 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: joe englert
Date: 2026-04-11 02:45
I was just watching an old ny phil video on youtube with bernstein young peoples concerts,,they were doing capriccio espagnole and was very confused to see the great robert mcginnis sitting principal clarinet and yet stan drucker was given the cadenza in capriccio while poor mcginnis was looking very unhappy..just sitting in his first chair not playing..anyone know the story behind this?
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Author: JTJC
Date: 2026-04-11 13:29
McGinnis might have had a fault with his instrument. However, he seems to be playing a bit later in the video, and I can also hear two clarinets later on. Fault might have been temporary, broken reed etc.
I love the way Stan's eyes flash around the orchestea at the end of the solo, as if to see who noticed. Doesn't look as if anyone did.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2026-04-12 06:24
JTJC wrote:
> McGinnis might have had a fault with his instrument.
I would think he might have grabbed Drucker's clarinet and played it himself.
Karl
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Author: JEG ★2017
Date: 2026-04-13 21:38
First, in the interest of full disclosure, over the last 20 years of his life Stanley and I were friends.
I suspect that it was previously arranged that Stanley would play principal in this piece. I don't see an unhappy look on McGinnis's face, but just the poker face that orchestral musicians usually display when they're not playing during a concert. I remember watching Felix Viscuglia being perfectly still on Boston Pops broadcasts, and I have followed his example during concerts that I've played in.
I also think the whole thing was set in advance because Stanley was sitting in the 2nd clarinet chair and there was no hurried shifting of the camera when his solo came up, which might indicate a last-minute change, and McGinnis wasn't fiddling with his horn, reed, etc. At least not that I could see.
In the 20 years I knew Stanley I heard somebody call him "Stan" only once, and if I remember correctly, Stanley ignored him. Everybody called him "Stanley."
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Author: donald
Date: 2026-04-14 18:27
Re the last minute change theory... I doubt that was the case here, but oddly enough this DID happen to me many years ago (a year that began with 19). The principal clarinet came on stage after break and left his A clarinet in a far away and difficult to access warm up room... realising this in the middle of the 2nd half, a bit too late to hold up the whole concert while he left stage to get it, he nominated ME (2nd clarinet) to play the solo-duo from Britten "Young persons guide" on my own. He'd heard me doing it when noodling around before rehearsal so knew it sounded ok... he transposed the trill bits and joined in there, but otherwise let me play it as a "2nd clarinet solo, covering both parts".
The conductor was the only problem- there was no way to warn him this was about to happen, and the confused look on his face was both quite amusing and quite scary (I was relatively young and green at the time). It was actually broadcast live to the whole country on RNZ Concert...
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Author: joe englert
Date: 2026-04-14 23:20
well, i am just guessing that maybe by this time, lenny was not happy with mcginnis so he was phasing him out and let drucker play the first parts on the more challenging stuff....anybody know if drucker was appointed to principal, or did they have auditions for mcginnis' chair??
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