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Re: la scala di seta

Author: oboeblank
Date: 2005-01-04 17:10

Excuse me, I apologize. I did have it backwards.
Though there are a few things that I would disagree with you on.
Double tonguing is not a necessity. Ted Baskin of the Montreal Symphony recorded that overture, and the tempo is blazingly fast and he single tongues. I am not saying that double tonguing is not important, but it is not the only way to perform that excerpt.
On the issue of slurs, there are a couple of different editions of that overture and there are slurs marked in the part in different places. It is true that you play what is on the page, but there is a performance practice with regard to that piece. Some players slur three notes in the bar[6th complete bar of the fast solo] before the upper/lower neighbor pattern. Some players, like jon Dlouhy articulate the upper/lower neighbor pattern[7th to 10th complete bar of the fast solo]. Who is right?
I am looking at two different parts of the same piece, and there is a slur marked over the b to a in the first complete bar of one part, and there is nothing marked over the notes in the other excerpt. What version is correct? You need to play from the part that you feel most comfortable from. Unless the audition panel gives you the part, or you prepare from their parts than you play from what you have. I think I have about six different copies of that excerpt from excerpt books and orchestral libraries and there are slurs in many places where you wouldn't expect.
One last remark on tempo. Joe Robinson, the principal of the New York Phil. told me once of a student who came to audition for him and played Scala at half=170 or something insane. He asked her to play it again and he gave her a tempo significantly slower than hers and she could not play it at all. She was not admitted to the graduate program and Manhattan because in his words, 'it was evident that she learned to play the excerpt at this fast speed but could not play below the learned tempo cleanly and smoothly'.

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