 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: William
Date: 2009-07-02 15:33
Last evening, I heard Emma playing an arrangement of tunes from "La Traviotta" with piano acc on WPR and her tone quality made me wonder about her reed. I've listened to her on various UTube vids and her tone quality is usually somewhat mellow. But last evening, it was quite bright and almost artificial with extremely crisp articulation--very much (to my ear) like a keyboards clar sample. Has she switched from cane to one of the new synthetic reeds?? Just wondering.....
BTW, her technique was impeccable, as usual.
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2009-07-03 01:28
I don't know the answer to your question, but I've observed the same thing.
I have her recording of the Weber 1st concerto and quintet (the CD also has the Weber 1st symphony).
In the concerto, I really enjoy her playing. As you mentioned, her tone quality is very pleasant, very mellow. I don't like her rendition of the quintet as much. I agree with your observation--it sounds at times like she playing on a cheap plastic reed (although her technique is impeccable).
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Author: BobD
Date: 2009-07-03 11:18
Yeh, Joe Green wrote a lotta good tunes......
Bob Draznik
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2009-07-03 15:42
Emma's sound is often extremely bright. I think that is her normal tone quality.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2009-07-03 18:08
Sorry, I just can't resist....
WARNING Old Geezer, don't read further unless you have a strong heart!
Here is a brief excerpt from Patrick Hanudel's review of Emma's new CD on Naxos for the latest issue of American Record Guide:
"....This release, like many of her other recordings, may appeal to a wide audience.
To those brought up in the French school of clarinetistry, however, her British approach [Ouch!] may be akin to fingernails on a blackboard. Although she has a wide dynamic range, her lack of an inner sound core makes her soft playing weak and unsupported and her loud playing spread and harsh. Her articulation, too, is difficult to digest; fast passages are sloppy and uncontrolled, and she often gives the impression that she is simply throwing her tongue at the reed [rather] than working for a disciplined approach (July/August, 2009, 210)."
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-07-04 00:24
> Patrick Hanudel's review
That's what I love about reviews - many are just so personal and convey no real message. They describe the fingernails on a black board, but not the poetry written thereon.
For the editor it's just an expensive method of buying an "I don't like it" article.
Basket case.
--
Ben
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2009-07-04 01:58
John McCaw once came home after teaching and said to his wife something like this: who is this Emma Johnson or what she is called? I had her for a lesson today and she was awful. She replied something like this: Oh she is the prize winning clarinetist from the BBC Young Musician competition. He was shocked that someone with so much lack in basic technic on the clarinet could get so far.
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Author: Old Geezer
Date: 2009-07-05 20:10
Emma is the the first woman to be made an honorary fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge University, and in 1996 Emma was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to music. Her uniformed and spitelful critic Paul H. is still in school! Poor fellow is so ignorant...and perhaps a bit deaf too!
Clarinet Redux
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-07-05 22:09
> But Old Geezer he is so correct in his critic.
Dunno.
IMO he's (dis)qualifying himself with the first quoted sentence "To those brought up in the French school of clarinetistry, however, her British approach [Ouch!] may be akin to fingernails on a blackboard."
That's as stupid as claiming that the scholars of French clarinetistry were pansies, shy of an independent interpretation and more or less imitated each other. (or whatever nonsense one might want to attribute to a group of artists)
You may find he's right, that's okay. But don't confuse an opinion (which you happen to agree with) with the truth.
--
Ben
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-07-05 23:53
tictactux wrote:
> IMO he's (dis)qualifying himself with the first quoted sentence
> "To those brought up in the French school of clarinetistry,
> however, her British approach [Ouch!] may be akin to
> fingernails on a blackboard."
Agreed. I think writing a sentence like that is a cop out.
If he finds her playing THAT unpleasant to listen to, he should just say so. Instead he invokes "the French school" to do the complaining for him.
So instead of being about the music, it becomes about the reviewer's supposedly "higher standards."
If this were a food review, I'd much rather read that the food was good or bad than to read about how they don't make bangers and mash at Le Cordon Bleu.
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2009-07-06 00:27
Yes, it is a very stupid comment. It only makes a statement about the 'British school' and not her.
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2009-07-06 01:16
Tictactux said:
"You may find he's right, that's okay. But don't confuse an opinion (which you happen to agree with) with the truth."
What you think/say is the truth I might find as just being your opinion.
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2009-07-06 11:52
Has anyone else realized that the question of her equipment has still not been answered at all?
Post Edited (2009-07-06 12:31)
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Author: Old Geezer
Date: 2009-07-06 14:01
In the past her web site has indicated she uses a Peter Eaton Mouthpiece and Vandoren V-12 #3's.
Was Jack Brymer a member of the "British School"? He was British wasn't he?
And it may interest all you Emma Fans, she also conducts...the Royal Philharmonic and the Mozart Players amongst others.
Clarinet Redux
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2009-07-06 14:21
And Richard Clayderman goes on stage on famous arenas and concert halls on a sold out concerts but I still find him bad.
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Author: Mike Clarinet
Date: 2009-07-07 07:58
I'm exremely proud to say Jack Brymer was a Brit. Possibly one of the most influential British performers and teachers of the Clarinet, and certainly a huge influence on me.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2009-07-07 11:22
"she also conducts"
Hmmm, Old Geezer, I'd just as soon she didn't. Now....I'm not a mysoginist or whatever way you spell it...I'm all for women.....but I find that when I see a woman conducting it just seems strange. First of all....all I've seen wear mens' clothes. If a woman wants to conduct why doesn't she just wear "womens' clothes" and look feminine. I get this "wolf in sheeps clothing" feeling. And then there's this dainty way of waving the arms. I've even played in groups where a woman conducted and it just seemed ......uh, .....different. Tell me it's me.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2009-07-07 11:37
I heard her on Radio 4 this morning (Women's Hour, don't ask...). She interviews well, it was great! I've said it before and I'll say it again: she has great ideas, is very musical and open-minded, I'd love to have lessons with her or at least sit down and chat about music, however I also agree with the nails down a chalkboard comment about her tone...
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-07-07 11:43
Bob,
hmm. So on one side you think a conductress should wear women's clothes, on the other side you don't like her feminine way of waving her arms.
I think tradition demands a director is wearing a suit. Whether it's a womens' suit or a mens' doesnt really care, but I think anything else would distract from the soloists. (I wouldn't want to imagine Elton John in his better days conducting a symphony nor would I think a female director in a sleeveless evening gown had the best idea ever)
Second - women are different, so why would you expect to move on podium the same way a man would? FWIW not all men wave and behave alike either.
Maybe it's you indeed. :-)
--
Ben
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Author: graham
Date: 2009-07-07 12:00
Once upon a time, John McCaw accepted an appointment to see a pupil about whom he knew nothing: no recommendation, no credentials, nothing. He was aghast to find that he was faced with someone who scarcely could navigate simple scales and arpeggios and who made a rotten sound. He then asked the wife (she who knows everything) who or what this person was. The wife said that she was famous after all, but poor McCaw just could not fathom how this had ever happened. How she could have got through several rounds against superb players even though she quacked like a duck and had a slovenly technique...... And then we all woke up and realised it was a fantasy.
Iceland Clarinet, I suggest your story is a myth that has been put about. But if you can persude John McCaw to post corroborating it, then I will withdraw that conclusion.
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2009-07-07 12:35
I got this story from his former student about 8 years ago and he is now around 80 years old and has not been well and the last time he was in hospital.
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2009-07-07 12:51
I feel that I have to comment here. I had always had reservations about Emma Johnson's tone and one or two other quirks, such as the shoulder movement and had heard one or two stories from people whose judgement I trusted but I had never heard her live. So just over a month ago I noticed that she was giving a recital in central London where I live, so I thought "Give the woman a chance" (after all, a lot can be altered in a recording or TV studio) and bought a ticket.
Well, I have to say that a lot of what I had always thought was borne out by what I heard. The tone was somewhat vibrato laden and she did some very strange things musically - for example in the Brahms F minor sonata she at times turned practically right round towards the piano so that the piano's sound overwhelmed hers at a point where she should have come through the texture. The performance of the Stravinsky three pieces was, I'm afraid, unrecognisable to me. These are just a couple of points which I remember most.
She performed the entire programme from memory which, whilst some may consider it a point in her favour, made me wonder whether she might benefit from revisiting the scores.
As always, of course, she put on a good show which some chatty introductions to pieces etc and one thing I noticed in particular was that she was not doing the shoulder any more which had to be a good thing.
After the concert I asked her about this when she was signing CDs and I asked whether it had been a conscious effort to get rid of the mannerism and she said "No, because you don't usually see yourself playing". Well, to put it mildly, I am surprised if someone of this kind of profile never practises in front of a mirror or watches herself on video of her TV appearances etc.
Now I am not denying that there are good points to her performances and I am not saying that international judges might not consider her a far better player than I am in a head-to-head competition but I am not a supposedly top flight international soloist commanding the ticket prices which Emma Johnson does.
I'm sorry but from what I saw and heard recently the Emperor has no clothes on.
Vanessa.
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2009-07-07 13:16
BobD- "First of all....all I've seen wear mens' clothes. If a woman wants to conduct why doesn't she just wear "womens' clothes" and look feminine."
Now, I am not going to jump into the grit of this conversation, but this reminds me of a concert flyer I saw recently. It was announcing a symphony concert with a very normal program. The only thing "unusual" about it was that the conductor is a woman- except I thought it was a man until I looked at the name! ... And even after I looked at the name I still was confused and thought that there might be maybe two conductors (one woman and one guy, maybe?) on this program and the picture was only of the guy or something.
From suit to haircut, I thought she was just some guy with a really close shave!!
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Author: Old Geezer
Date: 2009-07-07 15:43
Nessie1 wrote: "Now I am not denying that there are good points to her performances and I am not saying that international judges might not consider her a far better player than I am."
Aw Nessie, do you really believe someone might consider Emma "a far better player" than you? I bet she can't compare to you as a critic though.
Why don't you check out her web site...there are some sudio samples and a couple of videos, in one of which she gives one of her "nice little chats."
Clarinet Redux
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-07-07 16:43
Whenever you want an controversial thread, be sure to praise or condemn Emma Johnson in the first post...
I frankly admit that the first CD I heard of Emma inspired me to proceed with my clarinet. Something that eg Sabine Meyer failed to achieve...
(which is not meant to value one player over the other, don't get me wrong.)
--
Ben
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Author: William
Date: 2009-07-07 17:43
Guys and gals!!! Emma is a very good player, a musician and (yes, DB) a "cutie". All I really wanted to find out what what she used as a reed setup to generate that characteristic sound of her's? Cane or artificial?? And if "artificial, Forestone or Legere, or "other"??? Again, does anyone know???? (and thanks)
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-07-07 18:10
William,
...I have no idea. I don't even know if it was the reed, the venue or the recording, her mood or yours.
Maybe you just ask her? That's what I'd do.
(last time I contacted an artist re something similar I was sent a free CD when it came out some months later).
--
Ben
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Author: Old Geezer
Date: 2009-07-07 21:52
Try to keep up with this windy thread William...I've already posted here that Emma uses a Peter Eaton mouthpiece and Vandoren V-12 #3 reeds. The Old Geezer knows....
Morrigan's only contribution has been that he finds this tread condesending!
Clarinet Redux
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2009-07-08 07:18
Scroll up old geezer!
I'd like to point out at this point that she's doing better than most of us so perhaps there's something to learn there...
Post Edited (2009-07-08 07:19)
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Author: William
Date: 2009-07-08 14:43
Thank's, Geezer. That Eaton must be fairly open to allow the V12 #3 to sound like that. Nevertheless, for me, case closed.
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2009-07-08 14:48
I have to say that I don't really rate Peter's mouthpieces, the two he gave me when I bought my instruments have never worked.
I wonder if Emma's sound would change with a different one?
Peter Cigleris
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-07-08 16:29
Old Geezer, what other British clarinettists do you rate?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-07-08 21:08
Update: I asked Emma Johnson via her web site and she said that she made the CD (if that is indeed what was aired on WPR, William) quite a while ago and that she had no recollection of what reed she used back then, except that she could say for sure that it would have been a Vandoren.
Maybe it was indeed the venue, or the recording?
--
Ben
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Author: yearsofwisdom
Date: 2009-07-10 03:30
Definitely agree about the tone... she is just famous but her work isn't that amazing not to say its bad. i prefer Karl Leister or Neidich however
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