 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: GBK
Date: 2014-10-29 22:50
Sorry, with all respect to Leon, that was a waste of 9 minutes as nothing was really said.
I even watched part 2 and still, nothing of great value..
BTW - I did meet Leon a few times at Clarinetfest and even had breakfast with him once. A great story teller, a walking history book of clarinet tales, but his masterclasses always disappoint.
...GBK
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2014-10-29 22:55
I haven't seen it yet, but when I played a year earlier for him the Debussy Rhapsodie, a Clarinetist in the New Jersey Symphony (he was my age, and attending the festival, hadn't made NJSO yet) told me 10 years later that my playing / the class completely changed his view on how he played/approached the work.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2014-10-29 22:57
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> I haven't seen it yet, but when I played a year earlier for him
> the Debussy Rhapsodie, a Clarinetist in the New Jersey Symphony
> (he was my age, and attending the festival, hadn't made NJSO
> yet) told me 10 years later that my playing / the class
> completely changed his view on how he played/approached the
> work.
>
Oh geez ...
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2014-10-29 23:05
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> Oh geez is true.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2014-10-29 23:46
lots of conversation, but I did not receive much info.
richard smith
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Author: brycon
Date: 2014-10-30 06:22
Thanks for posting.
I heard about Russianoff's teaching from my own teachers. Never having the chance to study with him myself (he had passed away before I began playing the clarinet), I enjoyed these videos.
It's difficult to comment on someone's teaching based on part of a masterclass (you try to avoid openly contradicting the student's professor, balance specific comments to the performer with general comments to the audience, and so on). Nevertheless, I found what Russianoff said to be more stimulating than the pedagogical bromides that get tossed off at most clarinet classes and repeated ad nauseam on the bboard.
The concept of blowing well before you play a note (so that you aren't beginning with the "freshest" air) in order to lower the pitch is worth noting. Although it's something I figured out on my own, a few years ago that nugget would have been worth a thousand tip of the tongue to the tip of the reed's. Furthermore, as a teacher, I found Russianoff's masterclass persona to be quite interesting: he was incredibly personable and enthusiastic, as if he approached the class as a performer himself.
At any rate, Walter Benjamin wrote (in paraphrase) that teaching shouldn't be about information. If you're really looking for information, read the newspaper (or a method book).
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-10-30 11:47
I audited a master class back in 1983(?) at the Klarfest in D.C. and recall being inspired enough to purchase his complete clarinet method and wish I were a New York resident. Russianoff came off as grandfatherly and caring with all the participants. I remember this more by contrast when in a subsequent class one of his purportedly best students kacked a passage and Russianoff openly chastised him for not playing as well as he could. I chalked that up to both of them being quite comfortable with each other.
Personally I think there were quite a few BIG concepts going on in these snippets. Maybe it all got lost in the fact that what he was doing with the student made the student confused while in this performance sort of setting. I'll be the first to admit that I want to hear a tangible improvement (sorta a "I'll believe it when I see it" moment) during master classes to reinforce the idea that whatever is being said could work for me too when I get back to the practice room. But when things don't work that way it shouldn't rule out the validity of what's being said.
Two things to remember about Mr. Russianoff are that he was controversial all along and he DID have the most impressive list of successful students of probably any clarinet teacher. And I don't believe he did it by charging $400 per lesson like Robert Marcellus to weed out all but the most serious students either.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2014-10-30 12:53
Interesting thread. I think many are missing the gold to be mined.
Russianoff was always a controversial figure esp with his contemporaries who were successful teachers (Marcellus and Gigliotti) since he was not a performer.
A few things to consider:
> He had an amazing track success and his top students credited their time with Leon as being the most important part of their development.
> None of his students played in the same way. So there was true individuality of his approach and he was able put musicianship above just winning a job.
> All his students that I have met told me that he instilled a real sense of confidence in their abilities and value as individuals. So they felt good about their playing and their musical choices. No dogma.
His joy of teaching in his own style seems to come out of these videos. I personally believe that a teacher has to demonstrate often. Just talking is not enough. But talking worked for Leon, Dorothy DeLay, and even (from what I understand) Gilad (in the current generation).
By the way, I know that there was an informal competition between Russianoff and Marcellus on what they charged for lessons. Both would ask students what the other was charging and set their rates to match the other.
But I do not recall Marcellus charging $400 a lesson. His private lesson rate was high but it was because the bulk of his teaching was done through his affiliated institutions (NU and CMI) and he did not want outside destractions unless someone really wanted to play for him.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-10-30 16:38
I wish Russianoff had been more direct. The student started each phrase with a splat. Russianioff went all around the barn rather than calling the student's attention to the problem.
Ken Shaw
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2014-10-30 18:22
ok Gigliotti and others had some good ones at TBA years ago.
richard smith
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-10-30 18:42
Couple more observations/ironies:
I doubt any competition between Russianoff and Marcellus friendly or otherwise. Back then the "Midwestern School" of playing and the "New York School" of playing was about as different (and friendly) as Shiites vs Sunnis. This is why I was so impressed at the time with Russianoff. I was surprised upon seeing him in person that he did not look anything like the devil, and I was equally shocked that I liked what I heard him say. Adherents of one way of approaching the horn wouldn't even think of studying with someone of the other school of thought (or even listening to one of 'them').
It strikes me as quite ironic that I now find myself a defender of Russianoff against some of the "New York clan." What gives?
..................Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2014-10-31 06:57)
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Author: Ed
Date: 2014-10-30 19:30
For those who want contrast, you might go through the archives and listen to some of the Marcellus classes.
http://media.northwestern.edu
While Marcellus and Russianoff both were certainly aware of one another, I don't know that they were ever in competition as such. They each had their followers and admirers. The two styles of teaching were about as far as one could get from one another. They appealed to completely different types of players and taught very different concepts.
BTW- The $400 figure for Marcellus is highly inflated from truth.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-10-31 03:38
Thanks Ed for the link to the master classes of Robert Marcellus. It is easy to forget how many wonderful students he had, and these bring back memories. An earlier post asked how many women students Daniel Bonade had, and board members could think of hardly any. But in these Marcellus classes, women are very well represented, as Libby Crawford, Mary Green, Sonia Morin and Jeannie Friebin take their turns performing Baermann and Brahms just in the first tape alone. They do tend to cluster into the mellow yet resonant sound associated with the Midwestern School
Besides Russianoff, Marcellus, and Weber, Donald Montanaro at Curtis in Philadelphia was (and is) an influential American clarinet teacher. Does anybody know of Montanaro master class archives available for viewing and listening?
Post Edited (2014-10-31 04:29)
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Author: Ed
Date: 2014-10-31 05:36
If we are making a list, don't forget Stanley Hasty. He was certainly one of the greats.
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2014-10-31 06:00
I wasn't really interested in listing great teachers. More I wanted to highlight that for that generation, Russianoff had an incredible influence and did it in a very unorthodox manner.
I agree with Paul.
There was a great deal of secularism in those days. More than now. There were distinct camps and to wander from your camp to explore what was on the other side of the mountain was not appreciated and could get you kicked off the Island.
I think times have changed. I see bios of player who have studied with a wide variety of teachers and things are much more international now as well.
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