 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2009-08-17 16:06
Last night, the annual Festival at Sandpoint closed with Richard Stoltzman and the Spokane Symphony conducted by Gary Sheldon.
The venue for the festival is out of doors at a waterfront park in Sandpoint, Idaho, looking east from just downstream of mile-wide outlet of Lake Pend O'rielle. Just before last night's performance, a brief rain shower spawned umbrellas on the lawn and a rush to over-fill the covered bleachers. The resident osprey family was active, and rainbows --with darkening purple clouds arrived with the dusk.
In a preliminary to the performance, the poor sound system was exposed, when the Chopin played by the winner of this year's Coldwater Creek scholarship could not be recognized as a piano piece.
Stoltzman arrived for the second piece of the evening: the Cantabile movement of American composer William Bolcom's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra. This was new to me, rather nice; and a scrap of the performance can be found at a link from:
http://www.marquisclassics.com/397_stoltz.asp
This link takes you to the sound of Stoltzman --without the distortion of the Festival's sound system.
The Bolcom concerto is published by Eward B. Marks Music Company
(Piano Reduction)
ISBN: 0793552737
UPC: 73999088229
Stoltzman's 2nd number was Gershwin's Promenade (Shall We Dance?). Showmanship: Stoltzman wandered around the stage, getting past Maestro Sheldon by climbing over the dais and brushing by Sheldon --to linger with the cellos for a while before wandering back to his station to the left of the conductor. This proved that Stoltzman was miked, as he took his sound with him.
Because the closeout concert ends with a fireworks display, Stoltzman did his encore next --playing his own version of Amazing Grace. An idea of what he's done with it is here:
http://www.imeem.com/artists/richard_stoltzman/music/FDkkzMOq/richard-stoltzman-amazing-grace/
But, last night, he played a while solo; and Sheldon brought in the orchestra about half way through. Telling comment from my wife: "If you could play just the first half of that like him, all your work would have been worth while." Me: "But without all that vibrato!" She: "That's what makes it goood." (kinda like her mom saying the same thing about sugar on green salad.)
The first half ended with a playing of the Gershwin Cuban Overture --with Chip Phillips (my teacher) strutting his stuff in the great little clarinet solo.
No intermission, as it was cooling rapidly; and no one wanted the strings to go even sharper.
The second half started off with a rousing Sheldon arrangement of Gershwin's I Got Rhythm. Sheldon conducting from the keyboard, and with the orchestra augmented with a sax section --led by Prof Todd Delguidice of CLARInexus fame at the University of Eastern Washington in Cheney, WA-- and a fantastic drummer, who's name escaped me, but who did for Gene Kruppa what Stoltzman was doing for Benny Goodman.
A break from the Goodman stuff came next with Clare Fishers The Duke, Swee' Pea and me --written for Stoltzman. You had to be quick (I was not) to catch the fleeting reference to "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," bedause it wasn't around much. Here's where you can get a sample from a link on this page.:
http://www.marquisclassics.com/397_stoltz.asp
The night finished up with three more Sheldon arrangements of Benny Goodman "classics," Stompin' at the Savoy, Don't Be That Way, and Sing, Sing, Sing.
In the latter, Stoltzman wandered over toward the cellos again, and stood with the drummer and ad libbed wonderfully. That cat is good.
But, I still think he overdoes his vibrato.
A rousing, wonderful blow for Stoltzman, incredibly nice work by Sheldon and the Spokane Symphony; and the audience (even/particularly) those who don't obsess over their own clarinets simply loved it.
Bob Phillips
Post Edited (2009-08-18 16:13)
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