 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Daniel Bouwmeester
Date: 2001-04-29 12:54
Hello everyone,
I was thrilled when I saw all the encouragements comming from you all.
Anyway, I thought you might of wanted a little feedback, on how it went.
O.K. there was 8 clarinets in this competition (origins : Israël, Ukrain, Switzerland). Three got through the eliminatories (not including me).
This year no prizes were awarded for clarinet. No Winners, no Loosers
I was quite happy about my performance, was not too nervous.. THought I played quite well.
I had a chat with the jury afer the competition:
They didn't like my second movement of The Lutoslawski, Dance Preludes... It was "not enough musical", phrasing, and structure of the piece not correct. I was quite suprized when I heard that, because I thought it was the part I played the best. I listened to the recording with my professor, and agreed that it was not bad at all.. Otherwise, they said that I was playing too soft reeds, and that they didn't like my sound.. In Switzerland, clarinetist all play hard reeds (3.5 - 4 ), and don't perticularly like the english school. But that's all right.... I mean competitions are like that... you can't debate what judges say even if they are not right.
Then, they thought I wasn't precise enough rithmically in the Martinu, Sonatine, and that my trills were not long enough in the last movement (which I realized myself too, since my technique wouldn't let me do everything I wanted).
I was quite unfortunate because the piano messed up her part, and didnt help me much... THis happens, and you can't blame someone for being nervous under certain conditions.
Basically, the jury told me that, I would of got to the finals if my Lutoslawski 2nd mvmt was better and that my sound was more controlled (= harder reeds).
Anyway, I was very happy of going there because it made me work hard for it, and that, even if I didn't get to the finals (which I nearly did) I didn't loose anything. On the contrary, I did gain a certain pride, since I left a couple professionals behind me.. And I had the opportunity of playing in front of an audience of connaisseurs in a superb auditorium, with a superb Steinway grand piano, and a superb pianist behind it. And of course, most important, I made some progress.
I'll come back next year
Thanx again
Regards
Dan
p.s.
www.cnem.ch is the website of the competition
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2001-04-29 17:38
Piece of cake, Huh? Now that you more fully uinderstand which way the reed bends (very bad pun indeed), brin g on next year. Well done indeed, congratulations..
Bob A
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Author: col
Date: 2001-05-02 11:03
Congradts on your performance at the competition.
I suggest that now you really think about what the judges were saying and about how other clarinetist's played, especially those that did get through to the finals.
Much can be learned from this.
From what i have read of your past posts you seem to be planning on a professional music carreer with emphasis on becoming a soloist etc. If this is the case you probably know enough by now to decide on whether the use of harder reeds is relevant or not. ( be confident in your decision )
U have to decide definately on the sound you want and go after it. Many judges, examiners, etc comment on tone production and often associate poor reed choice / wrong reed choice with any faults however it is more likely a lack of practice in developing tone through long note exercises etc that is the real cause. My other interest from your post is where you comment on your technique not being right up to standard to pull off the trills in the sonatine. Technique is equally as important as sound, obviously you have done alot of practice , prep etc for this competition and for you still to find problems with this suggests a technical weakness in this part of your playing. I don't want tp sound like im intentionally attahcking your playing but if you fix these problems then you will go far. The music for this competition is definately more musically difficult than technical but in the future you will find that the technical element of the music in certain competitions rises to an extremely difficult state and will be taken for granted, leaving the judges full focus on the musicality.
I wish you the best of luck in the future and know that you will go from strength to strength with this experience because from this competition onwards you now have the potential to judge your own faults criticially, and in a way act as your own teacher setting the highest levels you wish to attain.
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