 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Fontalvo
Date: 2008-03-30 18:30
If you do a search for Pascual Martinez Forteza the philharmonic second player you will find a lot of new videos that he has posted. They are good in my humble opinion.
Rafael
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-03-31 00:03
Wonderful Concertino - Drucker's approach is a delight, and his sound here is quite different than what I'm used to hearing today - not at all what I'd call "dark". I like it. (Iceland Clarinet - what do you think? - I suspect it's within the sound constellation that you prefer.)
I have Drucker's account of the Nielsen Concerto, and I've always liked it. The music is responsive to more than one approach, and I've found Bernstein effective in several recordings of Nielsen's music (e.g., the Inextinguisable symphony.) The collaboration with Drucker may not be every possible thing the concerto can offer, but no other recording I've heard of it is either - including the interesting but (imho) over-hyped recent version by Frost.
Any other recommendations for recordings of Drucker's work?
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2008-03-31 00:48
Musically this is very well played but he plays with very strange embouchure and his sound is to me a bit mechanically specially the vibrato which reminds me a bit of Richard Stoltzman. The embouchure looks like he is biting but I'm not sure when I look at him from side. I think the word is unnatural embouchure here. I have very different concept for sound but he plays the concertino very well.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2008-03-31 01:05
Iceland clarinet wrote:
> The embouchure looks like he is biting but I'm not
> sure when I look at him from side. I think the word is
> unnatural embouchure here.
Unnatural? Perhaps for you, but Mr. Drucker does just fine, thank you very much.
Kinda like being on a piano BBoard a while back and reading some student's comment on Horowitz's hand position being all wrong.
Things are "wrong" only when they don't work or are demonstrably inefficient.
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2008-03-31 01:22
Ok you can play the clarinet anyhow and you don't need a teacher. There is no such thing as right or wrong embouchure just play like you play.
But I just can't see Pascual Martinez Forteza and Stanley Drucker manage to blend together. They not only sound very different but also blow very differently into the instrument. I find almost everything in Pascual's clarinet playing better and much closer to my concept of sound and how to blow into the instrument.
When I comper Stanley and Pascual together I feel that Stanley is working harder towards the same result.
And if I would pick a legend then it would be nobady else than Reginald Kell and his initiative in playing with vibrato in classical clarinet playing and his very personal style.
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Author: dgclarinet
Date: 2008-03-31 12:06
Yes, everybody is entitled to an opinion, no matter how strange it may be.
I love that Concertino...and if you watch the interview that Hugh Downs did with Drucker after that performance...Drucker holds the clarinet and fingers some kind of pattern all the while he's talking to Downs.
I for one will really miss Drucker...he's one of the last clarinet players around that has a style all his own.
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2008-03-31 14:17
Just listened to the Gershwin and it sounds great but do you notice the player plays the wrong trill before the high F? It should be a semitone trill not a tone. Still it doesn't really detract from the playing of the solo.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: BobD
Date: 2008-03-31 14:53
Why did you wake " him" up Phil ?
At the very beginning of the Bernstein docu "Reaching For The Note" Bernstein's son talks as a clip of the funeral cortega passes and he mentions havng noticed Stanley Drucker standng alone at the curb....just standing all alone. It is very touching.
Bob Draznik
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2008-03-31 15:02
David, I think I just felt George turning in his grave.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: NorbertTheParrot
Date: 2008-03-31 15:18
"Kinda like being on a piano BBoard a while back and reading some student's comment on Horowitz's hand position being all wrong."
Nevertheless, Horowitz's hand position was very different to how pianists are taught. Would he have played (even) better if he had adopted a more conventional technique? Maybe - we'll never know. Would other pianists play better if they copied his technique? Very unlikely. What we do know is the Horowitz went through long periods when he refused to play in public.
I don't see a rush of pianists trying to copy Glenn Gould's technique, either.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2008-03-31 21:54
I doubt Horowitz taught his "non-traditional" hand technique as if it was, it certainly wasn't handed down from his students.
I just wrote my College Piano teacher who was one of Horowitz's only 5 students that he ever taught (( while on his break from performing)) and asked him what Horowitz did for teaching hand position - did he teach it like he played or more traditional.
My hand position wasn't changed by him to be like Horowitz's at all.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2008-03-31 22:17
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> I doubt Horowitz taught his "non-traditional" hand technique as
> if it was, it certainly wasn't handed down from his students.
Missing the point, which I hoped was obvious, but it seems as if it's opaque.
Horowitz, Drucker, Morales, et al. "break the rules" and do marvelous things - demonstrably marvelous things. For someone to say "it's wrong", especially someone who is essentially unknown, is hubris. Those persons' teachers were smart enough to know that whatever they were doing was making music, and weren't worried about the so-called 'deviation' from the norm. They, in turn, as teachers do not demand that their students ape what they do, but rather their students worked and work with them at making music.
Kudos to you, Ed, for recognizing that in Ricardo and working with what - for almost anyone except Ricardo - would be a setup impossible to make music with.
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Author: tdinap
Date: 2008-03-31 23:05
I've been wondering for awhile: has Mr. Drucker ever taken on students? I've never heard of him teaching, and I'm sure his performance schedule keeps him quite busy, but I've always been under the impression that it is quite rare for an orchestral player to never teach.
Also, on a different note, thanks to Rafael for pointing out the Forteza videos on Youtube. They are a nice resource for those of us who haven't had the chance to hear him play.
Tom
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2008-03-31 23:07
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> Where was the thread about Ricardo's setup?
We might have a thread - I've seen & talked with Ricardo about his mouthpiece / reed / patch setup. But those specifics are not germane to this thread.
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Author: ken
Date: 2008-04-02 01:58
Perhaps I am so burned out on the Concertino I cannot be objective. However, what I chiefly took away from Drucker's rendition was he manhandled the living daylights out of the piece. The last 16 bars were so hair-raising I felt as if I was riding the rear car of a wooden roller coaster as the wheels ricochet off the rails. The man's tone is his tone and either you appreciate the very French timbre or you do not … that is a concept and culture issue.
I tried listening to the solo again with my eyes closed but came away unmoved. Quite honestly, I have heard 10th graders perform the slow sections more expressively and delicately. Citing the positive, Drucker’s tonguing has always been untouchable and he is truly among the finest clarinetists ever to play. v/r Ken
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Author: Chloe
Date: 2008-04-02 12:46
William,
Thanks for posting Ted Lane's Debussy. It is exquisite and inspiring.
Chloe
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2008-04-03 06:44
Oops. My post made no sense because I didn't read one of the previous posts.
Post Edited (2008-04-03 07:34)
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Author: graham
Date: 2008-04-03 07:14
Iceland simply meant he did not think it sounded like a French player, which Ken seems to think it does. Nothing to do with Weber.
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2008-04-06 02:27
Mark- "Kinda like being on a piano BBoard a while back and reading some student's comment on Horowitz's hand position being all wrong.
Things are "wrong" only when they don't work or are demonstrably inefficient."
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There is one thing about technique that I have come to some conclusions with. Having taken lessons with a number of teachers, each has their own version of correct technique, but there is one common thread among all the ideas. The idea is also essential in exercise "technique". Summed up in two sentences- "Correct technique" allows you to continue to do what ever it is you want for an unlimited length of time. "Bad technique" will eventually cause you a physical injury of some kind.
Everything else is stylistic choice.
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