 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Klose ★2017
Date: 2018-10-02 16:44
While the orchestra is a youth one, the playing of the soloist Gaspare Buonomano (using an Oehler) was very nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMt6ZnprVpo
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2018-10-02 20:01
Nice playing! It's probably easier pulling off tempo changes like that in a country where the conductors get their early experience in opera. The hall sort of looks like the Philharmonie as re-imagined by an architect from La Jolla.
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Author: Ken Lagace
Date: 2018-10-02 20:09
Very nice performance.
A different question - are Oehler's inherently better in tune? I only heard the open G a bit sharp.
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Author: rtaylor
Date: 2018-10-02 21:11
Paul,
That is the Elbphilharomie Hall in Hamburg, Germany.
Cheers,
Robert
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2018-10-02 22:30
Nice performance indeed. Spohr seems tricky to perform in a way that avoids both sterility and pointless expressivity, and they did a decent job with that. The solo playing was excellent, with the tiny clarinetist-only complaint that the 3rd movement staccato scale running up to C7 was omitted. Now I want to practice this piece today, as though I didn't have enough to flail away at already.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2018-10-02 23:56
Robert,
Thanks for the clarification.......beautiful hall.
Ken,
Boehms are inherently MORE out of tune. The idea behind them was always to make the fingering a bit easier at the sacrifice of a slightly lower "Low E and F," and a slightly higher third line "B" (but within the realm of adjustability on the fly).
I played a pair of Oehler system 100Cs for about 12 years and they were BY FAR the most evenly tuned clarinets I have ever experienced. Part of that I am sure is due to allowing the bore to do its thing and just correct then for the flatness at the bottom with a thumb trigger.
Playing them correctly involves two huge changes for Boehm players. The first is the fingering which is insidious in how close it is rather than different. The other is the approach to playing the mouthpiece which is a much longer facing but one that requires a softer reed (preferably a 2 1/2) to achieve the right balance of pressure differential for the Oehler bore's acoustic.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: Ken Lagace
Date: 2018-10-03 00:21
Thanks Paul. I also listened to the "Mozart adagio by Chinese clarinetist" link and the tuning is pretty bad. I ought to find a used Oehler just to try it out!
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Author: Klose ★2017
Date: 2018-10-03 00:39
It is worth noting Gaspare Buonomano is an Italian, and therefore I assume he changed from Böhm to Oehler at some point.
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Author: rtaylor
Date: 2018-10-03 20:10
I would be curious to know if he switched Boehm to Oehler also.
I know Luigi Magistrelli studied from Dieter Klocker and he currently plays on Reform Boehm instruments.
So it isn't inconceivable that Buonomano started on a german style instrument.
Cheers,
Robert
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2018-10-03 21:34
At around 18, in perhaps 2002, Gaspare was a member of my Summer clarinet class at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. He was, I thought, outstandingly talented, playing a Boehm clarinet. I particularly recall his delivering an impeccable performance of the Francaix Theme and Variations in a concert.
If you Google him, you will find that he went on to study in Germany; and, doubtless preferring the system, switched to a German clarinet. It's an idea that many of us have toyed with, and some have implemented – notably Michelle Zukovsky. He since has had a deservedly successful career in a German orchestra, as well as other work.
There is no particular reason to find one of the Boehm and Oehler systems in general more 'out-of-tune' than the other. Remember who is giving the opinions you may read here.
Tony
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Author: Klose ★2017
Date: 2018-10-04 00:05
Gaspare was one member of the Berliner Philharmoniker's Karajan Academy, and thus Wenzel Fuchs, Walter Seyfarth, and Manfred Preis were his primary German system clarinet teachers.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2018-10-04 00:15
Players have gone both ways. Dirk Altman, for instance, played Oehler, studied with German masters like Karl Leister, even played with the Berlin Philharmonic and then switched to Boehm. (He helps design Boehm clarinets today for the Japanese maker Josef and is principal clarinet in the SWR Symphony in Stuttgart.)
Post Edited (2018-10-04 00:57)
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Author: Klose ★2017
Date: 2018-10-04 00:25
My own experience told me it is indeed not difficult to change. It is more or less like switching from windows PC to Mac.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2018-10-04 00:55
If I may clarify. I don't want to imply one is better than the other. It is merely a matter of direct experience (and may have solely been a singular experience that no one else ever experienced) that the internal pitch characteristics of my two Wurlitzer Oehler horns (A and Bb) required almost virtually no adjustments from the bottom of the horn to the uppermost altissimo.
Also I say that as one who sold those horns to a Berlin retailer eighteen years ago because the overall pros and cons to the entirety of my clarinet experience brought me back to Buffet (at the time).
The trickiest (and most overlooked) aspect is what one does with the approach to the reed/mouthpiece combination and the subsequent COMPLETELY DIFFERENT approach to how you generate sound. I come to this conclusion combining my experience with what happened to members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (not shabby players by anyone's estimation). They were inspired (and more than subtly required) to play Oehlers for a short period of history for some key Germanic pieces. Yes, they were able to switch from system to system with the piece on the program, but they struggled mightily with producing a satisfying sound (and satisfaction with HOW they produced that sound) for themselves. They found Zinner mouthpieces of a high density orange hard rubber that allowed them an easy enough transition from the Boehm experience and allowed the conductor to get what he wanted. However, it never "worked" for them because it had to be an equivalent rather than a full change.
I hasten to add my deepest gratitude to Bas De Jong of Viotto mouthpieces for recently providing the education necessary to fill in that last piece of the puzzle (though I wish it had happened about thirty years earlier). : -)
The Viotto mouthpieces (N1) modified for French clarinet coupled with a 2 1/2 Classice White Master will give you a good idea what it's like to play Oehlers. And if you like that, just come up with additional $12,000 for a Wurlitzer.
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2018-10-04 01:58
Switched from Boehm to Oehler in 1976, eventually playing an entry level professional set of Wurlitzers. They seemed more stable than Buffets and it was much easier to get a nice sound up high, but they were fully capable of playing out of tune if you didn't take the same kind of care you do on French instruments. The difference between my horns and a luxury model was the number of keys and vents, so the tuning probably got better as you went up the scale. Switched back in 1983, because everyone I played with was serious about 440, and the Wurlitzers were at about 444. Also, I was teaching a lot and all my students played Buffets, so it made sense. Never experienced the thing some people talk about where you get a great sound without worrying about an embouchure, but "just blow." Doubtless I was doing it wrong. I was playing in an Army band in 1976. It took about a month working with German system before I started playing gigs with it, 3 or 4 to become comfortable, but some things--Debussy, for instance--never felt as natural and flowing as it did with the Buffet. Nielsen might have actually felt a little crisper with Oehler.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2018-10-04 18:40
Didn't articulate to the Double High C - fail!!!
Actually didn't play that octave at all - went down instead.
Great playing otherwise. I only mention as I have a 19 yr old who does tongue it lightning quick and all the way to the Altissimo C.
Won a Florida Orchestra Competition with it - Alex May
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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