 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2011-12-18 05:40
If you want to hear Michael at his absolute best, listen to the Finzi Concerto from 1981 - his first professional recording with the Ciry of London Sinfornia - Richard Hikcox conducting.
One will rarely hear such a beautiful concerto rendered with such style and beautifully representative of the English Pastoral style. This is the best representation of Michael which has yet to be equalled or surpassed. If you can get this particular recording, do it now while it's still available!
http://www.amazon.com/Gerald-Finzi-Clarinet-Concerto-Farewell/dp/B00000DP3Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1324189123&sr=8-2
I've spoken with him about this recording and he felt that this was the recording that launched his splendid career (which now seems to include conducting duties of the very same orchestra that he made his recording debut over 30 years ago).
I've always considered this recording the ideal providing the inspiration of every succeeding performance that I give.
Bravo and thank you Michael - and here's hoping that you will re-record this masterpiece once again as the City of London Sinfonia's new music director!
Gregory Smith
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Author: clarinete09
Date: 2011-12-18 05:52
Mr.Smith thank you very much for your insight. . I will try to get that recording you mentioned for sure!
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Author: donald
Date: 2011-12-18 06:09
He WAS playing Yamaha CSG in 2010, when he visited NZ this year he was using a Basset Clarinet for the Mozart Concerto (buffet, i think but not sure) and i didn't get to ask if he was still using the CSGs. Both times he's been here I've been subbing on other pieces in the concert so got to hear rehearsals/dress and concert for the concerti he was playing (Mozart/Weber). A great Gent and a fabulous player, and my experience has been that his tone is much better live than in recordings (so if you like his sound on CD you'll flip when you hear him in the hall)
dn
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Author: donald
Date: 2011-12-18 07:47
re mouthpiece- yep, Vandoren B40 or 45 (can't remember which). This was a couple of months ago now...
Just to clarify my comment on his tone sounding better live... this has probably been the case for at least 50% of the great players I've heard over the years so is almost certainly more to do with recording issues (and of course, what speakers etc you are using to listen) than the players themselves. I didn't mean to slight MC in any way- his sound and musicianship are exemplary.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-12-18 12:13
Interesting - I thought he was a Peter Eaton International player. When did he make the switch to Yamahas or does he only use the CSG-H for certain occasions?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: donald
Date: 2011-12-18 16:39
Chris P- when i spoke to him first in 2010 i was very surprised to find he played CSG, like you i thought he was an Eaton man. I recall he had been playing them then for at least a year, and loved them. I can't say for sure he was still using them in 2011 (reasons given above). The subject of mouthpieces came up in a master class he gave in his most reccent visit and he expressed his enthusiasm for Vandoren mouthpieces.
dn
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Author: djphay
Date: 2011-12-18 21:51
I saw Michael playing a recital in Glasgow's City Halls just over a year ago and he was using Yamah CSGs there. I think if you look at his website now he states he is a Yamaha player and so seems to have made the switch permanent.
He has one of the few Eaton basset clarinets, so I don't know if he still plays on that or if he has a Yamaha basset too now (do Yamaha do basset clarinets?).
Fabulous player, although I think he got a slightly fuller sound with the Eatons...
David
Rank amateur
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Author: howarth
Date: 2011-12-19 09:18
He is indeed a Yamaha artist now, having been one of a number of players apparently helping improve the CS G instruments and he generally plays Vandoren B40/B40 Lyre. His Finzi is excellent, but also Collons/Hough/Isserlis Trio is one of my favorite CD's, the Fruhling is stunning.
Donny
Howarth of London
31-35 Chiltern Street
London
W1U 7PN
clarinet@howarth.uk.com
www.howarth.uk.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-12-19 10:11
I dread to think how he felt the other year at the BBC Proms (playing Ebony Concerto and Prelude, Fugue and Riffs) when his music wasn't on the stand! Shows he's human like the rest of us.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2011-12-19 14:34
Just a heads up, guys, there is a special concert at London's Wigmore Hall on 27th January 2012 which will be Michael's 50th birthday.
I, for one, am planning on being there! I've heard him quite a few times live and always been both very pleased and very impressed.
Vanessa.
(Disclaimer - I have no connection with Michael Collins or with the Wigmore Hall other than as a fan of both).
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Author: alex fell
Date: 2022-11-08 09:46
Not being in the milieu you must excuse my ignorance of other prominent players but I just came across his YouTube video with the London Mozart Players and was completely blown away by his tone. The first I have heard who sounds like dad - to the life! Was he by any chance one of his pupils? Wonderful!
Post Edited (2022-11-08 10:48)
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2022-11-08 20:16
Michael Collins is one of the very best clarinetists of his generation. He's both a virtuoso instrumentalist and a superb musician. I have a old BBC recording of him before he was famous (I think he was barely out of his teens) playing the Weber Second Concerto. Wonderful.
I've never met Mr. Collins but by all accounts, he's also a modest person and an exceptionally nice man.
Paul Globus
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2022-11-08 21:56
Alex Michael mainly had lessons with Thea King, the wife of Fredrick Thurston who would have been a colleague of your father’s.
Michael is a wonderful musician and a real inspiration to me as well as the playing of Sid Fell and Bernard Walton.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: graham
Date: 2022-11-08 22:03
Wow! I would never have made that connection. Collins like Sid Fell? I just can’t hear it.
He was taught by Thea King per this article: https://bachtrack.com/interview-michael-collins-clarinet-finzi-mozart-basset-may-2018
graham
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Author: JohnP
Date: 2022-11-09 12:26
I put a couple of recordings of Sid Fell on YouTube. A search for Sydney Fell clarinet will find them.
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Author: ebonite
Date: 2022-11-09 14:58
JohnP wrote:
> I put a couple of recordings of Sid Fell on YouTube. A search
> for Sydney Fell clarinet will find them.
Thank you!!
If I had to choose, I would say his sound reminds me of Jack Brymer or Gervase de Peyer (though distinct from both of them)
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Author: graham
Date: 2022-11-09 17:19
These are indeed excellent, despite the recorded sound. When I had a couple of lessons from Fell, he talked of a half complete recording he had made, where he had yet to complete ‘side 2’. I doubt he ever completed it, but I wonder what happened to side 1. It would be in good sound. I guess it must be somewhere in some form.
I have always understood that the clarinet playing in two movies, The Card and Ring of Bright Water were him. These are both readily accessible on YouTube and the playing is wonderful.
graham
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Author: jim sclater
Date: 2022-11-09 18:42
I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Collins play a recital at the Purcell Room at SBC in London in 1997. If my memory is correct, he was accompanied on piano that day by Ms. Thea King. After the program I introduced myself to him and gave him a few of my compositions for clarinet and piano. He was very gracious. His playing that day was everything I had hoped for. I don't recall what make of clarinet he was playing that day but the result was gorgeous.
jsclater@comcast.net
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Author: Nessie1
Date: 2022-11-09 20:55
Just to say I attended a couple of events for Michael's 60th birthday earlier this year - including a wonderful Brahms quintet and a dazzling Weber op. 73. He's still got it!
PS to the Paul above, who said that he had the recording of Michael playing the Weber "before he was famous", in the UK he pretty much leapt to fame at 16 in 1978 when he won the woodwind section of the very first BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2022-11-10 22:48
Indeed, the recording I have of Michael Collins playing the Weber concerto was made by the BBC.
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2022-11-11 04:33
Michael Collins has many excellent recordings but one of the best, in my opinion, is his recent (2022) recording of the Mozart Concerto on basset clarinet with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Really, really beautiful playing and a truly magnificent interpretation.
Among the many recordings of the Mozart out there, this is one is a stand-out. If I had to use one word to describe Michael Collins's playing on this disc I would say "elegant." His tone quality is gorgeous, nuances abound, and the personal touches are in great taste. It's like listening to this masterpiece for the very first time.
Paul Globus
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