 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: jmsa
Date: 2005-01-28 17:23
Last night I had the pleasure of seeing The Philadelphia Orchestra concert at the Kimmel Center. The program started with The Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 and Ricardo Morales was superb. He is an amazing clarinetist. It is true pleasure to listen to his expertise on the bassett horn, equipped with a Backum Bell. The second part of the program featured the entire orchestra playing Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74. After the performance was completed, as a one night special only, Mr. Eschenbach, on a Steinway piano and Mr. Morales on Bb clarinet, held a recital, consisting of 2 numbers. The first was short and by a French composer and the second was Brahams Symphony #200. Wow, what an outstanding evening it was.
jmsa
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2005-01-28 17:25
jmsa wrote:
> and the
> second was Brahams Symphony #200. Wow, what an outstanding
> evening it was.
If it was Brahms Symphony #200 - that would be news...GBK ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-01-28 18:15
And the Conductor/Pianist Eshenbach announced to the audience that it was Mozart's 299th birthday!
I almost had the nerve to correct him, but held my tongue..... (was probably the first time in my life
Ricky played the hell out of everything. It was the Brahms Sonata #1 and a work by Debussy that I hadn't heard before. He was playing with a really badly split lip which happened Wednesday night from being dry and him laughing too much. Even with the pain, you wouldn't know it at all that he was feeling any and when he was playing, he probably wasn't.
But Thursday afternoon at lunch while eating a chicken sandwich he sure was wincing.
It stinks having to play with a broken lip!
OUCH
Not only was he playing the Backun Bell, but the Barrel too.
He got a standing ovation from the Phila. audience which is quite a ballbuster for the Mozart. When Gigliotti played it back in the 80's, the only ones standing were his students.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Garret
Date: 2005-01-28 18:17
--didn't even know Brahms wrote symphonies for clarinet and piano
Seriously, it does sound like it was a superb concert to attend. Wish I could have been there
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jmsa
Date: 2005-01-28 18:20
Sorry for the humorous error. It was actually Brahams Sonata #1 for Clarinet and Piano.
jmsa
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: vrufino
Date: 2005-01-28 18:24
Was he playing a basset-horn or basset-clarinet? They are quite different.
Dr. V
Dr. Vincent J. Rufino
Professor of clarinet and saxophone
St. Elizabeth University
Morristown, NJ
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jmsa
Date: 2005-01-28 18:27
I think it was a Bassett Clarinet. Is that correct Mr. Blumberg?
jmsa
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: larryb
Date: 2005-01-28 18:43
I think Morales plays Selmer Recital clarinets with the added venting mechanism for low F - it might appear like a basset clarinet's low note mechanism.
Of course, maybe he was playing basset clarinet...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-01-28 20:10
He was playing a Recital Upper Joint with the lower joint being the basset extension.
For Orchestral playing yes, the F vent for his Selmer
Post Edited (2005-01-28 20:16)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Kevin
Date: 2005-01-28 21:16
Yeah, I had heard that Morales was performing the Mozart this week. Boy, would I have killed to have been able to make it down to Philly.
Mozart's Concerto and the Tchaikovsky Pathetique - could there be any better program for a clarinet listener?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lisa McColl
Date: 2005-01-29 00:12
I was hoping to find an online forum about this performance by Morales last night - it was fantastic. He renewed my faith in the clarinet as an instrument capable of producing art.
One person wrote above that he played a Debussy piece with the Brahms - it was announced by Eschanbach as a piece by Florent Schmitt - perhaps it was Andantino, Op. 30, No. 1. In any case it was wonderful - but I thought could easily be a disaster in other hands.
Does Morales play on a Johnston mouthpiece? If so - any comments on how that fits in with the clarinet section of the orchestra? I think they all use some flavor of the Vandoreen M13 lyre mouthpiece. I now play on that myself but used to use a Johnston - what a difference in approach!
What a treat - and I was proud of the Philly crowd. Many stuck around to listen to the post concert recital which ended about 11:00pm. I was late for work this morning, but was it worth it!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2005-01-29 01:12
Lisa McColl wrote:
> Does Morales play on a Johnston mouthpiece?
Unless he has suddenly switched to something else, Morales was playing on a Pyne Bel Canto mouthpiece with Grand Concert Evolution reeds ...GBK
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-01-29 01:54
No, he does not play a Johnston! It is the Pyne which he plays.
Ricardo also likes for students (younger) the Pyne Polycrystal Mouthpiece. The Vandoren that he likes is the B-40
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-01-29 02:01
Ricardo plays as he (yesterday) put it "a light #4 or a hard 3 1/2 Evolution Reed. He is working on getting Rico to reinstate the 3 3/4 reed (and a couple of other 1/4 strengths) as thats a pretty standard strength among advanced players.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim E.
Date: 2005-01-29 04:58
I was there as well. What an evening! There was also a pre-concert discussion with Morales where he demonstrated the bassett clarinet and contrasted it to his A. He played small sections of the Mozart on both.
The first piece of the post recital was NOT by Debussy, but (as announced by Eshenbach) was by a French contemporary of Debussy who has a German surname. (I think it was "Schmidt" but I'm not sure I'm remembering it correctly.)
I was sitting no more than 8 feet from him during the recital, and got a good look at his instrument (the A.) He uses a neck strap, and it appeared to me that there was no conventional thumb rest on the horn, but some sort of a pivoting tab to which the strap hooked. Can anyone speak about this setup?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lisa McColl
Date: 2005-01-29 13:07
Florent Schmitt was the composer of the first piece - Eschenbach did announce this correctly - at least when I heard it - right before Morales played.
Post Edited (2005-01-29 13:09)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-01-29 13:35
ok - I didn't hear the name of the work. It kinda sounded like debussy (or a student of)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
