the narrow stair railing several
times....

I envy those of you who could attend in person with neither cat nor computer
interrupting, but I'm glad I got to hear this concert at all.

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/Lelia_Loban

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