Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2017-03-31 07:15
I carefully read everyone's comments. They are kind of exciting. Exciting in the sense that we are probably seeing a change and everyone is thinking the same way and asking amazing questions.
Eddie Palanker can surely help me out here. Hello my friend! He was with the orchestra for 50 something years. 57? He saw everything happen. The good, bad, and ugly. He sat next to Gennusa, Steve Barta and a lot of others. Eddie is an amazing man. He played under countless conductors. This is where I'm heading...
But lets take a look at a few orchestras just for a second and for the fun of it. I believe the Baltimore Sym had or still has a principal flute opening for 2 or 3 years? Were they being picky? I'm not sure, because the symphony was/is suffering. A lot or all of the members took pay cuts. Some of the pay cuts were huge, 1/2 their salaries in some cases? When Steve Barta left his position was filled for only one year. This to me is just wrong. I'm meeting with Steve for dinner next week so I'm gonna ask him what the latest is.
The San Diego Sym also suffered and I'm not completely sure what happened, but I think, remember these words "I think," the members of the orchestra took over to save the symphony. About 25 years ago I was in the final 4 for a clarinet position and the following year the orchestra was broke. Glad I didn't win. Such pressure. The winner deserved it by the way. No politics. Hidden screen so the people had no idea who was performing. The 3 of us were outplayed, but about 300 auditioned. A hard week.
Lets look at Chicago. Well this is kind of fun! We have John Yeh who has been with the orchestra for 40 years, We have Greg Smith also, so politics may not be a huge concern. I've played at this hall! It is hard to fill your sound to the back of the hall. (Orchestra Hall) Same with the Kennedy Center. That hall, the Kennedy Center is also kind of hard to play in. It's worse now after being redesigned.
So I'm very interested in everyone's comments. Maybe it is true that the conductors are looking for the right woodwind sections. Not just the solo players.
Severance Hall where Marcellus played is now so different. Totally redesigned. In my opinion for the worse. As for Shifrin, he played great, I saw a few of the concerts in the old hall. The conductor was NOT the great Szell. (Lorin Maazel) So we can't put too much weight on how David sounded. He was asked to play a different way. For example the orchestra played Rhapsody in Blue. The clarinet solo is usually somewhat short. The Gliss. at the beginning is maybe 8 to 10 seconds. The conductor asked David to play it very long. I think it was about 30 plus seconds. You can find it on youtube probably. Szell surely wouldn't have done this. Lets face it Shifrin may have been a match under Szell, but Maazel was surely totally different...
So I'm agreeing with everyone, yet I think just maybe the musicians are being pushed around too much?
Maybe that sweet clarinet sound is lost due to instrument makers and mouthpiece makers? I think this is part of it. But it surely isn't the whole situation.
It will surely be fun to address this subject again in 5 to 10 years. This is when Buffet will either be gone or have gotten their act together. It will be when Yamaha may be the number 1 clarinet in the world. Or maybe Selmer? This will be when you don't have to pay $500 to $1000 for a silly dead sounding mouthpiece that only costs $2 to make! Although the mold is a bit expensive to make. The clarinet world will be evolving rapidly. No one is happy, or very few are happy. We want to hear someone sound like Marcellus again. Or Gennusa, or Wright.
This WILL happen. There are too many gifted players, even better players than these greats who want that sound. Then, will these musical chairs continue? These one year contract assignments suck. It's not right.
Yes there are a lot of "Ifs," to this, including the need for GREAT conductors like Szell. With gifted conductors swapping out positions may help slow this problem down.
In closing I have to repeat this story. Marcellus and the Cleveland Orchestra were getting ready to record and Bob (Robert Marcellus) I called him Bob, was playing on a glass mouthpiece, crystal, and Szell told him not to use it for the recording. Well Bob decided to spray the mouthpiece black and they did the recording session. After, Szell took Bob aside and told him he can paint the mouthpiece any color he wished, but do NOT ever use this mouthpiece in my orchestra again! Well Szell had a heck of an ear, and he of course wanted his symphony to have HIS sound. By the way Szell I think went to Curtis, as did David Shifrin, however David studied with many and the guy is simply amazing. So again, maybe David would have fit well with Szell?
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2017-04-03 02:56)
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