 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2010-08-03 19:51
I think Storch's book lists Miller as someone who took oboe lessons from Tabateau.
He sometimes (not often enough) played his oboe and the english horn on his TV show, and on rare shows he had a guest virtuoso saxophonist and a soloist whom he described as a "bubbly" clarinetist.
John might remember.....wasnt the sax player J. Abato and the clarinetist Oppenheim?
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
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Author: Ed
Date: 2010-08-03 20:19
I had the opportunity to play a couple of concerts over the years with Mitch conducting. I recall that he was a colorful character and good musician. During the break one of the players was practicing some orchestral parts for an upcoming audition. Mitch strolled over and made some very good suggestions to improve the excerpt and the phrasing.
Post Edited (2010-08-03 20:27)
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Author: William
Date: 2010-08-03 22:09
I remember a smiling and very congenial gentleman from the TV. However, I remember a very different person named Mitch Miller who guest conducted our Madison Symphony Orchestra many years ago. I was the bass clarinetist and all he did was scream and embarress individual musicians. He was particularily unhappy with our UW-Madison (then) professor of oboe and at one point, shouted the words, "I was always better than you and I still am!!!!" Our UW percussion teaching assistant also caught his ire for not being able to "make enough noise" during one of the snare passages. Pressed to more fully explain what "noise" he wanted, Mitch was unable to do so and yelled some obsenity in his direction. He also demanded we play the "William Tell Overture" at a highly unmusical fast tempo. And after the rehearsal, he demanded--and got--a date with the harpest for dinner. At the concert, which we finally agreed to play "anyhow", he was his old lovable TV self. But definately not the Mitch Miller I will always remember on the podium in front of me. He did not impress our orchestra but his TV personna sold tickets..................
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Author: BobD
Date: 2010-08-04 13:33
In the old days we used to say that you had to be odd to even take up a double reed instrument.....and if you did you would end up nuts.
Bob Draznik
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Author: LarryBocaner ★2017
Date: 2010-08-05 00:27
From Bill Foster, National Symphony Orchestra - on the Orchestra-L newsgroup:
"I remember a pops concert, I think in the summer of 1970, just weeks before
Antal Dorati was to begin his tenure as Music Director in Washington. That
was before the days of the Kennedy Center, and we were playing indoors in
Constitution Hall. Mitch and the orchestra were not getting along at all and
the rehearsal was getting totally out of hand. Becoming increasingly
frustrated at his inability to maintain any control, Mitch finally burst
out, "You guys better watch out. When Dorati gets here he's going to cut
your balls off!"'
Co-incides with my memory, too. We got along with Dorati a lot better than with Mitch!
.
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Author: rcnelson
Date: 2010-08-05 01:59
I remember his TV show when I was a kid. AND...I'll never forget seeing his name in the credits of an album when he was a busy studio oboist. What a great musician and entertainer. He will be missed.
Ron
Selmer Mark VI tenor (1957), Selmer Mark VII alto (1975)
Buescher True Tone soprano (1924), Selmer CL210 Bb Clarinet, Gemeinhardt 3SHB Flute, Pearl PFP105 Piccolo
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Author: DougR
Date: 2010-08-06 05:20
I wanted to rip my ears off when "Sing Along with Mitch" came on my parents' tv every week (jazz and folk snob that I was), and let's not forget "How much is that doggie in the window" and "Come Onna My House" and "Mama Will Bark."
On the other hand, he made careers for a lot of deserving singers with that sort of pap, and let's not forget he apparently was the solo oboe/English horn on the Parker with Strings dates, and tons of other stuff as well, and was first-call oboist in a pretty tough market.
The chronicles of Mitch's misbehavior posted above are indeed gruesome, but here's an earlier Mitch as oboist, playing baroque. Eminently downloadable and really nice work. Let's send the guy out on a high note.
http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2010/05/mitch-miller-plays-mozart-and-bach.html
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2010-08-06 05:39
I only played under the guy once but, thought a good musician, he was indeed a prick.
Hopefully he is heading North where musicians end up and not South where mean conductors retire.
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