 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2007-11-26 14:21
Why do these things seem to happen at the most important times?
Two nights ago I played a concerto movement with orchestra at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. As you can imagine, this was quite an honour for me. I was playing on a copy of a Grenser clarinet, made out of Boxwood. The temperature that night in the hall was quite high. I don't know if it was because of this that the wood swelled and my mouthpiece was very loose when it came time to play my solo. Half way through my piece I took the instrument away from my mouth to take a breath, but the mouthpiece stayed in my mouth!! I managed to catch it before it fell and put it back into the barrel, only missing the first note of the next phrase. I went into shock after I'd finished when I reflected on how close I had come to disaster!
Oh well, at least Benny Goodman wasn't in the audience!
Post Edited (2007-11-26 14:22)
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Author: JDJ
Date: 2007-11-27 06:19
During a concert, a piece featured a nice oboe solo. I noticed that during the initial part of the piece, the oboeist was obviously having trouble with the reed...and could not get a single note out of the instrument. The solo passage was coming up. Soon the conductor would be conducting the solo that was not going to be played....several bars of conducted silence. As solo clarinet player, I happenned to notice that the oboe solo was written in my part in very small type. So as the point came when our conductor queued the oboe, I looked at the oboeist, who obviously looked quite helpless at this point and who then gave me the nod ... and I played the solo part that evening. What fun. Our conductor was totally shocked. Instead of silence, the solo appeared as it had been that way all along. Later I had to explain that this was not a prank to the conductor ... all the while the poor oboeist was thanking me for saving the piece and the conductor from embarrassment. This was the only night that happened. The oboeist soon had a nice collection of reeds for each concert.
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Author: bob49t
Date: 2007-11-27 07:08
This is going to start another raft of disaster stories. Here's one.
20 yrs ago and my first exp of bass clar. Sugar Plum. Bedend of a hired instrument. Had practiced and no problem. No bass stand of course. Performance.....Laid instrument carefully on floor beside me until bass required for most famous solo. Picked up in plenty time. Nothing but squeaks for first two solos....what the ?..... Profuse perspiration. Scrambled brain. found prob. Top trill key had jumped out and was kept open by its guide ! Just got last solo to tuts and searing gaze from MD. Mortification. Get me home quick for bottle of wine.
Bass playing however improved with experience and own instrument. Now having love affair with bass clar.
BobT
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2007-11-27 08:36
My former clarinet teacher was playing the Weber quintet several years ago and the tiny pivot screw in the upper part of his clarinet holding the key rings got loose in the 3rd movement so he had to suport the key rings while playing and it totally ruind it. The critic from the news paper said that he should have stopped playing,tight it on and begin the movement again. What do you think ?
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2007-11-27 15:00
Not a clarinet story but when the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble was playing a concert at BGSU in the early 80s, one of the French horn players had a valve string break right in the middle of a piece. The ensemble stopped and one of BGSU's horn faculty members got his personal instrument so the ensemble could finish the work (he restrung the valve,returned the player's instrument, and recovered the "loaner").
As I recall the Toledo Blade's music critic at the time, Boris Nelson, was in front of us and made a humorous comment in his review.
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Author: Jaysne
Date: 2007-11-27 15:01
I was at that concert, and remember the whole sequence!
After Stoltzman gestured to Benny, I looked back behind me and gazed for a few moments at this living legend. Then, as I turned back, my dad, who was sitting next to me, said, "His clarinet just fell apart." He had seen what had happened. I looked up at the stage and I saw Stoltzman feverishly putting on the bottom joint and then play-testing the horn. Not finding any apparent problems, he then launched into the next (and I believe final) piece.
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