Author: donald
Date: 2006-08-16 11:44
kia ora
i travelled to Clarinetfest to perform clarinet duos by NZ composers, and have to say that what i noticed most this year was that lots of people had reed problems. This is just a guess, but i'd say more people than usual ended up on stage thinking "man, this was a good reed 5 min ago!"
But that being said, there certainly were a lot of good performances, and i have to agree that Tom Martin was one of these.
I've never been a fan of Laura Ardern, but have to say that her performance on the last night was stunning (regardless of my opinion of that Brahms transcription, and i can imagine a long post about that!). I couldn't help thinking that she was pretty lucky to be playing in the best acoustic of the week. As a performer i had no problems with the acoustics at the Omni, but as an audience member i felt a little cheated. Where you sat made a HUGE difference to how it sounded.
i only spent about 2 hours total in the exhibits- this was barely enough time to look around and talk to a few old friends, certainly not enough time to try any instruments etc other than the barrel i bought from Mike Lomax (which i tested by sneaking out a back door into a lobby space- an easy route for a thief me thinks). There were plenty of people (including BB regulars) that i would have liked to chat with and only had the chance for a brief greeting. Many of the exhibitors were very very busy, and in some cases the chance to socialise took a back seat to making money- which i certainly ain't gonna to hold against anybody.
Alltogether a good way to spend the week (Clarinetfest, i mean), next week i fly back to NZ for another few months of gigs before Xmas, and i feel excited about playing the clarinet again (and, this will sound nerdy i know, i want to get busy doing more scales...). This morning, however, i am recovering from genuine Tenneseeeee moonshine, and might need to rest my little head.
keep playing the good tunes
donald
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