 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-02-10 01:03
In January 2013, some posts appeared here concerning the mouthpieces and instruments played by Louis Cahuzac and Yona Ettlinger (who studied with Cahuzac). Many people believe Cahuzac played a 2RV Vandoren "Diamond Perfecta" mouthpiece and gave one of his mouthpieces (probably of the same description) to Ettlinger. This may be true but evidently Ettlinger had the German craftsman Johann Berger design a mouthpiece especially for him that he later used.
Ettlinger student Eli Eban gave Ramon Wodkowski an opportunity to examine two of Ettlinger's mouthpieces, and Wodkowski wrote about them quite descriptively at
https://www.facebook.com/WodkowskiMpc.
The Ettlinger piece description, along with one photo of one of the mouthpieces, begins a few inches down below the discussion of Reginald Kell's mouthpiece made by A. Warrell of Deal, Kent.
Wodkowski notes that Johann Berger used German blanks no longer available that "produce unique resonance." The overall design of the mouthpiece was a "hybrid" of French and German bore and chamber, with a "small tight bore and high baffle which gave incredible focus and intensity to the sound." "The window is long and A-framed...[with] a prominant roll under the tip,"
Isn't it interesting that neither Louis Cahuzac nor Yona Ettlinger used Chedvilles?
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2014-02-09 20:23
Some 25 or so years back I used to play in a clarinet ensemble with a player who had studied at one of the London colleges with Yona Ettlinger.
I strongly recall that she said he had directed his students to the Vandoren 5RV (5RV = 2RV) at that time so perhaps he was still using one then.
As a side comment I recall that she was not overly impressed with his teaching.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-02-10 03:19
She may not have been impressed by his teaching, but I don't see how she could fail to be impressed by his playing. If you love transparency and luminosity of tone I suppose he and Cahuzac are the ne plus ultra of that ideal. Ettlinger, in addition, is remarkably expressive in his recorded performances in subtle ways that do not, for example, require the use of vibrato or rubato.
In any case I often laugh at myself as typical of clarinetists who sometimes want to recover that "classic French sound" by finding the holy grail Chedeville mouthpiece that will accomplish that end, even if it costs a month's pay. The irony is that no one was more classic French in timbre than Cahuzac and Ettlinger, and they drank from other holy grails. We clarinetists are a strange lot indeed.
Post Edited (2016-05-27 21:58)
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2014-02-10 15:43
I studied with Yona Ettlinger and knew him well.
He used a number of mouthpieces, including a re-faced Selmer. But I can tell you that he could get the same fabulous results -- tone, intonation, articulation, control -- on just about any mouthpiece, including my various brands (Kasper, Vandoren, Bay, etc.).
I was in Paris, staying with Yona, when he was preparing for his RCA recording of the Mozart Quintet with the Tel Aviv String Quartet. He was playing his Selmer mouthpiece, as I recall.
I tried it on his (newly selected) Buffet R13 A (there were about 20 of them in his apartment at the time, spread out on almost every available chair or sofa). The surprising thing was how light his setup was. I don't know the strength of reed he used because he got his reeds at Vandoren in Paris before they were graded as to strength. In fact, I once went with him to a reed-trying session at Vandoren and he tried about 100 reeds in that condition, selecting not more than 15 for his personal use.
In my opinion, Yona Ettlinger was one of the greatest musicians ever to play the clarinet. His death from a heart attack in his mid 50's was a real tragedy.
Paul Globus
Post Edited (2014-02-10 15:45)
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2014-02-10 19:06
Vandoren always graded their reeds (some may think not very accurately!) but they didn't print the number on the actual reed until more recent years (1980s??).
When I visited VD at 56 Rue Lepic in the 1970s they would offer you a container containing the reed strength of your choice to try - think Health and Safety today.
The test room unfortunately was very resonant and usually already had 4-5 students from the Conservatoire busily blowing away so reed testing was not always very useful.
I never caught anything nasty there, and hopefully didn't pass anything on.
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2014-02-11 00:35
That's the place -- the resonant, conference-type room, the container of reeds, no "health and safety" standards whatsoever.
Once when I was there with Yona Ettlinger, there was a 14-year-old French kid present. He was ostensibly trying reeds but what he was really doing was showing off his amazing ability to double and triple tongue. No one was paying much attention him, which irked him no end. Yona referred to him afterwards as "the circus performer."
Paul Globus
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Author: ruben
Date: 2014-02-11 12:04
Dear Paul,
I would encourage you to write about Yona Ettlinger; a great clarinetist and a fascinating figure. This thread is supposed to be about his mouthpiece, but who cares about his mouthpiece?! It's the man and the artist most of us are interested in. His recording of the Brahms clarinet quintet is unmatched. Who else studied with him here in France? Perhaps Philippe Cuper did for a while. So, by all means, write about your experiences, why not for the Clarinet Journal.
Thank you.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2014-02-11 17:49
Dear Ruben,
I probably should write about Yona Ettlinger. I actually don't know much about his other students. The only two I know personally are James Campbell and Eli Eban, both of whom are my vintage and studied with him around the same time I did. They are both exceptionally fine players and musicians, as you know.
Yona Ettlinger was unique in his approach, I believe, because he wasn't so focused on the instrument as he was on the music he was trying to interpret with his instrument. He put a lot of effort into understanding a piece of music. He once told me in a lesson on the Mozart Quintet that Mozart is a composer who "laughs with one eye and cries with the other." I needed to remember that when I was playing Mozart, he said. That phrase actually made it into the jacket notes for his astoundingly beautiful recording of that piece with the Tel Aviv String Quartet (he wrote the notes himself), which made me smile.
I attended a couple of rehearsals for that recording with Yona. This group must have performed the Quintet a least 100 times but they still found details to work on. There was a lot of lively discussion in Hebrew that I didn't understand but I do recall at one point what seemed like an endless repetition of the coda of the second movement -- playing with balances, blend, minute fluctuations in tempo, etc. in search for the right "mood," as Yona explained it to me afterwards. It was a real eye-opener for me.
Whenever I listen to the recording now I remember that rehearsal and marvel at how beautiful the coda sounds. In fact, I think of the image that Yona himself imparted to me about these last few bars. This is Mozart as a youngster, he said, leaving in a carriage for one of his tours, but looking back with a hint of sadness and waving goodbye to his mother. Wonderful.
Yona Ettlinger wasn't really a clarinet player. He was a musician who played the clarinet. We should all try to emulate that.
Paul Globus
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Author: Lam
Date: 2014-02-11 18:11
what i feel is that Yota Ettinlinger played similarly as Alfred Prinz, both played with best musicianship and were most honest in their approach to the music they played, and one could focus on the music listening to them, not their phrasing or technique etc. Although Alfred Prinz used a Viennese setup and Ettlinger used a boehm setup, both of their clarinet tone had so much resonances, that i thought they were using the similar setup.
Post Edited (2014-02-11 13:13)
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-02-11 13:12
Yona Ettlinger and Harold Wright were two of the best musicians to play clarinet in the 20th century, If we don't keep Ettlinger's memory and performances alive, we deprive ourselves of a major part of our musical legacy.
Fortunately, the http://Yonaettlinger.weebly.com/index.html website is a good start. It lists (many of?) his commercial recordings, providing samples of some, and also lists 23 Ettlinger students besides the well-known Campbell and Eban.
Some of the students, in a video clip from an Ettlinger reunion in 2012, recount their experiences with him.
Ettlinger's gear is important because he chose to use it, not the other way round.
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