 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: A Brady
Date: 2022-12-21 05:23
The great Stanley Drucker has passed, at his daughters home in California.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/arts/music/stanley-drucker-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
AB
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Author: Clarineat
Date: 2022-12-21 05:24
I was about to post. I am gutted. RIP Stanley it was such an inspiration to discover your artistry, and such a treat to have the opportunity to get to know you.
Sean Perrin
Host of the Clarineat Podcast
Listen FREE at www.clarineat.com
hello@clarineat.com
Post Edited (2022-12-21 05:30)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2022-12-21 08:51
A force of nature; a natural clarinet player.
He will be missed.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2022-12-21 16:10
That's very saddening news. He's been one of the bright stars of the firmament for so long, now suddenly it's as though the sky is empty.
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Author: DAVE
Date: 2022-12-21 19:42
Listened to his Nielsen today. Still my favorite. Still amazing!
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Author: Paul Globus
Date: 2022-12-21 19:54
One of the all time greatest ... I heard him perform live a number of occasions, starting in the late 1960s. Also heard his very last performance of the Copland in New Jersey.
Stanley Drucker was in a class all by himself in terms of his mastery of the instrument and his musicianship. As good as he sounded on recordings, in a live setting he sounded 100 times better.
Remarkably, Stanley Drucker always seemed to be having a blast. He appeared to just love the music that he was making and that has was a part of. Unlike so many orchestral musicians, he never became jaded or lost his enthusiasm for the pure joy of music. That's an incredibly rare quality.
If ever there was a gold standard in orchestral clarinetists, Stanley Drucker was it. I feel for Naomi Drucker and for his son and daughter and the other members of his family. Thanks for the memories, Mr. Drucker.
Paul Globus
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Author: Ed
Date: 2022-12-21 20:24
It somehow seemed that he was such a force of nature and so much larger than life that he would be around forever. I completely agree about his joy in music and the clarinet. Every time you saw him, he seemed to be having the time of his life. Even after his retirement from NY, he still sought out performing opportunities and gave it his all. I don't know that there was ever a time when you could say he was just going though the motions or "phoning it in".
I was very fortunate to have heard him live in solo performances a good number of times. In a regional orchestra where I played he was guest soloist a number of times. It was always a pleasure to hear him. He and his wife Naomi would stop by the clarinet section to say hello and chat.
Years back, prior to my joining that orchestra, he was scheduled to be soloist. Because of his schedule in NY he was only going to do the dress rehearsal and performance. The conductor, who knew of me, invited me to step in as soloist for the earlier rehearsals to give the orchestra a feel for the piece. I went to the performance on Saturday and after he played the concerto, I stopped by his dressing room at intermission to say hello. He invited me in and we proceeded to visit for the entire second half of the concert. He had many great stories and colorful thoughts and observations to share. It is one of my cherished memories of him.
While I don't necessarily want to emulate his style (after all there was only one Stanley!), his complete command of the instrument was unparalleled. Nothing ever seemed to be a challenge for him and the most difficult passages seemed to be dashed off effortlessly. He played with incredible passion and individuality. We are fortunate that he left a huge number of recordings as a remarkable legacy.
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2022-12-21 23:03
I never knew him or saw him play in person, as I moved from NY to Canada age 23. But he was a big inspiration to me when I was in high school and I still have his LP recordings of the Nielsen and Debussy.
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
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Author: jim sclater
Date: 2022-12-22 01:00
While I am sad to hear of Mr. Drucker's passing, it is also a time to be grateful for all the wonderful music he made and recorded. He had probably as great a life making music as anyone could possibly have. We are fortunate to have had his musical presence for as long as we did. I regret not ever getting to hear him "live," but did have the pleasure of speaking with him once on the telephone. I was doing research for a series of articles on a famous clarinetist and wrote Mr. Drucker to see if he had heard this gentleman play in NYC. He graciously called me and we chatted at length. RIP, Mr. Drucker. You gave us many great memories.
jsclater@comcast.net
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2022-12-25 01:07
Growing up in the NY area, Long Island to be specific, I had the good fortune as a high schooler to attend free concerts in various county libraries where Stanley and Naomi would play.
Sometimes it's easy to write off Naomi's play, which was absolutely outstanding, simply because Stanley, playing in his prime, was just "not of this earth."
Stanley could sight read flawlessly a passage many of us could spend a month maybe getting down flawlessly. It just seemed to come easy to him--which I know is illusionary at best. His level of talent only comes at the intersection of hard work and innate ability.
I found Glenn Dicterow's description of him https://youtu.be/Uc5kiwL7TlA?t=44 much on point. He never much seemed to age, nor did his love of music. He kept old material fresh by changing it up a bit to both his and the audience's benefit. Like Dicterow's analogy of him to The Picture of Dorain Grey, I always considered him the "Dick Clark" of classical music, never seeming to much age.
Sadly off course age catches up with all of us eventually. But I thank him for inspiring and motivating me. I never took lessons from him, although we shared teachers (Russianoff.) I'm pretty sure Tom H studied with Leon too, who Stanley was to name his son after (and met Naomi through), I'm told.
People have asked in this age of required double tonguing and circular breathing if Mr. Drucker could have made it through today's auditions. I think he'd do so, especially armed with the lifetime of experience he acquired.
RIP Stanley. You can finally relax that your Lelandais mouthpiece has outlived you rather than vice versa--Mr. Drucker believing that most mouthpieces weren't much better than door stops.
The joke was on you. You would have sounded great on any mouthpiece. If I'm not mistaken, in this very video it discusses Stanley playing the Mozart with the NY Phil, on less than a day's notice when another headliner took ill, from memory, on "Mitch's borrowed" (Mitchell Estrin's) "A" clarinet.
Post Edited (2022-12-25 01:09)
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2022-12-25 07:16
SecondTry-- Yes I studied with Leon from 1972-76 when a student at Queens College. During that time I got the record of Drucker doing the Nielsen (still have it). I tried to emulate him over the years and finally played it in 1990 with accompaniment on Clavinova. My playing was OK but not up to the Master's standard by a long shot-- it is on YouTube. My accompanist was outstanding-- she was a career nurse...
While waiting my turn for a lesson I once counted the sign in sheet and found Russianoff had at the time 44 students.
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
Post Edited (2022-12-25 07:19)
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Author: Ed
Date: 2022-12-26 03:09
Regarding Stanley's legendary Lelandais- I recall that the great Everett Matson used to do some mouthpiece work for Stanley. He once told me the facing on Drucker's mouthpiece was a little crooked. They decided to straighten it out. He said that after he made the facing even, Stanley did not like it as much and he had to put the asymmetry back.
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