 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2010-10-27 20:55
I have to admit that I did NOT know who Paul Parray was until just a few days ago. There was an airing on radio of Paul Parray conducting Faust's Ballet Music. The recording sounded vibrant and crisp - new!!! The performance was amazing, something that I was only accustomed to hearing from great European orchestras.
A little research just floored me to find that this recording had to have come from Parray's tenure from 1952 to 1963 in Detroit.
It is GREAT to be pleasantly surprised as an old, cynical codger.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2010-10-27 21:56
I saw Paul Paray's last concert with the Detroit Symphony--I think it was in 1975. He was quite elderly, but he came back to guest conduct at the summer Meadow Brook Music Festival.
The following night was a pops concert conducted by the incomparable Victor Borge. Borge opened with the comment, "I hear that Monsieur Paray was here last night!" Wild cheers followed. Borge continued, "And tonight, you're going to hear the leftovers!" More wild cheers and laughter. Borge went on, "And those of you sitting on the grass are going to have to move because they're coming through to mow the lawn!" More cheers and laughter. Borge sure was one of a kind!
I don't know if Paray and Borge knew each other, but it sure was a nice weekend for music.
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Author: Ron
Date: 2010-11-01 18:41
I saw Paul Paray conduct the Detroit Symphony around 1961-62 in the Colden Center auditorium/concert hall which is on the Queens College campus in New York City. The orchestra under his direction was simply incredible. You will not be disappointed with any performance by him and Detroit that you can find on the Mercury Living Presence label. Paul Paray was truly a great conductor.
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2010-11-01 18:56
In a doctoral thesis by Elizabeth Marie Gunlogson for the University of Florida that is both a biography of Stanley Hasty and an examination of his teaching methods, Hasty is quoated as praising Paray when he was a visiting conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony in the late 1940's and early 1950's. (Just before Paray took the Detroit post.)
There's also an amusing Paray anecdote related by Hasty:
"There are a lot of times when you really need a little more breath, [for example the clarinet solo] in the Schubert “Unfinished Symphony.” We were playing that with the Pittsburgh [Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Paul] Paray and he didn’t want me to take a breath at the end [of the solo] which was what I was doing. So he said, “I’ll help
you.” So how did he help me? He slowed it up! So I finally gave up and coerced my second clarinetist, “Here’s what we’re going to do. When I finally wind up on the B [5] I’m going to fade out and you come in.” So we do this and the pitch and dynamic remained the same and [it sounded like] I sustained it. Paray said, “See I helped you.” [laughs] That’s tough, things like that, but that’s the only time that I really had to do something like that. "
Post Edited (2010-11-02 19:12)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2010-11-02 16:17
The Hasty story sorta kinda reminds me of a Stokowski story told by Robert Marcellus. Stokowski was always known to be unconventional and often asked for changes that were NOT in the score. At the end of the third cadenza flourish of Sheherazade, Stokowski (in obvious musical rapture) looks up at Marcellus and says, "Why did you stop?"
................Paul Aviles
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2010-11-03 14:19
Paul Paray was a terrific conductor with the early Detroit Symphony while I was a kid. I studied with Herb Couf while he was Paray's first Clarinetist, and he sounded great!
Many of the early Mercury vinyls of the Detroit Symphony with Paray, feature Herb Couf on all the great Clarinet solos.
BTW: Little known fact; Herb played great Jazz Alto Sax in some of the smaller clubs in Detroit, in addition to his duties with the Symphony!
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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