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8 May 2011 ... Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011. 3. As with an old black ... ended in mild suspense – would there be any new ideas for the next edition? ... report the loss of another friend and colleague, Robert Jordan, who died shortly.
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www.bdrs.org.uk registered charity number 1080461

Double Reed News

The magazine of the British Double Reed Society

Spring 2011

Remembering

'Bill'

A Celebratory Concert at the Wigmore Hall



Words from our Chairman

Robert Codd

In this Issue...



As with an old black and white movie, the last “Words From Our Chairman” ended in mild suspense – would there be any new ideas for the next edition? In both cases of course, the outcome is quite predictable. No, there have not have been any inspiring coach journeys recently but I have been stuck in some pretty spectacular traffic jams, none more so than a threehour meditation on the M25. It was hardly a moving experience but it did give time to reflect. Perhaps it was the back of the large French truck in front that made me think of Le Basson. It is amazing what comes to mind in times of crisis. To be fair, I learnt originally on a Buffet, not that I appreciated it much at the time. I had wanted to learn the oboe, or clarinet – it didn’t really matter which – but the bandmaster in charge said: ‘Nothing available. You will have to wait.’ Then, after a significant pause, he added ‘There is an old French ‘Bazzoon’ in the cupboard. If you can play that you can play anything.’

3 Chairman’s Comments Robert Codd

4 Editorial

Clive Fairbairn

6 Annual General Meeting Maxine Moody

7 Annual Convention Preview 9 Memorial/Celebration Concert for William Waterhouse Elisabeth Waterhouse

9 Letter

Timothy Watts

10 Obituaries:

John Clementson Gerald Corey Robert Jordan

13 The Uilleann Pipes:

Lock, Stock and Several Barrels Julian May

It was many years later that I had the great fortune to play with Cecil James on several occasions and to hear the Buffet really perform, admittedly by an exceptional player with a highly individual sound. He was also most entertaining company, with innumerable stories; one such especially recalled how – to withstand the constant taunts from conductors who thought he should join the mass conversion to the ‘Heckel’ – he cut out a ring from white cardboard and stuck it onto the bell of his instrument. At the next rehearsal the conductor looked over and pronounced: ‘There you are Mr. James; what a transformation.’

19 Redefining the Boundaries

Such a player had many pupils, including Mr. Lewis Dann, who appeared with several other Buffet colleagues at last year’s AGM and suggested that the French bassoon might feature at the 2011 Convention. Very sadly, Lewis Dann has now passed away and Le Basson has lost a staunch supporter. I am also very sorry to report the loss of another friend and colleague, Robert Jordan, who died shortly before Christmas. He will be greatly missed for his fine playing, his erudite and witty conversation and not least for the “tewwible fight” in Berio’s Opus No. Zoo.

26 Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway? Laurence Perkins

By a strange coincidence, Lewis Dann’s son, Howard, another notable exponent of the French bassoon, wrote recently to report his father’s death and to say that he is currently working in France and devoting himself to the renaissance of his instrument. He proposes giving a lecture/demonstration at the next Convention which, incidentally, will be held in Watford on 8th May. There will be a comparison of passages played on both systems – I am not sure who the ‘German’ volunteer will be – and then a chance for potential converts to come along and have a blow. We look forward very much to meeting as many of you as possible at this event. Meanwhile, I will be back on the M25, looking for an Austrian truck to bumpstart some ideas on the Viennese Oboe.

Evgeniya Kondrashina

22 Composers’ Forum

Jean Ashford, Clive Fairbairn Geoffrey Heath, Frances Jones Sarah McClure, John Orford Laurence Perkins

28 Bassonicus:

Shostakovich, the Bassoon, and the North Face of the Eiger! Jefferey Cox

30 Second to None and All:

James ‘Jimmy’ Brown (Part II) Geoffrey Burgess

35 Playing Jazz on the Bassoon Daniel Smith

37 Reviews

Nicholas Daniel, Deborah Goodyer Geoffrey Ogram

39 Noticeboard 40 Classified 41 Advertising, Membership, etc

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The Editor’s Comment Clive Fairbairn British Double Reed Society www.bdrs.org.uk [email protected]

Joint Presidents Roger Birnstingl, Karl Jenkins

Chairman Robert Codd [email protected]

Secretary Maxine Moody 5 North Avenue, Stoke Park, Coventry CV2 4DH 0247 665 0322 [email protected]

Treasurer Geoffrey Bridge House of Cardean Meigle, Perthshire PH12 8RB [email protected]

Committee Jane Carrington-Porter, Sarah Francis Christine Griggs, Nicholas Hunka, Sarah McClure

Membership Dr Christopher Rosevear [email protected]

Education [email protected]

Legal Services Co-ordinator Nigel Salmon 4 Portelet Place, Hedge End Southampton, Hants SO30 0LZ

BDRS Web Manager [email protected]

Double Reed News Clive Fairbairn, Editor Editorial Office DRN, P.O. Box 713 High Wycombe HP13 5XE Editorial enquiries only: 01494 520359 [email protected] Advertising, Membership and other BDRS/DRN details – see back page ISSN 1460-5686

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Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

How have your new year resolutions stood the test of the first couple of months of 2011? Are you still taking more regular exercise? Being a tidier person? Looking in on those elderly neighbours? Losing weight? Perhaps being more organised about practice or reed-making? Writing this editorial in the very first days of the new year I have to confess that I have not yet chosen my resolutions. Part of the problem is that the things that seem a good idea to me, such as any of the above, are things that I would like to be mainstream anyway; not just special to this particular year, new or otherwise. Seen from the Society’s point of view, what belated resolutions would really benefit our organisation? Well, for a start we could all make a special effort to renew our subscriptions on time or, better still, pay in an automated manner that ensures our membership never accidentally lapses. Another very good one would be to enrol at least one new BDRS member; this would reverse the small but significant decline in numbers in the last few years, from just under 1000 to c.900. It would be an excellent goal for us to push that number back up, and well into four figures. Seen from the Editor’s perspective, I would be pleased if more members could write to the magazine, whether just comments on the content or on particular articles; or send ‘letters to the editor’ on some aspect of double-reed life; or write actual articles – even just ideas for articles – all would be much welcomed; useful photographs, too; items of interest, amusement and edification; the list is endless. (See also the Composers’ Forum in this edition, which seeks more response.) What about the ‘engine’ of the BDRS, its committee? Well, I do know what they would ask me to encourage members to choose as the best new year resolution: volunteer to join it! Illness in particular has been taking its toll amongst the members of the committee recently and so both temporary and long-term help is much needed. Conventions and other activities do not run themselves and this engine currently needs re-fuelling. If you could choose that as your new resolution, why not get in touch right away and see how you could help? It might be the best new year resolution you ever made.

COMMITTEE SEEKS NEW BLOOD! As the Editor mentions above, help of both a temporary and longer term nature is very much needed by the Society at present. Actual meetings are held only occasionally because committee members are spread out across the country; further communication is maintained by email. Involvement in the work of BDRS would include some hands-on assistance. More details from the Secretary, Maxine Moody ([email protected]) or Chairman, Robert Codd ([email protected]) or Treasurer, Geoffrey Bridge ([email protected]).

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British Double Reed Society |

Annual General Meeting

(Registered Charity No. 1080461) Sunday 8th May 2011 Clarendon Muse (Watford Boys’ Grammar School) 70 Rickmansworth Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD18 7JA

The Annual General Meeting for 2011 will be held in the Clarendon Muse at Watford Boys’ Grammar School on Sunday, 8th May 2011 during the Double Reed Convention as advertised elsewhere in this issue of Double Reed News. Any member wishing only to attend the meeting should return the Double Reed Convention application form suitably marked (without paying the entrance fee) to obtain details of the timing of the meeting.

Agenda 1. Apologies for absence 2. Minutes of the 2010 AGM held at Northampton Music School on 9th May 2010 3. Matters arising from the Minutes 4. Presentation of the Annual Report for 2010 5. Presentation of the Treasurer’s Report and Annual Accounts for 2010 6. Appointment of person(s) to undertake the independent examination of the 2011 accounts 7. Election of Officers and Committee members to serve for a period of three years commencing from the close of the meeting 8. Members’ Forum (at the discretion of the Chairman)

Notes 1. Advance copies of these reports will be available before the meeting; please contact the Secretary if you wish to receive advance copies. 2. Nominations to serve on the Committee for three years must be received by the Secretary at least fourteen days before the date of the AGM, i.e. by 24th April 2011. Nomination forms can be obtained from the Secretary by application. 3. The Secretary is Maxine Moody, who can be contacted at 5 North Avenue, Stoke Park, Coventry, CV2 4DH (024 7665 0322) or by e-mail at [email protected]

Maxine Moody (Hon. Secretary) 6

Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

British Double Reed Society | Sunday 8th May 2011

Annual Convention

10.00am – 5.00pm

Clarendon Muse (Watford Boys’ Grammar School) 70 Rickmansworth Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD18 7JA

Photo: Mario-Franco MONTANT

Recitals Nora Cismondi, oboe

Meyrick Alexander, bassoon

Principal Oboist in the Orchestre National de France

Head of Woodwind at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Former Principal Bassoonist of the Philharmonia Orchestra Meyrick Alexander’s recital will include the sonatas by Arnold Cooke and Gustav Schreck

Nora Cismondi’s recital will include the Poulenc and Dutilleux sonatas

Masterclasses by the Guest Artists Oboe Tutorials (accompanist provided) Bassoon Tutorials (accompanist provided) Chamber Music Graded Workshops Teachers’ Forum Composers’ Forum/Workshop French Bassoon Lecture Recital Mass Play-in Trade Stands

Information from, and Application Forms returned to: Convention Secretary, Ian Finn, 165 Hanover Road, London NW10 3DN Trade Enquiries only to: Geoffrey Bridge, Treasurer BDRS, House of Cardean, Meigle, Perthshire PH12 8RB

Convention 2011 Preview The Clarendon Muse was built with music in mind and its website claims: ‘We have the best acoustics, the finest tuition, performance and production facilities and the most inspiring musical environment. It is home to the awardwinning Watford School of Music and the Music Department of Watford Grammar School for Boys. This unique partnership between the two institutions brings the very best of musical tuition, production and performance to the heart of Watford.’ The striking four-storey building, opened in 2008 and nicknamed locally ‘the ice cube’, has been accorded the prestigious

RIBA award and boasts 2,000 square metres of specialist music space. This includes a 200-seat concert hall, a double height foyer/entertainment space and multiple sound-proofed recital/practice rooms, making it a flexible and very suitable venue for our Convention.

though some restrictions apply. By bus, Arriva and Greenline buses serve the locality.

If driving, Clarendon Muse is on the west side of Watford which lies in a curve of the north-west sector of the M25 – nearest junctions being 18, 19, 20 and 21; also close by is the M1 (J5).

By train, there are several Watford stations, both main line and underground but some will require either a long walk or a taxi ride. The nearest is the ‘Watford’ station on the Metropolitan underground line – about 5 minutes walk via Cassiobury Park Road and Shepherds Road.

Parking in the grounds is quite good; there is also local street parking,

By plane, Luton, Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

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The Clarendon Muse Guest Artists As usual the annual Convention offers a full programme of events and BDRS is again presenting one guest artist from abroad and from Great Britain. Nora Cismondi was born in 1978 in Valence, France, and studied the oboe with Cesar Onibene. She already was winning prizes at international competitions in Brussels and Verona at the age of 11. She attended the National Conservatory of Lyon when she was fifteen then entered the Conservatoire Nationale Superieur de Musique in Paris in 1994. There she studied with Jacques Tys, J L Capezzali, and Maurice Bourgue with whom she did post-graduate work after receiving first prizes in Oboe and Chamber Music. During her time at the Conservatory, she was offered the opportunity to be part of the European Youth Orchestra (19941996) where she had her first orchestral experience under the baton of such illustrious conductors as Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Mstislav Rostropovitch. 8

Ms. Cismondi’s talent earned her an appointment as the first oboe soloist at the National Paris Opera in 1998. She held this position until 2005 when she was appointed principal oboist in the Orchestre National de France under the directorship of world-renowned conductor Kurt Masur. She has been invited to perform as guest first oboist with famous orchestras, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Münchner Philharmonie, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Bayerische Rundfunk. Ms. Cismondi has received top prizes at prestigious international oboe competitions, including the Prague Spring Festival in 2001, the International Oboe Competition in Toulon in 2002, and the ARD (German Radio) Competition in 2003. Meyrick Alexander has recently been appointed Head of Woodwind at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama before which he served for thirty years as Principal Bassoon of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. With this orchestra he played with most of the world's leading conductors and

Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

soloists and performed on six continents. He has also been a member of staff of three major music colleges (GSMD, RNCM and Birmingham Conservatoire) and continues to play with several orchestras including the London Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Meyrick has served on the jury of many international competitions and is currently the woodwind coach of the I, Culture Youth Orchestra, which recruits from several eastern European countries. With the pianist Catherine Milledge, he can be heard on a recital CD entitled The Wandering Bassoon, available from Meridian Records. They are as usual joined by a team of tutorial, workshop and session leaders. Trade stands are always a highlight of the Convention and, with a warm welcome from Watford’s Clarendon Muse, this should make a very special day for all Double Reeders.

A date for your diaries! Saturday, April 16th at 2.30 Wigmore Hall, London ‘A Celebratory Concert for Bill’ (in memory of William Waterhouse) Elisabeth Waterhouse writes: The first piece is for 8 bassoons by Gabrieli, which will have 2 players to a part – ergo 16 bassoons playing together – which will be an unforgettable sound! Players are coming from Italy, Germany, USA, UK and Japan.



It is a privilege to have known him, and I still smile whenever I think of him. Dolf Polak



The programme consists of works dedicated to Bill; a vintage bassoon from his collection will be played; a bassoon quartet from Manchester will play a piece of his son Graham’s; a new contrabassoon (the contraforte) will be presented by Henry Skolnick; and other items. The concert will end with the last movement of the Schubert Octet, which was played so often and recorded by the Melos ensemble. Family members Graham, Celia and Lucy are the mainstays of the event and other string players will be involved. There will be a reception in the Bechstein Room after the concert until 6pm and then further socialising at 86 Cromwell Avenue. A souvenir programme will be offered with every ticket – so if anyone has a special memory or would like to contribute to this, I would be delighted to hear from you. ([email protected])

Letter to the Editor Dear Sir The sacking by Welsh National Opera of its Principal Oboe, Sandy Johnston, and the subsequent failure of the tribunal to uphold his claim for wrongful dismissal has serious implications for other musicians who are members of in-house orchestras. (‘WNO oboist loses wrongful dismissal case’ Classical Music magazine, 23rd October 2010). It seems that the behaviour of Carlo Rizzi – the persistent nit-picking bordering on abuse, singing along to oboe solos during rehearsals, even going to the lengths of instructing the management to issue a written warning forbidding the player from using a mute, common practice in all oboe sections – cannot be justified, as the WNO management has claimed, on the grounds of ‘raising artistic standards’. Musical directors who wish to impose their own concept of homogeneity in the sound of a wind section will inevitably have to contend with individual styles of

playing that are not necessarily to their taste. This does not, however, give them the authority systematically to destroy an individual player’s credibility on a daily basis. Even performers of the highest calibre, when subjected to such frequent attacks on their playing, will inevitably have their ability to perform at the highest level undermined. Any loss of confidence on an instrument as precarious as the oboe, where the minutest adjustment to embouchure and reed are so critical, would be devastating. It is also interesting to note that, having been required to re-audition for his job, and playing so well that even Maestro Rizzi was forced to pass him – along with the rest of the distinguished panel – the company should then move the goal posts and claim that the problem lay all along in his ensemble playing. I find this particularly astonishing, having played for many years in the WNO oboe section at

the start of my career. I remember an extremely fine musician, absolutely dedicated to his craft. I particularly recall, along with other colleagues, the performances of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, The Ring Cycle and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier which all contain some of the most demanding oboe solos in the repertoire. His playing would have graced any orchestra on the world stage. There are many recordings which can testify to this. For WNO to cite maintaining artistic standards as the grounds for dismissing such an outstanding player is a complete travesty. The fact that the tribunal felt unable to recognise the appalling injustice in this case should be a cause of consternation for orchestral musicians everywhere. Yours faithfully Timothy Watts (Sub-principal Oboe, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)

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Obituaries John Clementson (UK), Gerald Corey (Canada), Robert Jordan (UK)

John Clementson – musician and oboist: May 2nd 1937 – December 12th 2010 an appreciation by Nicholas Hunka John and I first met as students together at the Royal College of Music in 1961. I did not know him very well during this period; he was a bit older, having done his National Service in a military band before going to college. In about 1963 the RCM mounted a performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor with hand-picked instrumentalists and singers under the distinguished direction of Hubert Dawkes. Many people commented afterwards on John’s performance of the long and difficult solo in the Qui Sedes, played I think on the cor anglais. His beautiful limpid sound and impeccable musicianship made a huge impression. The other bassoonist was the late Patrick Milne who finished a distinguished career as Principal Bassoon in the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. I met him a few years ago and he was still going on about John’s playing from 40 years before. On leaving college John was invited to become 2nd oboe with the Hallé Orchestra. This was one of the country’s leading orchestras under the musical directorship of the illustrious Sir John Barbirolli. It was a great vote of confidence to take on a young inexperienced player in a very exposed position. During some of his time there I was also in Manchester. My own first job was with the BBC Northern Orchestra and sometimes we used to meet up for a drink and swap experiences about living in Manchester. One of the earliest examples I can remember of his devastating, politically incorrect and barbed wit was his comment: 10

He moved back to London and for the next 11-12 years had a very successful period of freelance playing. He performed as extra and deputy with all the London orchestras, took part in ballet seasons with visiting foreign companies, played on symphonic, light and film recording sessions and toured extensively in Europe, the USA and the Far East. A particular favourite was a small orchestra that went round the country performing the works of Johann Strauss. It must be stressed what a very successful period this was in his career as a very fine oboist and musician but, unfortunately, by the early 80s financial and other pressures intervened. Playing a double reed instrument requires 100% dedication.

‘The trouble with Mancunians is that they think that anyone with a BBC accent has come to lead a Punitive Expedition.’ That is vintage Clementson! I moved on to join the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a few months later we needed to recruit a Principal Oboe. This was when I first got to know John properly as, apart from doing an extended trial for the position, he often stayed in my flat on a folding bed in the sitting room. I have very happy memories of his playing during this period and particularly remember his rendering of the solos in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Strauss’ Don Juan. I was very disappointed that he was not offered the job and feel that his life could have been different had he been appointed.

Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

I would like to finish with a tiny part of his professional life that I know gave him particular pleasure. Sometime in the 70s he was summoned to a recording studio and found himself recording the music for a film starring Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn, probably one of the Inspector Clouseau series. He must have been the principal oboe because to his delight there was a scene where the 2 stars were ushered into the bedroom of a sumptuous hotel in the South of France. For some reason that I cannot remember, Goldie elects at this point to direct her very shapely bottom to the cameras and at this moment there is an oboe solo. He was very, very proud of this. I’m sure that we all hope that he is now at peace.

Gerald Corey – bassoonist and founder of IDRS: 1934 – 2010 from the announcement on the IDRS website It is with deep sadness that the IDRS reports the death of one of the Founding Fathers of our Society. Gerald Corey, whose industrious leadership, first with the creation of the newsletter, To the World’s Bassoonists, and later with the formation of the first annual IDRS Conference, passed away on December 2, 2010, in Ottawa, Canada. Gerry had been suffering from ALS disease (commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease). In speaking of his close friendship with Gerry, IDRS Oboe Editor Dan Stolper wrote: ‘This is a very sad day for me. Gerry and I were at Eastman together – we were actually roommates for a year. It was truly a life-changing day for me when Gerry approached me about starting a newsletter called “To the World’s Oboists”. He was a great artist and a real visionary. I don’t think there’d be an IDRS without his idealism and

optimistic spirit. I’m grateful to him, and I miss him already.’ There are so many ways we will all miss Gerry: for his work as the first IDRS Editor early Officer of the Society, innovative master of both the French- and Germansystem bassoons, and the performance of both during his long tenure as Principal Bassoon of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, after an earlier career as principal of the Baltimore Symphony in Maryland. His legacy to the bassoon world will live on and on. The Editors of The Double Reed (the IDRS journal) are beginning to plan a special edition of the publication to commemorate Gerry; it will be the first issue of 2011. The IDRS joins his friends, family and students in deeply mourning the

passing one of our most honoured of Honorary Members.

Robert Jordan – bassoonist: 25th June 1944 – 21st November 2010 from details supplied by Heather Jordan Robert studied modern languages at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, later joining the BBC Training Orchestra (now defunct) based in Bristol in 1967. He remained with the BBCTO until 1969 and whilst there, married the oboist, Heather Daniell in 1968. On leaving the Training Orchestra he went swiftly to the English National

Opera Orchestra where he remained for nearly 40 years as Co-principal Bassoon. His degree in languages proved useful later as a translator of sleeve notes for Philips Records for many years. He was a founder member of the City of London Sinfonia, and the Athena Ensemble with whom he made many recordings, and also the London Harpsichord Ensemble.

They had two daughters, Susanna and Amanda. [Ed. Robert and Heather Jordan were the subjects of the occasional series ‘Double-Reeders in Harness’ in issue 51, Summer 2000, of DRN.]

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The Uilleann Pipes: Lock, Stock and Several Barrels By turns soul-searching and exuberant, the sound of the Irish uilleann pipes is familiar today from the mist-laden TV dramas and a cameo role in Titanic; but only 50 years ago it was on the verge of extinction. Julian May explores the instrument under the guidance of Liam O’Flynn, whose playing has helped to ensure the tradition is thriving again. (Reproduced by kind permission of Songlines: Photos Toner)

From left to right; the chanter, the drones, and regulators with the bag and popping strap, and the bellows. The film Braveheart opens with roaming shots of a rugged, damp, mysterious landscape; a beautiful Scotland riven by atrocity. To augment the atmosphere aurally, what do we hear? Of course, a distant lamentation of pipes. But not Highland pipes; for his film, Mel Gibson imported their distant Irish cousins, the uilleann variety. William Wallace had been dead for half a millennium before they were invented, but this is Hollywood. Cut to Titanic, Leonardo di Caprio wants to show Kate Winslet a really good time. They escape the stuffed shirts in first class, dive below decks and behold, the Irish émigrés are dancing with wild abandon to the great tunes that a musician in the corner ...is squeezing from his uilleann pipes. There you have it, the two stereotypical extremes of the Celtic world, encapsulated by this single instrument. Paddy Moloney, chief of The Chieftains, must possess the best travelled set – he has played them everywhere, with everyone. Davy Spillane uses his like a jazz saxophonist and they are a crucial ingredient to the mix of the most successful fusion band of the moment, Afro-Celt Sound System. The uilleann (pronounced ‘illyun’) pipes, like the rest of Irish culture, have gone global. Even so, the moment of musical history

that the great piper Liam O’Flynn will cherish for the rest of his days is the recital he gave in London on August 12th 1999. He played a few tunes from Galicia and a smattering of new work, but predominately the programme was of Irish traditional music. Nothing unusual in that; it’s what he does. But the venue was the Royal Albert Hall and the evening was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 as part of the most prestigious of serious music festivals, the BBC Proms. ‘It’s wonderful,’ O’Flynn enthuses. ‘This is the first time this music has appeared on such a platform. It’s tremendously important.’ So it is, because while there have been African, Jazz and Indian Proms, this was the first featuring the traditional music of Ireland. ‘Not mediated through versions by classical composers,’ O’Flynn asserts, ‘but the thing itself.’ It’s a measure of the respect for that music, for the musician and the instrument itself.

Saved from extinction It is strange to think then that, within living memory, the health of uilleann piping was even more parlous than that of the Irish language. ‘The instrument came very close to extinction,’ O’Flynn reflects. ‘It nearly did die, and the ordinary people would not have been aware of the existence of the uilleann pipes. The lowest point came about 60 years ago when there were very few pipers left, maybe 50 at most, and no more than a handful could make a set of pipes.’ But those few tenacious pipers – notably Leo Rowsome, Seamus Ennis and Willie Clancy – clung on when the Irish began to rediscover their own music in the 1950s; the tradition, at its last gasp, was not beyond resuscitation. For O’Flynn, these players, all of whom he new and learned from, are heroic figures: wonderful musicians, vital bearers and advocates of their tradition, generous teachers and great men. O’Flynn has played a crucial role himself. He joined the group Planxty in 1972 and they were

phenomenally successful, touring widely and beyond the usual remit of folk music. Many people, drawn to their exciting music, heard the uilleann pipes for the first time and were struck by their power and their expressiveness. ‘I must have been hearing the uilleann pipes from more or less day one,’ says O’Flynn. ‘I was born into a family of traditional musicians – though none of them pipers.’ His mother, from County Clare, sang and played the piano; his father was a fiddler whose good friend Sergeant Tom Armstrong, of the Kildare Garda, used to visit frequently, bringing his pipes. ‘My earliest musical memory is of extraordinary impact – some deep chord within me that the sound of the uilleann pipes struck – and I was in no doubt that that was the instrument I wanted to play. I dreamt about the time when I’d be old enough and strong enough to get a set of pipes.’ O’Flynn extolls the mellowness of their sound, the uilleann pipes’ characteristic sweetness of tone, but he acknowledges too their raw wildness, a quality hinting that the piper is perhaps not totally in control. As well as chirruping happily along, these pipes can wail chillingly, as in The Foxhunt, the most remarkable descriptive piece in their repertoire, when they evoke first the yelps of the hounds, then the death throes of their unfortunate prey. The poet Seamus Heaney, who works in an occasional duo with O’Flynn, credits the strength the drones bring, creating the ‘floor of the sound, the foundation to build on with their deep steady quality’. He relishes too ‘the merriment playing along with it’ in the jigs and reels; yet, like O’Flynn, he is struck by the emotional impact of the uilleann pipes, likening ‘their capacity to lament and enlarge sorrow’ to great poetry. A fine example of this is The Death of Staker Wallace. ‘Staker Wallace led an outfit

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called the White Boys,’ O’Flynn explains. ‘They dressed up in sheets at night and rooted up the hedges the landlords enclosed the commonage with; the peasants were already in a desperate plight. He was hunted down, tortured and hanged in 1798; then his head was put on a spike. There was a song about him. Only a few lines survive but we have the tune, which is a kind of monument to the man.’ It is unutterably sad, and when O’Flynn plays it he lengthens and blends certain notes, and the melody itself seems weighted down by anguish and loss.

have rubber bags which do not leak, but leather is still preferred because it filters the air, catching the dust that can play havoc with the reeds. The bag powers the chanter – the pipe which plays the melody. It has seven finger-holes with a single thumb-hole on the back. Unlike the Northumbrian small pipes this chanter is open-ended and has a conical bore. For much of the time the chanter rests on the ‘popping strap’, a piece of leather tied around the piper’s thigh, but it must be lifted off the strap to obtain certain notes and to blend them.

‘Many of the tunes’, says Heaney, ‘are slow airs with a certain dolorousness.’ But the aspect of the uilleann pipes and their music that impresses him most is that they are ‘not about dolour, but overcoming it; a spirit not caving in but keeping going.’ One begins to realize why for many Irish people the pipes rather than the harp are the national instrument. Indeed, one of the new pieces O’Flynn included in his Proms concert was The Bridge, written for the inauguration of Mary McAleese as President of Ireland and in which the incorporation of the uilleann pipes was at her request.

The best chanters are made of ebony, or African blackwood, but these, prized for their density even more than for their beauty, have long been difficult to acquire. O’Flynn recalls his teacher Leo Rowsome, who was a great pipe-maker as well as player: ‘He was always on the lookout for old policeman’s truncheons – just right for making chanters if they weren’t split with use. He used to be on the lookout for old billiard balls, too. They were sometimes made of ivory and he’d use them for mountings.’ Nowadays, chanters are sometimes made of boxwood, which is also very closegrained and hard, or even cherry. As many as seven keys may be fitted, giving a range of sharps and flats; but traditional music requires only one, which gives C natural in the second octave. The scale of the instrument is D major.

A mechanical marvel It is the extraordinary sophistication of these pipes that makes such a range of expression possible. O’Flynn complains that ‘ordinary’ musicians can just pick up their instruments, while he has to strap himself into his. The piper must sit, with the bellows under one arm, pumping air with his elbow – resisting the temptation to do this in time with the music – through a tube across the stomach to the bag under the other arm! Ideally, the bag is made of pigskin, which used to be treated with lard to keep it airtight (‘with dire consequences for the piper’, O’Flynn recalls, ‘should he sit too close to the fire’). Cheaper modern pipes 14

Nearly 300 years ago an unknown genius pared a reed that gave access to the upper octave by means of overblowing. Whereas the beauty of the Highland pipes lies in the exploitation and ornamentation of their restricted range, that of the uilleann pipes is the freedom to roam over two octaves. But there are also ‘flat pipes’, pitched a tone or more lower. O’Flynn has a set of these inherited from the great piper and collector Seamus Ennis. These are quieter, mellow and even more of a chamber instrument.

Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

Across the piper’s lap lie the drones – three of them. These provide a constant accompaniment to the chanter. One of the secrets of listening to pipe music is to attune the ear not just to the drone and chanter but the chords they create together (such as with Highland pipes an apparent fifth, there even though nothing is producing it). The tenor drone echoes the bottom note of the chanter, the baritone is an octave below that and the bass another octave below the baritone. (Uilleann pipes, ever versatile, have a key which can silence the drones.)

The uilleann pipes are secured to the player with a strap around his waist. Air is then pumped from the bellows (on the left of the picture) through the tube across the stomach and into the bag before it is released into the various pipes

The bag, ideally made of pigskin, is protected by a velvet cover

Bagpipers the world over content themselves with bags, chanters and drones in various combinations. But Ireland is a land given to excess – so the uilleann piper has to contend with ‘regulators’ too. These are three pipes, stopped at the ends and fitted with keys, arranged over the drones. With the heel of the fist, or the fingers of one hand if it is not too busy on the chanter, the dextrous piper depresses the keys to provide simple chordal accompaniment.

The chanter with its single key, resting on the popping strap

The chanter is raised off the strap for certain pitch changes

‘Why "regulators" no one has ever been able to tell me, nor any book either,’ muses O’Flynn. The use of these is controversial. Leo Rowsome was inordinately fond of them, leading Seamus Ennis to mock his ‘parp-parping’ style. Johnny Doran, a traveller piper (who died as a result of a wall collapsing on his caravan in Dublin), used them almost percussively. His playing was fast, even flashy, because he played at fairs and markets: his audience was on the move and he had to arrest them with his virtuosity. He influenced Willie Clancy, and more recently Davy Spillane who admired the wildness of Doran’s style more than the parlour ‘pipering’ of Rowsome. Ennis, whom O’Flynn reveres for his mastery of the instrument in its entirety, used the regulators sparingly yet to great effect. O’Flynn exploits the regulators with his customary restraint. So the piper is pumping the bellows, varying the pressure of the bag, bouncing the chanter off his thigh as he plays the tune, switching the drones in and out and wresting chords out of the regulators. ‘There is quite a lot to think about,’ says O’Flynn, a man of almost English understatement. ‘It calls for a certain degree of co-ordination. I don’t play any other pipes but if there are any more difficult ones I don’t want to know about them.’

The drones (the smallest hidden from view) and the regulators with their metal keys

The smallest drone nestles next to the left of the three regulators

The regulators are played with the fingers of the right hand while the left continues to play on the chanter

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He tells a story of coming through customs with a friend at Heathrow airport with his pipes in their neat case. A stressed security man rushed up. ‘Is that a gun in there?’, he snapped. ‘No,’ piped O’Flynn’s companion, ‘Worse!’

A woolly tale In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock remarked that, ‘There are those who when the woollen bagpipe sings i’th nose cannot contain their urine.’ It’s not the alleged diuretic property of the pipes that has exercised scholars, but the word ‘woollen’. There are no known knitted bagpipes, though it may refer to the decorative covering of the bag. But ‘woollen’ is not that distant in sound from ‘uilleann’, especially if you are pirating a copy of a play, scribbling it down as it’s being performed, and you have little grasp of Irish. Was Shakespeare familiar with the uilleann pipes? It’s a nice notion, but unlikely.

Playing the chanter and the regulators can be a serious business.

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Photo: Irish Traditional Music Archive

Shakespeare died in 1616, a century or so before uilleann pipes began to develop and at least two before they reached their present state. The name is derived from ‘uille’ the Irish for ‘elbow’, because they are bellows or elbowdriven rather than mouth-blown. But this name was itself only introduced at the turn of the century. Prior to that they were known as ‘union’ pipes because their sound is formed by the unity of chanter, drones and regulators. The uilleann pipes were popular across the range of society. Indeed, there is some evidence that the bellows developed so that aristocrats would not ruin their faces and dignity by indecorously puffing into their pipes. These gentleman pipers included Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Lord Rossmore, and the great houses of the early nineteenth century employed pipers. At the other end of the social spectrum were

as playing them. Oboists and bassoonists may moan about their double reeds but they gaze in awe when they observe Liam O’Flynn, who has often worked with symphony orchestras, performing Shaun Davey’s suite for orchestra and pipes, The Brendan Voyage. Wind players may have just the one recalcitrant reed; a set of uilleann pipes has four doubles and three singles. ‘There’s quite a lot that can go wrong,’ O’Flynn sighs. ‘It’s quite a job sometimes to keep them all happy.’ Even O’Flynn’s venerable pipes sport the odd rubber band and bit of sticky tape to keep them steaming along.

the itinerant pipers, epitomised in this century by Johnny Doran and, in between, farmers like Leo Rowsome’s grandfather Samuel and the blind piper Garret Barry of Inagh, in whose footsteps Willie Clancy followed. After the Great Famine in the 1840s, many musicians were among those who left for America. Eventually there was an important traditional scene in Chicago, sustained by Francis O’Neill, the captain of police, who employed musicians on the force and was even known to release musical felons in return for a tune!

An eighteenth-century gentleman piper

Back in Ireland, the uilleann pipes were almost ousted by melodeons and concertinas. These were cheap, loud and less demanding. The maintenance of a set of uilleann pipes is almost as demanding

Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

Liam O’Flynn was 11 before his dream came true and he was given a set of uilleann pipes. This was a ‘practice set’ – the bellows, bag and chanter without the distraction of drones and regulators. ‘I was playing the practice set for at least five years,’ O’Flynn remembers. ‘My first teacher, Leo Rowsome, insisted on that and I’m very glad, because with the drones and regulators it’s too easy to cover mistakes and problems.’ O’Flynn describes the relationship with his teacher, who also taught the young Paddy Moloney as archetypal and, in the West, now rare indeed. ‘It was like being an apprentice to a master. Almost all the uilleann pipers I know refer to an older piper. I would say it was impossible to learn on your own. All my music I learned by ear – dots never came into it – and now once the piece is living inside me I can begin to express myself through it.’

From pub to platform O’Flynn is a traditional musician, but a contemporary man of considerable musical curiosity and ambition. He has worked with a great variety of musicians – Mark Knopfler, John Williams, Kate Bush. He even played in Roaratorio, a piece the avant-garde composer John Cage wrote for the dancer Merce Cunningham, based on James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.

O’Flynn has been known to make airport staff distinctly nervous – the pipes’ case looks alarmingly suspect

Of deeper significance though was playing Shaun Davey’s The Brendan Voyage as a soloist in front of a full symphony orchestra. In the past, classical composers have had a somewhat imperial attitude towards vernacular music. ‘They took the tunes and brought them into the concert hall,’ says Shaun Davey. ‘But where was the traditional musician? They left him back in the pub.’ Since then O’Flynn has been up on the platform, and the uilleann pipes pop up everywhere. Even the quintessential English Band of Hope – Roy Bailey, Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick and John Kirkpatrick – included Steafan Hannigan playing pipes. Some pipers, especially those working in bands, rarely venture on to the regulators. ‘Because they are surrounded by accompaniment,’ O’Flynn notes, ‘they don’t need to use the instrument’s own.’ He is generous and respectful. Of Davy Spillane, for instance, he quotes the man himself: ‘Davy once said he was not an

uilleann piper, but a musician who happens to play the pipes.’ And a tinge, but no more, of regret colours his voice. O’Flynn revels in the knowledge that in his lifetime the number of uilleann pipers has grown from a handful to thousands; that the sound that so moved him as a boy is heard on every continent. But he is clear in his own mind: the uilleann pipes are a traditional instrument, at their best playing music in that idiom. And there is plenty of it. ‘I’m playing now for more than 40 years,’ he says, ‘and still finding new tunes. Well new old tunes. It’s wonderful music and you’d never reach the end of it.’ Now that O’Flynn has played on BBC Radio 3 and broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall at the Proms, the traditional musician has come out of the pub and onto the concert platform, bringing his instrument and the music with him.

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Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

Redefining the Boundaries It is not every day that a world-class oboist performs a new concerto with a top orchestra in one of the best musical venues in Europe. The day before its premier in December 2010, the Russian oboist Alexei Ogrintchouk talks to Evgeniya Kondrashina on how he is broadening the oboe repertoire and his personal musical experiences. Alexei and I meet at the BBC Maida Vale studios where he has just finished a day of rehearsals of a new oboe concerto written by the French composer MarcAndré Dalbavie, a joint commission by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Its world premier is due to take place at the Barbican the next day. ‘Tomorrow is an important day not only for me but for all oboists; it is rare for an oboe concerto with a full orchestra to be premiered nowadays.’ The excitement is clearly audible in Alexei’s voice. So apart from the novelty of the event, how does Alexei feel about Dalbavie’s work? ‘A world premier is always like a pig in a poke,’ muses the oboist. ‘With such things you never know; it is very hard to predict the reaction. There are no recordings of the concerto and though some composers make electronic versions on the computer, Dalbavie chose not to do so. He simply gave me the complete score and left me one-on-one with the music. I made only very minor changes to the score. Afterwards I had time to absorb it and get the feel of the music, so that on the stage I can take pleasure in performing it to the public.’ As Dalbavie himself explains before the performance the next day, it was the acquaintance with Alexei that inspired him to write a full-scale oboe concerto. Previously, he had only ventured as far as a solo piece and a chamber piece for the instrument. Both the composer and performer agree that the concerto demonstrates the unconventional side of the oboe. Unlike many composers who exploit the oboe’s capacity to convey long, smooth and song-like melodies, Dalbavie exposes the oboe in a very unusual way. The primary historical inspiration for the composer was the nineteenth-century oboe virtuoso Antonio Pasculli – ‘the Paganini of the oboe’. A widely admired performer, Pasculli also wrote many technically demanding pieces for the instrument.

Dalbavie himself admits that the demands this concerto makes on the oboist ‘are almost absurd’. This is clearly evident from the very first note that sees the oboe producing a quasi-chord, a sound in between two notes; not what we think of as the hallmark oboe sound! All in all ‘a huge personal challenge’, in Alexei’s words. Playing premiers of new works should seem like routine for Ogrintchouk. Just six months ago, he gave the premier of another oboe concerto with the Concertgebouw Orchestra written by the legendary Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin. ‘Indeed, this has been a very special year for me,’ admits Alexei. ‘Not every year do we have two premiers only six months apart. It was a pure coincidence though. Musicians, especially those who devote a lot of attention to contemporary classical music, would strive to play one premier a year; but two in six months is a lot for any performer and especially so for the oboe. This makes such events even more valuable and enjoyable for me. It is a real honour and a huge responsibility to play these two concertos written by composers of such different cultures and generations. It is also a great joy to have

the opportunity to widen the oboe repertoire; I am planning to play both concertos in other countries next year and to record them at some point.’ It is hardly surprising that such a musician as Alexei inspired Dalbavie to write a concerto for him. Ever since Maurice Bourgue heard Alexei at the age of fifteen in Moscow and invited him to apply to the Paris Conservatoire shortly after, Ogrintchouk has not ceased to impress both professionals and the general public. Looking back, he feels incredibly grateful for his Paris student days. ‘This was the most important time of my life, a period that shaped me as a musician and allowed me to take the best from the strongest and oldest school of oboe playing in the world. When at sixteen you are thrown onto another planet’ [in 1995 Alexei was in the first wave of Russian students that went abroad to study] ‘it feels incredible. Based on the high grades achieved, I was awarded the bursary of the French state. Even so, like many other students, I barely had enough to pay for accommodation, food and calls back home,’ he recalls. After winning the Concours International

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d’Execution Musicale in Geneva at ‘The oboe is a wonderful solo instrument. music. I have developed my own Its lack of popularity as a solo performer is nineteen, Alexei became principal impressions of this music and wanted to mainly due to the limited repertoire and I oboist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic share them with others’ [Alexei grins] am always trying to broaden the number Orchestra and then principal oboist ‘and I was delighted when my friend and types of works that I play,’ he explains. with the Concertgebouw under the Alina Ibragimova agreed to play the Bach baton of Mariss Jansons. Now Double Concerto for oboe and violin.’ Another way that Alexei uses to broaden Ogrintchouk combines a busy solo Alina Ibragimova is not the only violinist who has cooperated with him on the his range of performing experience is by touring career with his orchestral duties. Bach: throughout the years his many playing works for other instruments. He admits that striking a balance between partners have included Gidon Kremer, Though he does this regularly, the two is a constant challenge. So Vladimir Spivakov, Fabio Biondi, Sarah Ogrintchouk is careful with such things: why bother? ‘Doing both solo and Chang and Janine Jansen. ‘It is amazing ‘I trust only my own taste. I would love orchestral playing gives me a sense of how many times I have played this to play Shubert’s Arpeggionne but I completeness,’ he explains. ‘Playing concerto,’ smiles Alexei. ‘The second understand this will not sound good on in an orchestra is not something that I movement is probably one of the most the oboe. On the contrary, Beethoven’s envisaged doing straight away. From the Piano Trio, Op.11 fits very well and I beautiful and touching pieces that exists age of 13, in Russia I had a unique often play it (for instance, at the Verbier in the repertoire.’ opportunity of performing solo on stage festival this year) with piano and either a an average of three times a week for four cello or a bassoon. There are no rules Did Alexei have any doubts about playing years. These were small performances here. If there is something that I really the Bach concertos on a modern rather perhaps, five or ten minutes, but they want to play written say for the violin or than baroque oboe? ‘I generally try to live allowed me to acquire the confidence clarinet that suits the oboe range then I without adhering to dogmas,’ comes the and love of the stage that I have today.’ try playing it and then judge whether I quick response. ‘I did study the baroque When he arrived in France, Ogrintchouk can take it to the audience.’ oboe at the Paris Conservatoire with did not see the benefits of playing in an Marcel Ponseele and I have orchestra and was keen on an instrument of my own at pursuing a solo career. The oboe is a wonderful solo instrument. home. I physically don’t After entering the Its lack of popularity as a solo performer is have time to practise and Rotterdam Philharmonic he play the baroque oboe at quickly realised what a loss mainly due to the limited repertoire and I am the level that I would like he would have suffered as always trying to broaden the to, and so I prefer to stick a professional musician if to what I do best. If I ever he had not played in an number and types of works that I play. have the time, I will gladly orchestra. ‘Unfortunately, play more on the baroque many composers did not Has he ever tried himself in areas oboe because it is extremely interesting. write solo works for the oboe, and by adjacent to classical music, perhaps, These are the roots. I love baroque music playing in an orchestra I get the chance of as a way of broadening the variety of but I don’t think there is one answer to performing works by many composers experiences even further? ‘Everything will how it should be played.’ No one answer that I would otherwise never have played. come in its own time, but I have played indeed, especially when the baroque And of course, at the end of the day there more unusual works with my friend violinist Fabio Biondi and his ensemble are so many solo passages for the oboe in Aydar Gaynullin, a virtuoso of the button Europa Galante invited Ogrintchouk to all orchestral works,’ he concludes. accordion. In January 2012 there will perform Bach’s Double Concerto with be an ‘Ogrintchouk-weekend’ at the them on his modern oboe. ‘It was a Though he gladly plays the classical oboe baroque ensemble, a baroque violin and Concertgebouw – a three day event with solo repertoire, Alexei also seizes every a modern oboe,’ recalls Alexei. ‘And why concerts and a masterclass – and I am opportunity to broaden his experiences not? Biondi was the first who then said, planning to perform there with Aydar.’ and play less established works. Recently ‘Let’s repeat!’. There is something new he performed Lutoslawski’s Double and special in this combination. I think if In addition to his solo career and his role Concerto for oboe, harp and chamber people are open-minded, everything is at the Concertgebouw, Alexei finds the orchestra and Ligeti’s Double Concerto for oboe, flute and orchestra. In 2008 he possible.’ time to do recordings. His latest recording played Messiaen’s Concerto à Quatre at of Bach concertos was released in the BBC Proms and in 2009 the Given his success as a solo performer, November. ‘I turned thirty and realised Passacaglia Concertante by Veress. any other musician would have started that I am more prepared to play such





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manufacturing popular oboe recordings one after another. Not Ogrintchouk. His list of CDs reflects his diverse attitude towards the repertoire, combining established works with much less known compositions. Alexei’s recordings include Schumann’s duets for oboe and piano in 2003, Mozart’s wind concertos in 2005 and Nikolas Skalkottas’ Music for Wind Instruments and Piano. His next CD followed in 2007 – the Georgian composer Giya Kancheli’s cycle Childhood Revisited. Finally, in 2010, came the cycle of Bach concertos. What is next remains to be seen but Alexei admits that making recordings has shifted up his list of priorities only recently. Another activity that has taken a top place in his ‘to do’ list is conducting. ‘It was very fulfilling to direct the production of the Bach concertos cycle and the opportunity to direct the Swedish Chamber Orchestra as part of that,’ smiles Alexei. ‘I think conducting is to some extent the fate of many oboists. Since we have so many solo passages in orchestras, at some point you feel the need to lead,

to express your view and to inspire people around. Look at Heinz Holliger, Maurice Bourgue, Douglas Boyd and many other examples of conductorsturned-oboists.’ He admits he does not particularly like the trend that seems to exist in the classical music world – after playing in an orchestra for a few years musicians start thinking that they can now become conductors. ‘I do want to create something of my own, to share my vision and impressions. I have had some initial experience of conducting and I hope that I will have more in the future,’ he continues. ‘I want to understand for myself whether I am capable of doing this. This is not a profession that one needs to rush into; but when you feel the potential inside it is important not to let the ambitions overwhelm you. So I need to make a very cold-headed judgment about whether this is worth pursuing or not.’ Only time will tell but watch out for Alexei’s name next to the conductor title in future performances! Returning to Alexei’s present role, our conversation would not be complete

without discussing his instrument itself. Ogrintchouk recollects: ‘My very first oboe when I was nine was a Marigaux which was probably fifty years old; then I had a German Sonora that was quite bad and afterwards an Italian Patricola – better than the Sonora but not as good as the Marigaux. When I came to Paris to study, Maurice Bourgue personally transferred me back to the Marigaux so the circle was complete; I have come back to where I started.’ Now Alexei plays on one of the three standard Marigaux models – a Marigaux 2001. And no, there was nothing special that the Marigaux craftsmen did to his instrument; no gold, nor extra keys. As our time comes to an end we get up from our cappuccinos and head outside into the pouring rain. Alexei is calm and relaxed, chatting about the weather and his impressions of London. A big challenge lies ahead the next day but he is used to that. ‘I will be there to enjoy every minute,’ and with a confident smile he disappears into the underground.

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Composers’ Forum Clive Fairbairn introduces some commentary on the pieces published in the last three issues of Double Reed News

By inaugurating this series, the British Double Reed Society was keen to make a contribution to the solo and chamber repertoire available to oboists and bassoonists without trespassing on the territory of the publishing houses and their major composers. In particular it wished to encourage the next generation of composers, those still attending music conservatoires and university music faculties, by inviting them to submit suitable pieces and placing extracts of these before the membership on a ‘taste and see’ basis. Subsequently, there have been several ‘more senior’ composers who have approached us to have their works similarly presented, including members of this Society. To those we apologise, but would re-affirm that this particular initiative does come with a fairly specific remit and age limit, as explained above.

Without daring to offer conclusions I have nevertheless contacted a wide spectrum of oboists and bassoonists – amateurs, students and professional players – to stir up some response to the three pieces published so far, in magazine issues 91, 92 and 93. All of them teach, some at conservatoire level. I am very grateful to them for their comments which are printed below. Now it is your turn to see whether you agree with them and to write to me with your own thoughts (by March 15th) for the next issue of DRN.

Oboe & piano – Quodlibet by Toby Young [King's College Cambridge] Ensemble (Ob, Cl, Bsn, Str quintet) – Seamless Transitions by Daniel McCallum [Royal Academy of Music]

Laurence Perkins on Dove on Distant Oaks This is an evocative title for an imaginative piece; from the beginning it creates a particular mood which I feel is entirely indigenous to the 'sotto voce' tenor voice of the bassoon, alongside gently pulsing harmonic piano writing. As well as a good deal of imagery in this brief but eventful musical journey, there is also symmetry in its structure – the opening Lento flebile (Italian for feeble or faint) returns in modified form at the end, and the following Allegretto section has a parallel passage before the final Lento.

Just to remind you, those three pieces are: Bassoon & piano – The Dove on Distant Oaks by Matthew Clark [Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama]

The quick central section is the passage that many players will find the most challenging to play; Matthew Clark's rhythms within his alternating time

Photo: www.rogue-photography.com

The membership at large has not been fast to provide me with reactions, either to the Forum or to the specific pieces so far included, so it is difficult to gauge the true response. Some questions have

therefore formed in my mind: is this due to a hesitation to embrace new music; do we not want to suffer young composers’ efforts before they become better established; are we just reticent about committing ourselves on paper for others to read our reactions?

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Daniel McCallum

Toby Young

signatures are a little tricky in places but always practical, and very playable – with familiarity and the liberal use of pencilled triangles and dashes in the solo part! Whatever the various challenges in the music, the bassoon part is written and voiced throughout with understanding and sensitivity, creating a good range of expressions and characters in the piece's relatively short duration. And the piano part integrates with the bassoon line very well, with perhaps just the faintest echoes of Debussy in his repeated use of whole tone patterns, but in no way is this derivative. In my view, a very attractive piece, and a welcome addition to the bassoon's recital repertoire.

Jean Ashford on Seamless Transitions Seamless Transitions by Daniel Clive McCallum is a single-movement work of six minutes duration scored for oboe, clarinet in B flat, bassoon, and string quintet (2 violins, viola, cello and double bass). It was commissioned by the Australian arts patron, Revd Dr Arthur Bridge, in collaboration with the Sydney Omega Ensemble and Ars Musica Australis, and was first performed in 2008 by the Sydney Omega Ensemble. The ‘transitions’ of the work’s title are heard in the merging between different sections of the work and in the interplay between the different instruments, the use of different registers and motifs and the marriage of string and woodwind elements. A haunting adagio flows into an oboe cadenza from which springs the central allegro with its Satie-esque instructions ‘Playfully’, ‘Jokingly’ and ‘Fiercely’. The moto perpetuo of the allegro (reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s F minor Quartet Op.80) is short-lived and the slower tempo returns, the music vanishing into the swirling night mists.

This is tonal rhapsodic writing in which the composer works his motifs thoroughly, for example the opening bassoon/cello motif is explored and developed by the clarinet and oboe. When the oboe enters in bar 4, it reverses the opening figure and includes the semitone first introduced by the cello and clarinet. Similar overlapping and imitative techniques are employed in the later slow section (a tempo, dolce). The use of semitones in the motif produces moments of exquisite tension. It is essentially a motivic work: the ideas are concentrated and have the potential to be developed into something bigger. The good news here is that McCallum has just been commissioned to compose a new work for wind quintet (to be performed at the Sydney Opera House next November). The compasses of the different instruments are fully exploited, for example in the leaping arpeggio figures of ‘Fiercely’, and there are restless syncopations for the strings in the central agitato. A violinist* who listened to the recording with me commented that this passage reminded him of the sprung rhythms of Tippett’s string quartets. It is an unusual combination of instruments, reviving a classical tradition that harks back to Beethoven, Schubert and Spohr. There is a distinctly pastoral English feel at times but there are also moments of sheer romanticism such as the return of the bassoon in the final dolce, which could be from RimskyKorsakov’s Sheherazade or Janacek’s Mladi. The oboe proves to be the leading player but manages also to find its place within the rich ensemble. It is a demanding oboe part, not for the fainthearted with its low B flats and top Gs, but all parts are accessible.

(with thanks to *Stephen Foster-Pilkington)

Geoffrey Heath on Dove on Distant Oaks A pleasant little piece with some nicely contrasted sections and interesting sonorities. I liked the use of the middle range of the bassoon against the higher registers of the piano. The bassoon part should not present too many problems for a moderate player (such as myself), though the sudden excursion up to a top c sharp on page 3 might alarm some. However the rhythms are tricky and would require careful counting on the part of both players. As with many modern abstract paintings it is hard to see the relevance of the title to the composition.

Sarah McClure on Quodlibet This ‘quodlibet’, a humorous medley of tunes, is a vivacious piece carefully crafted for oboe and piano. The work opens with a simple yet catchy staccato melody supported essentially by a twobar piano ostinato revolving around C major routed harmonies, with occasional chromaticism. It is when the melody is repeated an octave higher that the harmonies become pungent with crashing dissonance in the spiky syncopated piano accompaniment. This vibrant melody takes us on a journey of modulations through far removed keys. The accompanying two-bar C major ostinato returns as a slower tempo is adopted. Over this the oboe weaves a lyrical melody characterised by tenuto marked triplets as high levels of dissonance prevail. A section marked Flamboyant follows where the oboe covers the full range of the instrument as a whirlwind of chromatic legato semiquaver triplets is generated. Contrasting sections are interspersed with reminders of the theme. There is a sudden return to the original tempo and the theme is presented on the piano quite

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simply in the original key, with a thin two-part texture, tonal and diatonic, without any of the previous dissonance. The theme is then taken on the journey of modulations from earlier before reaching the coda which draws upon the familiar two-bar piano ostinato. The oboe takes on a staccato accented melody with emphatically repeated chromaticism as the rhythm is disturbed by changes of time signature. An exciting ending follows as the tempo and dynamic increases, building up to a long high oboe trill, letting out a final flourish before the piece ends on an arresting dissonant chord. This is a highly enjoyable piece to play, Toby Young’s vibrant style being well suited to the sonority of the oboe, and he generally works his ideas around the technical complexities of the instrument with success. I particularly liked his attention to detail with every note of the oboe part being given precise and well-considered articulation markings. However, this piece could be further enhanced by applying such detail to the dynamics. This would lead to even more vivid contrasts and could exploit more thoroughly the wealth of tone qualities available from the instrument.

As a whole, the piece is very bassoon friendly, I would have thought in the Grade 6 or 7 bracket with one very approachable top C#. It is very clearly edited with only a few ambiguous markings. Each section has its own clear style. The introduction in 5/8 has a gentle melody with interesting harmonic changes, which I find a little incongruous at times. The second section, still generally in 5/8, has a rippling piano accompaniment to a fairly active bassoon role which for the most part is based on a whole tone scale and I feel rather loses its way. This leads into a very boisterous middle section with many time signature changes (why all those changes/bars?), which has energy by the bucketful but an accompaniment which spends a lot of its time in the bottom octave and is very muddy – on my piano anyway. The final two sections bring the piece to a very pleasing end. On the whole, the accompaniment is manageable by a reasonably accomplished pianist and I think many young bassoon players would find it a stimulating undertaking. I personally found it rather naïve and lacking any real direction but I also feel that with a little re-jigging there is a good piece in there.

John Orford on Dove on Distant Oaks

Frances Jones on Quodlibet

The Dove consists of a slow introduction, a lyrical second section, a fast rhythmical middle section returning to a short version of the second section and a coda in the same mode as the introduction, hence a, b, c, b, a.

If a quodlibet is a light-hearted interplay of melodies, this work is exactly that. Toby Young’s main theme, set out at the beginning, takes on a number of permutations of style from pastoral to jazz, in a very attractive work.

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Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

The central section of the work is a quasi-improvisatory melody over a bright Latin rhythm, and it is refreshing for oboists to be allowed to play this style of music, though it would be helpful to be told whether the composer would like swung quavers or not. Unfortunately no music writing programme seems yet to be able to make a ‘fine-tooth comb’ proof-reader redundant: the piece has a few ambiguous accidentals which mar the logic of the reading, causing the inevitable hiatus while one has to decide, for example, whether the second note (after a barline) reverts to the sharp of the key signature or not. With a range up to top G, it is not for the faint-hearted, but for Grade 7 or 8 players it’s worth getting comfortable with F sharp and G in order to be able to play this exciting, pleasing and delightful addition to the repertoire. The piano part is full of witty harmonies and wacky rhythmic touches, somewhat reminiscent of Jean Françaix, but nothing like so demanding!

COMPOSERS’ FORUM at the 2011 CONVENTION Whilst plans are still being formulated as we go to press, it is hoped that there will be a live Composers’ Forum at the 8th May Convention. This Forum will have no age limit and so we hope to see composers of all ages contributing, discussing and developing the theme of composition for double reeds. It may include performance of one or more submitted pieces.

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Double Reed News 94 Spring 2011

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Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway? A new summer chamber music course for wind players offers help with a problem which afflicts many amateur musicians, writes bassoonist Laurence Perkins

Tackling this problem is a special and highly unusual feature of a new chamber music summer school for wind players, to be held in Malvern during August. Alongside a varied daily programme of chamber music, the course will include a focus on exactly these difficulties and how to overcome them effectively. Tutors Lynda Coffin, Sarah Watts and Laurence Perkins are all well used to dealing with these kinds of difficulties in amateur chamber groups. Lynda has a particular observation: ‘In my experience, many participants, often at the top of their own professions outside music, have a tendency to be supercritical of their playing. A particular satisfaction in my work is to see participants of all ages and abilities gaining assurance and confidence by the minute. It’s wonderful to see the way such enjoyment is on-going with players both forming new friendships and establishing new networks of chamber music amongst themselves on a lasting basis.’

(L–R) Lynda Coffin, Sarah Watts and Laurence Perkins As she put the phone down, Sally felt a thrill of excitement; she had finally done it. She had booked her summer school and was actually going to play the Mozart serenades she had listened to so often on her CDs. Then, suddenly, a different thought emerged. What if they were all better than she was? The tutor had played the same music in some of the world’s major concert halls; there was no way she could fudge those tricky passages and hope to get away with it. Sally could not sleep that night. Her dream was starting to become a nightmare, as she imagined 26

the scene where she was making endless mistakes, with everyone stopping and staring at her accusingly. This is a fictitious story, but based on real experiences for many amateur musicians on numerous occasions. Everyone has their own fears of inadequacy when they are entering a challenging situation. These fears can manifest themselves in different ways: breathing problems, shaking, not being able to focus or read the music properly, inability to concentrate, lack of stamina.

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All three players are totally passionate about their work and all have been highly successful in facing their own personal challenges. Lynda has been principal flute in three major UK orchestras – City of Birmingham Symphony, Ulster and Royal Philharmonic – all consisting of players not greatly known for their tolerance of fears and inadequacies! Sarah Watts has a distinguished track record in ‘conventional’ clarinet playing, but has also taken the challenging route of specialising in contemporary repertoire on bass clarinet, and is currently researching specialist techniques for a PhD at the University of Keele. As an orchestral player, Laurence Perkins is principal bassoonist in the everinnovative Manchester Camerata, but ever since student days he has been passionate about promoting the bassoon as a solo instrument. His numerous solo CDs bear testimony to this, with music ranging from the concertos of Mozart and Weber to unusual settings of traditional folk tunes, and even the occasional pop ballad!

The psychology of musical performance is a vital part of how effectively one functions as a musician – it is every bit as important as good tuition, regular practice and having a good instrument. It is also the most elusive of all the essential performance techniques. The word ‘amateur’ literally translates as ‘for the love of’; so, given this deep-seated and very personal motivation for pursuing such an activity – which of course requires a huge amount of time, personal energy and commitment – it’s a sad irony that serious inhibition born of fear is so often a stumbling block in this otherwise rich and joyous journey. Malvern College

There can be few activities more satisfying than playing wonderful chamber music with like-minded people in a beautiful and inspiring setting, and this course is an opportunity to do all of that in the glorious setting of Malvern College and the surrounding hills. In order that any technical and musical challenges are realistic and achievable, groups on this course will be organised according to playing standards, and daily tutored sessions will lead to an informal concert at the end of the week. For quite a few players, a public performance is one of the biggest hurdles of all; but hopefully all the positive influences and techniques learned through the week will start to transform what might previously have been an ordeal into what it really should be: a joyous and exciting sharing of great music.

Malvern

There are very positive and highly effective routes to helping Sally leave the nightmare behind her and find her dream again. Those Mozart serenades really can be a fulfilling experience, and the difficult passages a positive – rather than an insurmountable – challenge. For details of this new wind chamber music course at Malvern College, 6-13 August, visit the website at www.cuillinsoundmusic.co.uk

Malvern Hills

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Bassonicus: Shostakovich, the Bassoon, and the North Face of the Eiger! by Jefferey Cox Attempting the North Face of the Eiger has always been considered one of the supreme mountaineering challenges, and reaching the summit a proof of the ultimate in endurance and nerve. Apart from the technical difficulty of the climb there are other hurdles to overcome, such as meeting the expectations of one’s peers and proving worthy of the challenge set by Nature itself. For the bassoonist, the equivalent must surely be the symphonies of Shostakovich, where the distances to be travelled are huge; the heights awesome and the depths chilling. Be under no illusion: this is unforgiving terrain where absolute confidence in oneself and one’s equipment is essential, and where sufficient experience must be gained on the foothills before an attempt is made on the summit. Playing first bassoon means taking your life into your hands – there is no safety net. Playing second, third or contrabassoon should not be attempted unless you are well roped together and have practised the sort of teamwork which Shostakovich clearly thought was second nature to a bassoon section but which, in fact, is hardly to be found elsewhere except in Verdi’s Requiem! Just in case we bassoonists are harbouring any elitist notions, I ought to say that we are not the only ones to be faced with such precarious situations: Shostakovich makes huge demands of every wind player in the orchestra. This being the case (and given the size of orchestra required, together with the extraordinary range of exotic percussion instruments), relatively few nonprofessional orchestras are able to marshal the resources required to do justice to a Shostakovich symphony – to say nothing of the rehearsal time needed. Shostakovich wrote 15 symphonies over a 45-year period. Taken as one every 3 years, this might not seem such a huge

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achievement; in fact some (notably the 7th) were written quickly, whereas there was a gap of six years between symphonies 3 and 4, eight years between 9 and 10, and seven years between 13 and 14. And it was not as if Shostakovich was sitting on his hands in the intervening periods: he wrote 15 string quartets, 8 operas and ballets, and some 34 film scores! Soviet politics also played a role in the nature and timing of his output. Unlike the freedom of expression granted to composers in the West, Soviet composers had to meet strict ideological criteria. They had to accept that the primary duty of art (meaning all forms of art) was to serve the State, and that the right of the artist to express himself or herself was conditional upon being seen to contribute in some way to the essence, motivation and morale of the State. In practical terms this meant that a composer had to be approved of, and admitted to, the Soviet Union of Composers, which in turn meant subscribing to the cultural and political programme that was promulgated by the Union. Shostakovich was no different from any other Soviet musician in this respect, except that his stature as a composer placed him under greater scrutiny than lesser colleagues, and it seems that Stalin liked to jerk the reins every now and then to show who was in control! Shostakovich was one of several composers who were castigated in a Party resolution of 10th February 1948 for ‘formalistic distortions and anti-democratic tendencies alien to the Soviet People’ – criticism which seems to have hit him particularly hard because he felt he was all too conscious of his responsibilities, and was fulfilling what was required of him to the best of his ability. In this connection it is worth noting that after Stalin died in 1953, and there was some degree of liberalisation in the arts, Shostakovich himself remained firmly conservative. He, in his turn, was strongly critical of some of the more avant-garde Soviet

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composers for writing music which did not communicate with the People. For the most part, however, he avoided making public statements of a political nature, arguing that his beliefs and feelings were imbedded in his music. Perhaps it could be argued that Shostakovich had learned this the hard way: he would have been mindful of the way the authorities had lavished praise on his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk when it was first performed, but a short while later – and for no apparent reason – changed their minds and forbad its performance. For a towering success to become a ‘non-work’ virtually overnight was a bitter blow, and Shostakovich had to wait from 1936 until 1962 (26 years!) before it was suddenly rehabilitated (now called Katerina Ismaylova) and acclaimed as a triumph of Soviet realism! Judging by the influential teaching positions he held and the range of prestigious honours he was awarded, Shostakovich was highly valued by the Soviet State. He was also held in great esteem by his fellow musicians – with one notable exception, Prokofiev, who wrote about him dismissively as ‘talented but somehow unprincipled. He is made too much of here’. A particular belief prevalent at the time in Soviet circles was that the symphony should be the supreme channel of musical expression, and composers who aspired to be taken seriously had to grapple with symphonic form. For Shostakovich, who had written his First Symphony as his graduation exercise, this was a straightforward invitation to write more, and it was the trauma and suffering his country had experienced as the result of wars and revolution which provided the inspiration underlying much of his work. Of his 15 symphonies, no fewer than 6 have historical or contextual dedications: To October, First of May, Leningrad, The Year 1905, The Year 1917; and – in collaboration with the poet Evtushenko – Babi Yar. Shostakovich

paints his musical canvasses with passion and often garish colours, drawing on an extraordinary armoury of percussion instruments. For a while there was a strong impulse amongst Western musicians to claim that Shostakovich did not really support the Communist regime, and that in truth his music was an ironic send–up of Stalin and everything he stood for. Up until the fall of the Berlin Wall and dissolution of the Warsaw Pact there might have been justification for this, given that East and West were in competition, and it suited the West to use whatever tactics it could to undermine the achievements of the Soviet Bloc. But to continue to make such claims today strikes me as misguided. Strip away the politics and it is perfectly possible to interpret the corpus of Shostakovich’s music as a dislike of militarism and condemnation of the cruelty and dehumanising impact of war and suffering. This is a universal message. But it is also a faithful reflection of the sentiments of most Soviet citizens for whom the calamity of over 20 million dead in the First World War still lies heavily. These sentiments are in Shostakovich’s blood and mean more to him than the snakes and ladders of Soviet life. It must be clear from the foregoing that to qualify to be taken seriously in this specific context, the bassoon has had to prove its fitness as a symphonic instrument, and players of the instrument must have the personality, technique and presence to project the status the bassoon is expected to occupy as one of the leading bearers of the composer’s voice. While this is not a new requirement (Tchaikovsky was undoubtedly Shostakovich’s direct forbear where use of the bassoon was concerned – his 4th and 5th symphonies are studded with high-profile solos which exploit the different registers to perfection and give it real presence), Shostakovich expanded this profile even further, requiring the first bassoonist to incorporate some of the instrument’s highest notes in long lyrical passages, and giving some

significant very deep solo passages to the contrabassoon. Perhaps, not surprisingly, the prevailing mood in Shostakovich’s music is sombre. There are moments of great passion and sometimes anger. There is also much sadness. It is notable that even the symphonies in which Shostakovich commemorates key events in the revolutionary calendar could hardly be called triumphalist, while those with links to the Great Patriotic War (as the Russians call the First World War) and Second World War are more concerned with denouncing war and its horrors than celebrating any victory. Shostakovich’s marches have a way of becoming the stuff of nightmares; fanfares become discordant harbingers of tragedy. There is little in the composer’s symphonic canon which tells of joys or pleasure – the closest he comes to that is short outbursts of sardonic humour. For the most part what we are given is the emotional exhaustion that follows despair. Shostakovich sees this as bassoon territory par excellence. The instrument’s expressive solemnity and haunting upper register make it ideally equipped to convey that mood of exhaustion and despair, while the lowest register of the instrument can hardly be bettered when it comes to expressing

menace. And Shostakovich gives it the time and space fully to assert its presence and dominate proceedings. All the significant solos in his symphonies are long, and some very long. In many cases Shostakovich has the entire rest of the orchestra simply providing a hushed background of sound, leaving the bassoon to play out its melody as solitary and exposed as a Shakespearian actor reciting a soliloquy; the solos in the 7th, 9th and 10th are cases in point. I would expect to see a figurative tear in the eye of the player when he tackles these, if not a real one. There may be other solos which are equally exposed (yes, the notorious Rite of Spring and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade), but none – in my view – which require such passion and expressiveness. These really do confront the player with what it means to play great music. Even if the majority of us can only aspire to play such passages, we ought at least to try. The summit of the North Face may be beyond most of us, but there is no reason why we should not contemplate it and dream. Pinned to the flagpole left by successful climbers is the extraordinary fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony, which is no more and no less than an entire bassoon cadenza.

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Second to None and All: James ‘Jimmy’ Brown (Part II) The concluding instalment of the Geoffrey Burgess interview, commenced in the Winter issue

GB: More than anything, you were responsible for putting Romantic music back on the map for oboists. The list of compositions in Our Oboist Ancestors is perhaps the most exciting part of your work and is an invaluable contribution for future generations. But I wanted to talk about your performing career. Can you describe your training and influences? What many people may not realise is that you studied in Amsterdam. JB: Yes, but let me go back a bit to how I first became established in London, before I ever got to Holland. I went straight from the Royal College of Music to Covent Garden with barely an audition. I didn’t even know what position I was going to. I had studied with Terry MacDonagh at the RCM and didn’t really have any difficulty playing. The co-principal oboe at Covent Garden died suddenly and they needed someone quickly. The orchestral manager for the Royal Opera House was the trombone professor at the College who was always on the lookout for talent, so that’s how I got in there. Getting a job in the manner I did in 1950 seems very unfair when you think about it these days, but things were different after the war. People who had been playing before the war were coming back, but only slowly. In fact, only one other person applied for the position! On top of that, there were very few professional instruments around. Howarth had only just started to make oboes the previous year, and all the other available instruments were ex-military instruments by Boosey and Hawkes and so forth. GB: What instrument did you play on? JB: I was playing a Howarth. I had the first Conservatoire model. Edward Selwyn had bought 1001, a thumbplate oboe, and I had 1002. 30

GB: So in 1950 you went off to Covent Garden equipped with Howarth 1002, but not knowing which part you would play. JB: I didn’t know anything about opera, so what seemed sensible was that I should start off sitting in and following along. I sat in the middle of the row so I could get acclimatised. The next step was for me to play second oboe and, honestly, I still didn’t realise that I was supposed to be co-principal until I suddenly had to play first in Aïda – without a rehearsal. As it happened, it went fine and I stayed at Covent Garden for two years. I was easily the youngest in the orchestra. In the second season my lifelong friend, Brian Pollard joined the bassoon section. Then I suddenly thought that I really wasn’t sure that I wanted to stay there all my life. I had heard the Concertgebouw Orchestra and had become enamoured of Haakon Stotijn’s way of playing, and I got the idea of going, while I was still young and single, to study with him in Holland.

Jimmy travelling with Brian Pollard to receive his honorary doctorate at the RCM GB: Your teacher Terry MacDonagh had studied in Paris. What did he think of your choice to study in Amsterdam over Paris? JB: In fact I think Terry was very disappointed, but I didn’t think of going to Paris just because my teacher had been there. I had heard this wonderful sound of Haakon Stotijn, and that was my inspiration.

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Haakon Stotijn at his second wedding c.1953 So I fixed things up with Haakon and, because of my ‘illustrious’ background as it were, coming straight from Covent Garden, he took me under his wing and we quickly became good friends. Haakon had been appointed principal in the Concertgebouw in December 1940 which marked a new era in oboe playing there. Cees van der Kraan (1945-78) was second and Leo van der Lek played cor anglais (1932–73). At first I lived with the van der Kraan family. I learnt Dutch very quickly because I used to read bedtime stories in Dutch to the kids who were six and four. Later I lodged in an amazing sixteenth-century house in Amsterdam, owned by the sculptor Ubbo Scheffer who made a remarkable life-size sculpture of the Hungarian Quartet. You can see it now in the Concertgebouw. GB: Were you just studying during those two years, or did you get professional opportunities as well? JB: In the first year I had a lot to do. I changed my embouchure, and reeds and everything; but later I managed to get some schnabbels. [Dutch word for ‘gigs’]

Geoffrey Tate (L), conductor of ECO 1985-2000, with Ubbo Scheffer at the Concertgebouw

I learnt double tonguing and throat vibrato, which all the Dutch players used, in one lesson. It is dead easy once you make room in your mouth for the reed. I used to have to practise with the joint cap from the top joint over the top of the reed, and ‘think forward in the mouth’. As the tongue is in the front rather than forced into the back of the mouth, it leaves more space in which to operate, and also creates more resonance. I admit that the sound at first was reedier than I had expected, but after all, isn’t the oboe a double-reed instrument? And yet players are always trying to make it sound like a clarinet. I’ve always used throat vibrato because you have infinite control. I’ve sat next to Goossens, and have seen that he did the same. Of course you use the diaphragm, but it’s not a measured thing. You want to give a bit more or less depending on what you’re playing or the size of the hall or whatever and throat vibrato gives you that flexibility. It was a good time to be in Holland because the young oboists had to do their military service, leaving a series of vacancies that I was able to fill. After that

first year in Holland, van der Kraan had to take three months’ leave. Haakon got me in playing second oboe. I already knew everyone in the section and Brian Pollard had arrived at the end of my first year. We had some decent conductors: Rafael Kubelik, Josef Krips and Eduard van Beinem was the music director.

them out. They were recording at the Denham Studios, and I told him I could be there almost immediately on my Lambretta scooter. The music was by Malcolm Arnold. I had a good day, and a good reed, and the upshot was that I stayed in the orchestra for twelve years, most of the time playing with Goossens.

When Cees came back, Leo Driehuys, the principal with the Opera orchestra had to do his military service. I wrote a letter putting myself forward, pointing out that I had had experience at Covent Garden. I posted my letter and the next morning I got a telegram to ring the Opera house immediately and arrange to play first oboe in Tosca at 5pm that evening.

GB: That must have been a fascinating time. Do you think Goossens might have been more willing to try out the prodigal son returned from Holland than others because of his own family’s Belgian connections and the model that he took as his inspiration, namely Henri de Busscher?

After a while, the Opera offered me the full-time job, but I didn’t take it. I had prepared myself to go back to London to freelance and I had already become friends with my first wife. In London I played first and second, but I was an ‘acquired’ taste because of my Dutch experience. Sometimes that was a little disappointing. I hadn’t expected people to be so resistant to the Dutch style I’d picked up. One day in my first year back I happened to bump into the flute player Eddie Walker. There had been a schism and Muir Matheson who was the ‘king’ of movie-music conducting had lured many of the players away from the LSO to do that work. Eddie and his father were fixing the personnel and had engaged Léon Goossens to play first oboe. Doing about two or three films a week, the money was very good. A little later, Eddie called me and asked if I was doing anything that day and whether I Léon Goossens could help

JB: I’m not really sure about that, but one of the great things that I took from the Dutch style was their slightly fatter reed with a thinner tip, and that gave me almost infallible control in the bottom end of the instrument. That was why I became in much demand as a second oboe player. GB: What contact did you have with Terry MacDonagh once you got back to London? You said that he had been disappointed that you had not gone to Paris. JB: Well, things were not too good between us because of an incident that was embarrassing for both of us. It had nothing to do with music, but it certainly changed our relationship. I didn't realise it at the time, but in my first year of studies, Terry had afforded me a lot more musical interest than the others in the class – running overtime, for instance – and letting me go to rehearsals of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I had to go away on National Service for 27 months from 1947-49. I was very lucky to get into one of the Royal Air Force Regional Bands but it was halfway through that when the incident occurred. When I came back to the RCM, the lessons lasted exactly 60 minutes, and

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there was a rather strained atmosphere. In hindsight I think he had probably been grooming me to become his Oboe 2 in the RPO, but no longer. When I left the RCM, all contact ceased for many years. There was quite a procession of would-be second oboes that he tried, but not me. Several of those who ‘auditioned’ were reed-makers of one sort or another – which Terry was not. He was always trying to find someone who was a discreet second oboe as well as a reed-maker to his liking. He never really found his Holy Grail, and in any case, my reeds would have been hopeless for him. Then one day Eddie told me that Terry would be replacing Goossens in a particular film score. He assured me that he would take care of everything, as he knew all about our estrangement. I later discovered that Eddie and Terry were best friends. So Terry came in and I was on my best behaviour. It seemed to go very well, but I didn’t see him again for another two or three years. That was after getting a call from Jack Brymer. He had been asked by Decca to get a wind group together – the London Wind Soloists – and he invited me to play second. When I asked who would be first, he told me that it was to be Terry, and that he had insisted that he didn’t want anyone else but me as second. That was in 1962, eight years after I had come back from Holland. In the sessions with Jack Brymer, we would come in without any rehearsal and read all that Mozart wind music right there in the studio. The serenades, K375 and 388, were well known, but the sextets and other works were unfamiliar. To save our lips they would put the red light on from the very first read through. Often we wouldn’t get a better take than the very first one when we were sightreading.1 1

GB: They’re legendary recordings, a wonderful showcase of British wind playing in the ‘60s. But I’m amazed that they were done ‘cold’ with no prior performances. JB: We didn’t play the music in concert until long after the records were made. That was the way it was back then. I honestly can’t think that it could have been any better if we had performed them before. GB: That brings us to 1962, what was your next move? JB: I continued freelancing for a while. The 1960s was the heyday of the BBC Third Programme [now Radio Three], which meant there were masses of concerts and outlets for people like me to play. Early in 1961, a tour with the Hallé Orchestra gave me a taste for that life. It was a grand old tour – five days in Athens, five in Istanbul, a week in Cyprus, three days in Dubrovnik and two in Turin. We had such a wonderful time. I had been asked about four days beforehand to replace the cor anglais player who had become sick. I wasn’t all that experienced playing the cor anglais. I had a Lorée from 1914 but didn’t have the occasion to use it all that much, and there were some challenging things to play – Symphonie Fantastique and La Mer. I think I got away with it. At the end of the tour Sir John Barbirolli, who was conducting, complimented my work and invited me back anytime. While the occasion to play with the Hallé never arose again, the tour gave me a taste for life on the road, which was certainly what I did for the remainder of my career. Mind you, travel is not always what it’s cut out to be. You have your share of red carpet treatment and jetsetting, but at other times you are treated

Mozart, Complete Wind Music, London Wind Soloists dir. Jack Brymer, Decca, 1962-9; re-release Decca 455794, 1998.

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distinctly like a second-class citizen. For instance, there was the coast-to-coast US tour with the RPO in 1963 – 56 concerts in 63 days, plus 10,000 miles by coach! GB: Last time I visited you in Malmesbury, you played me your recording of the Salieri Double Concerto for Oboe and Flute. Do you remember how that came about? JB: One night in 1967 Peter Graeme was busy with the Melos Ensemble, so the ECO invited me to step in and play first oboe for a run-out concert they were doing in Oxford with Richard Bonynge conducting. I guess I made an impression because some months after that I got a call from Mansel Bebb, the contractor for ECO, asking me how I would like to record a concerto. I asked, ‘When is it Mansel?’ and he casually said, ‘Tomorrow’. He told me it was by Salieri and I remember asking ‘Sally who?’ That was 1967 or 8, a couple of years before I became a permanent member of the ECO. The flute player was Richard Adeney. We were good friends and used to enjoy playing together. I asked if I could see the music and Mansel said that he thought it looked pretty straightforward but if I went over to his place I could pick it up. When I saw it, it did look straightforward, but all the same I met with Richard. We played it through, touched up a couple of personal things, and went the next afternoon to Kingsway Hall. We ran it through and then did a take and went to listen. Amazingly, it seemed fine. While we were listening, Richard Bonynge was busy at a table, writing. It turned out he was composing the cadenza for the second movement… and as we listened to the second movements he wrote the cadenza for the Finale.2 GB: I noticed that you wrote sleeve notes for some of Holliger’s recordings.

Antonio Salieri, Concerto for Oboe and Flute, ECO, R. Bonynge, cond. (London CS 6621, 1969, re-release London STS 15510, 1980, CD re-release Decca, 421 399-2, 1991, 460 302-2, 1999)

JB: Yes, we were quite good friends and, as Heinz didn’t have time and I had at any rate collected some information on nineteenth-century repertoire, he asked me to write notes for two recordings. GB: One of the works on those recordings is the Hummel Variations. They have always intrigued me. What do you know about that work? JB: I missed out on preparing the first modern edition of that piece for Musica Rara by a couple of days: Georg Meerwein got in before me. He told me that there was a crucial misprint in his edition. If you look at the slow, minor variation, the oboe part as printed in the piano reduction goes C, Bb, A, G, G (8va), but the oboe part has erroneously a printed Bb in place of the first G. Well, most recordings have the Bb. Meerwein was entitled to royalties from Musica Rara for recordings that used his edition, and when no additional royalties were forthcoming, he questioned the publisher, who used the excuse that the recordings were made from another edition. But Meerwein could play the wrong-note card as a trump, to prove that he was indeed due royalties! GB: One topic that you have remained conspicuously silent on in our correspondence over the years is reeds. When I requested information on the British reed makers, I was surprised by your response: ‘Reed-making was something that never interested me, so my information is rather scant’. JB: I’m just not one of those typical oboists who can quote vital statistics of gouge, shape and cane provenance. After my time in Holland, my reeds were a sort of mix of the English style and the Dutch. I continued to use the Dutch tubes, which are shorter, and I shaped the cane by hand. Please don’t ask me for measurements, I always did everything by

3

eye. Anyway, after retiring I didn’t touch the oboe again. I found I had more than enough to keep myself busy! A couple of years ago Jonathan Small, who plays in the Liverpool Philharmonic, wrote about the famous British reedmaker Thomas Brearley3 and I sent him a letter about my relationship with reeds. I explained that, like most oboists of my generation, I was one of those many players who did not have to bother to make reeds. We were lucky because we had Tom Brearley to keep us on the right track. When I started playing in 1944 whilst still at school, I had about four lessons in Bristol, before I started at the RCM at the beginning of 1946. It was very fortunate that both the teachers, who each gave me a couple of lessons, were clients of Brearley. So it was only natural that I followed the same road. I took it all for granted that the oboe was not all that difficult, as I had no standards on which to base any inkling of ‘reed trouble’. When the inevitable happened and the reed got damaged or leaked or whatever, I just took out a new one and got on with it.

embouchure until there’s blood on your reed’ is a genuine quote from those days. This meant, of course, that he wasn’t going to pick through my reed box. He did, however, once send a telegram to that marvellous cor anglais player Peter Boswell, a fellow student and a close friend, saying ‘Meet me Maida Vale Studios Saturday 2.30 WITH COR ANGLAIS REED!’ Peter had had a good reed in his lesson that week! GB: How many principal oboists did you play second to in the ECO? JB: Three. First there was Peter Graeme. When he left, Neil Black, was the upand-coming oboist at the time. We played together for years and then, when the time came for him to retire in 1989, Gordon Hunt took over whenever other engagements permitted.

So there I was, at the RCM, lucky enough to be with Terry MacDonagh. He was on Brearley too, although he was in the process of switching to Tom Jones who very quickly became Oboe 2 in the RPO next to Terry – for some reason! Terry didn’t make his own reeds, but his godfather, John Field, did. He was the cor anglais player in the BBCSO at that time, before Helen Gaskell started her reign. I can still remember going to his house in East Sheen in South London to learn how to make my own reeds. It must have been a very good lesson as I mostly played on my own reeds from then on. I liked a slightly less sturdy reed than Terry used; he was always saying that I must get a tougher one – ‘You’ll never have an

Friends and Colleagues: Gordon Hunt (L) and Brian Pollard in James’ Dark Lane garden GB: I remember you telling me the almost off-hand manner in which you ended your time with the ECO.

See DRN 77.

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JB: In 1997 I decided that it was best to throw in the towel while I was still on top of the game, and so one evening after playing a concert at Windsor Castle I made the decision to give my notice. None of us in the ECO had anything like a binding contract – we could leave at any time – so the next morning I wrote to Quintin Ballardie, the founder and manager, telling him that I wouldn’t be going in again, and that was that. I wasn’t leaving them in the lurch, because over the past months they had brought in players to see how they would fit into the group.

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GB: And what does the future hold? I’m sure there are more tales to tell. JB: I am vaguely planning a project that I am tentatively calling ‘The Orchestral Tourist’. So far I have thirty stories ranging from Copenhagen to Oaxaca, Würtenburg to Wales, from Expo ’67 to St Peter’s Rome; and everything from stories of bus drivers to a royal handshake.

Jimmy Brown at work

[Ed. For complete details of James Brown’s musical editions, articles and other writings, see the first part of this interview by Geoffrey Burgess in DRN93, Pp. 32-33.]

Playing Jazz on the Bassoon In recent years, several instruments not traditionally associated with jazz have come into the picture, including various stringed, brass and woodwinds. Daniel Smith, nominated as finalist in 2008 and 2010 for the prestigious 'Player of the Year' award given by the Jazz Journalists’ Association in their category of 'Instruments Rare in Jazz’, discusses the reasons why the entry of new instruments into jazz is now taking place. From the start of jazz, the main instruments used in ragtime, early blues, swing and onto bebop and avant garde were the trumpet, trombone, clarinet, percussion, saxophone, bass, guitar and piano. But what about all the remaining instruments which have been around for so many years, and which have been part of classical, pop and other musical genres? The flute, violin, banjo, tuba, cello, oboe, French horn, harp, even the bagpipes: or an instrument, which at first glance, would not seem particularly adaptable to jazz – the bassoon? Many of these instruments have since made a breakthrough in jazz; the time has now come for this most misunderstood member of the woodwind family to do likewise! As a bassoonist myself, I have had to work my way through a maze of difficulties over the years to learn how to improvise in a convincing way on this most difficult of instruments. The challenges to overcome were many, including the fact that anything played on the bassoon in jazz, whether a simple melody or serious improvisation, is several times more difficult to perform than on, for example, a saxophone. Like a violin, I regard the bassoon as a 'ten-year' instrument, meaning that to achieve the level of virtuosity requires roughly this amount of time; whereas with steady practice and a good teacher, one can learn convincingly to play the saxophone in a fraction of this time. So where to begin? I was already a ‘virtuoso’, so to speak, on the instrument

when I took the plunge into jazz bassoon. However, all the years of performing and recording with major orchestras and ensembles, including numerous concertos, were of no use when making the move into jazz. For starters, the scales and chords utilised in jazz improvisation are not the same as basic classical language. I had to practise all the permutations involved in jazz scales and chords in every key, from the bottom to the top of my instrument, for quite a few years before even beginning to attempt to improvise. After roughly three years doing this, I finally had this new language in my fingers and mind. At one point, the pain in my right arm became almost unbearable due to using muscles I had never used before in classical music. I was almost about to throw in the towel when, miraculously, the new scales and chords became comfortable to execute and the pain went away. Next were attempts to place the notes of the various chords in the right place above a piano accompaniment, followed by crude attempts to execute musical ideas without getting lost. As time went by, everything got looser and easier to execute, and I eventually felt enough confidence to try out my skills in public. It was also at this time that the virtuosity that I had already achieved in classical

music now came into play. Combined with the new skills I had mastered in the jazz idiom, everything fell into place: technique, style, sound, ideas, and whatever else was necessary to become a first-rate jazz improviser. I also had to consider how to establish an individual style on the bassoon, given there were no role models. I found that listening to many of the saxophone greats and other wind players gave me ideas in developing a language that would sound convincing on the instrument. I was living in London at this time and, with a quartet that I formed, eventually felt confident enough to perform at jazz clubs, private functions and music club series. Each of these performances helped pave the way for me to understand what to do and, even more important, what not to do to upgrade my improvising skills. I came back to the USA in 2005 and, by this time, had built up enough confidence to start to perform with American players, from whom I have learned so much. I also made the decision to learn everything from memory. I found it easier to close my eyes when performing, listening to the chord changes and the band surrounding me; I could then improvise knowing exactly where I have just come from, where I am in the piece and where I am headed, with whatever idea I am executing. All I need to know now is the starting note and I am off and running. Just by coincidence, I was performing at a jazz club recently and forgot the starting note of a piece. I quickly glanced at the music on the stand of the bass player, saw it was a low F and off I went without any problems. I suspect this mental process is exactly what a classical pianist does when performing a concerto or sonata. Once the first note is sounded everything will follow, as the mind has

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already stored all the information necessary, and the fingers will do what they have to do from that point onwards. There is obviously a lot more involved in learning how to improvise on the bassoon than in this short article, but suffice it to say that it can be done. I am not the only bassoonist currently performing in jazz, and I am sure that many more will follow in the coming years. It is not easy to accomplish but, from my own perspective since entering into the jazz world, it is well worth the effort. Like everything else worth achieving in life, it takes hard work and staying power, but there

will be a lot of rewards to come! Last but not least, the bassoon must be amplified to be heard above a rhythm section, ensemble or orchestra. There are several ways to accomplish this, including a small microphone attached to the crook which leads via a cord to a pre amp, and then onto a full amp and/or house sound-system. The late great saxophone player, Illinois Jacquet, was also an accomplished bassoonist. Performing at Ronnie Scott’s in London some years ago, Jacquet started to play a piece on bassoon. After a few minutes, he stormed off the stage in a rage as it was obvious

Paul Carrington Woodwind Instrument Repair Specialist Pease Hill Cottage Town End Lane Flintham Newark Nottinghamshire NG23 5LT Tel: (01636) 525397 Email: [email protected]

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nobody was listening or paying attention to him. The reason? No one in the audience could hear his non amplified bassoon above the rhythm section! With a good amp set up one can easily be heard even above a full symphony orchestra. I recently performed the world premier of Robert Farnon's Bassoon Concerto in the Forum Theatre, Malvern accompanied by a 100-piece orchestra and jazz rhythm section. I actually had to lower the volume of my amp at one point in the dress rehearsal as it was pointed out at that the bassoon was too loud! www.danielsmithbassoon.com

Reviews CD REVIEW Frozen River Flows New Noise (Janey Miller, oboe and Joby Burgess, percussion) Various composers; many commissions Oboe Classics CC2021 Under normal circumstances having heard a new oboe CD, I would put it into my collection in my studio in Germany where I teach, for my students to hear and comment on; but they just cannot wrench this one out of my hands yet as I am not ready to part with it! I am so happy to have the chance to share my enthusiasm for it and to encourage people not to be scared just because it’s new music; buy it and support the intrepid work of New Noise, and join these performers in their voyage of discovery. I warmly congratulate and heartily applaud Janey Miller, Joby Burgess and all those bodies and individuals who have helped to fund the new works on this disc on an important achievement. Commissioning music for oboe is, apart from playing really well, the most important oboe-related thing we can do. There is a well documented and vastly gaping hole in the romantic period, only partially filled by our delicious British mid-twentieth-century masterpieces. I say only partially, because it is so hard to get almost anyone in Germany to programme even Elgar, let alone Vaughan Williams, Bax or Bliss. Therefore the new music commissioned by a shamefully small number of oboists worldwide is of obvious and great importance for the oboe’s future relevance. Holliger has led the way of course and a few of us have followed him down that road. Janey Miller and Joby Burgess have now commissioned over 50 works for oboe and percussion, and blown dust off the existing repertoire, and I can only applaud the ingenuity and creativity in their hard work. The composers on this fabulous latest disc from the now indispensable Oboe Classics label, range from Xenakis to Skempton, from absolutely wild to superbly cool (my current favourite being Adrian Lee’s Peace for Vayu, although I would have loved it to have been longer – a good sign), and all the works here have something important to say in their way. What I love about the choice of pieces is a wonderful catholicity of taste, huge variety of sounds and acoustic recording styles, and that the performers

choose works for recording by their quality alone, not on a single stylistic principle of, say, whether or not it fits into the current trends. Maybe catholicity should be the new trendy. Just the process of finding the money to commission so many great works is often onerous and time consuming, and that normally comes only after the composer has been wooed and agreed to write the work. I have always found composers vary tremendously in their needs while they are writing; some need constant hand-holding, others, such as John Tavener, require nothing until it drops through the letter box! Having had this many composers write for New Noise in a comparatively short time, maybe over 10 years, must have required almost superhuman energy. Then there is the act of actually playing these new works – the dedication to the genre. The sheer talent and professionalism of the duo is completely outstanding; each of the performances is in every way riveting. It is clear that this recording is an important document as to how these works should be played, as authenticated by the living composers themselves. That alone would make it indispensable. To give Janey and Joby just a little more work, I would be interested to see these New Noise works being published, maybe in a collection... Nicholas Daniel

MUSIC REVIEW Divertissement Op. 58 by Kalliwoda for oboe and Orchestra pub. Universal Edition The Czech composer Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda was born in 1801 in Prague. After studying violin and composition at the Prague Conservatoire, he had an accomplished career as a violinist, working for some time in the Prague Opera orchestra. He went on to work as Kapellmeister and violinist at the court of Prince Egan II of Furstenberg in Germany, where he was visited by the Schumanns and Franz Liszt. He was a prolific composer, writing operas, symphonies, church music and instrumental works, but many remain unpublished, as did this divertissement until now. As oboists we are already familiar with his compositions thanks to the Morceau de Salon and Concertino Op.110; and this Divertissement Op.58, edited by Hansjörg Schellenberger will not disappoint players who have enjoyed playing these

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other pieces. The opening introduction is a beautiful, minor key melody which, after two short recitative passages, leads into an Andante theme and variations. This is followed by a plaintive Adagio with plenty of tension and release, and a lively vivace based upon the theme of the Andante. The final presto section allows the player to show their virtuosic skills, and should please most recital audiences. The solo oboe repertoire from this period of music is sadly lacking, and so the Divertissement by Kalliwoda will prove a welcome addition. Deborah Goodyer

CONCERT REVIEW Oboe Concerto No.2 by Gordon Jacob Karen Gibbard, oboe Kingston Chamber Orchestra All Saints Church, Kingston-upon-Thames 3rd November 2010 This concert, under the baton of Andy Meyers, presented a nicely-balanced programme of three works. Sandwiched between Mozart’s Haffner Symphony and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite was the novelty item, Gordon Jacob’s Oboe Concerto No.2, played by Karen Gibbard. Jacob’s first concerto for this instrument, dating from 1933, was originally written for Evelyn Rothwell, who was the first to perform it; but her tutor, Léon Goossens, rather took it over as his own and later gave the ‘official’ premier. Concerto No.2 is dated 1956 and was definitely dedicated to Goossens, who performed it in April of that year with the Leningrad Philharmonic, conducted by Clarence Raybould, during a tour of the Soviet Union. He played it again a few months later in August, in a broadcast performance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Ian Whyte. There is no firm evidence of any further public performances of the work in the last fifty years or so, until now. Suddenly, in 2010, two concert performances have been given! In March, Jonathan Tobbutt played it with the Leeds University School of Music Philharmonia, conducted by Eno Koco and now this one in Kingston-upon-Thames. While the first concerto is very strongly ‘English pastoral’ in mood throughout (and none the worse for it!), that particular quality is found principally in the second movement of No.2, although there are pastoral moments in the two outer

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movements. Overall, Jacob allows the oboe to be more capricious. The work is notable for its alternation of slow and fast tempi within the same movement. At the very beginning, the orchestra introduces what is to become the main allegro theme but the oboe responds meditatively and progresses to a sinuous, almost wistful theme with a slow chugging accompaniment, beautifully captured here by the soloist and the KCO. Eventually the oboe plays the main theme at a quick pace. A little later, a short phrase played pizzicato on strings is taken up by the oboe before the orchestra revels in repeating it loudly and boisterously. After a cadenza, the opening themes are briefly recapitulated and, surprisingly, the boisterous theme reappears very quietly to end the movement as the oboe decides to slow everything down yet again. All these changes of tempo were achieved most effectively by both soloist and orchestra. The slow movement, quite languid in character, was taken at just the right pace. There was much delicate playing both here and in the slow middle section of the final movement. The final movement itself is for the most part energetic and exhilarating, with another taxing cadenza for the soloist. The fast pace eventually leads to an even more frenetic one, only to be stopped short by the ‘wayward’ oboe, which once again slows down for a few bars, before the final rapid outburst that ends the work. I believe this concerto to be one of Gordon Jacob’s best works. Having studied the score for over fifty years, and with the benefit of listening to my early tape of the 1956 broadcast, I feel I know how it should sound. For me, the Kingston performance was impressive; it was a mature reading, excellently accomplished by both soloist and the KCO and it received a most warm response from the audience. Karen Gibbard’s sparkling performance displayed all the variations in mood demanded by the score, leaving the lovely sound of the oboe (surely one of Jacob’ favourite instruments, if he had any!) lingering in the memory. The 1956 review in The Musical Times of the Goossens broadcast included a comment to the effect that the work was full of the good tunes typical of the composer. Over fifty years later, the ‘good tunes’ were commented on by several members of this audience, too. Maybe they will now be more aware of Gordon Jacob’s contribution to the musical wealth of this country. Geoffrey Ogram [Ed. Further music reviews can be found in the Composers’ Forum.]

Notices

Friday February 18th at 7.30pm, at St James’ Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL. A concert by the London Harpsichord Ensemble (Director Sarah Francis). Music by Vivaldi, Handel, Bach and Telemann. Tickets £12/£10 at the door from 6.30pm.

Friday February 25th at 1.00pm, at St Mary's Church Perivale Lane, Perivale, Middlesex, UB6 8SS. Friday Lunchtime Series. Admission free (retiring collection). Althea Talbot-Howard and Dominic Saunders perform works for oboe, cor anglais & piano by Mozart, Haydn, Coleridge-Taylor, Bela Bartok and Pasculli.

Friday 25th February at 1.00pm, at the Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, Piccadilly, London W1C 2DJ. A concert by the Royal Academy of Music Bassoon Ensemble (Director John Orford). Free, no tickets required.

Sunday 27th February, from 9.30am to 5.30pm Birmingham Bassoon Day at Colmore Junior School, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 6A. Birmingham Bassoon Choir in conjunction with Birmingham Music Service. Masterclass with Sarah Burnett; also reeds, the Electric Bassoon, Fox UK trade stand, plus much more. Cost, including refreshments and buffet lunch, is £20. Contact either Chris Quince [email protected] or Jo Mayne [email protected] for more details.

10th April, from 10.00am to 5.30pm, a Bassoon Day at Sawston Village College, Cambridgeshire (see leaflet enclosed with this issue of DRN) organised by the ACE Foundation. Tutors are Philip Turbett and Graham Dolby. Cost £45. Full details at www.acefoundation.org.uk/courses/course-bassoon2011.html

Sunday 26th June in Manchester (St Matthews Hall, Stretford): ‘Bass Humour’ a playday for bassoonists and bass clarinet players, tutored by Laurence Perkins and Sarah Watts. Players of all levels are welcome; the Finale of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is being specially arranged for the event. Full details on www.windserenades.co.uk

6th to 13th August at Malvern College, Worcestershire: 'INNER SOUND' A summer chamber music course for amateur woodwind and horn players in the beautiful Malvern hills. Tutored by Lynda Coffin, Sarah Watts and Laurence Perkins, it includes an enjoyable and varied daily programme of wind chamber music, also superb concerts, chances to explore the magnificent surrounding countryside and a range of enjoyable social events. Malvern College provides superb food, excellent accommodation and facilities. Full details and on-line booking at www.cuillinsoundmusic.co.uk

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Classified Bassoon and Contra Servicing and Repairs. Also all other woodwinds. Ian White. Tel: 01865 873709 (Oxford). Bassoonists! Free your hands and neck and use a spike. Tel: 01206 382567. Gouge and Profiler Blades Re-sharpened. Prompt service. New Oboe Reed Gougers available. New Michel Oboe Profiler Blades. Tony Spicer Tel: 01903 892098 Email: [email protected] Billerbeck Oboe, Cor Anglais and Oboe d’Amore Reeds. Quality reeds made by Marjorie Downward Tel: 01343 835430 www.billerbeckoboereeds.co.uk Lorée Oboe d'Amore £3,900, Howarth S20 £1,400, Bundy student model £450. All excellent condition. Tel: 07813 150827. Lorée Oboe d'Amore DR31 (1979) lovely instrument in good condition, 2 crooks, case and cover £3,600 ono. [email protected] Tel: 02392 755812. For sale Bassoon BH400 Excellent condition. Amati & Adler crooks. High D key, etc. £1,950. (9 yrs old, used by M. Downward and recently overhauled by Woodwind & Co.) Tel: 01343 835430 www.billerbeckoboereeds.co.uk Bassoon for sale Schreiber 5091 – professional model. A beautiful instrument in excellent condition, £7,000. Contact Jean at [email protected] or on 01277 213949 mob: 07718 586134. Cabart Oboe 93184 (1990) good condition, regularly serviced, one owner. Case and cover £1,600 ono, [email protected] Tel: 02392 755812. Italian made LaFleur student oboe. Left hand F, thumb plate. £525 ono. Contact Aimie: [email protected] Michel Oboe Reed Profiling Machine in excellent condition, hardly used and has recently been serviced. Standard German template plus one custom made. Price £500 ono. Contact Carolyn on 07974 380139. Orsi made Howarth B model Student Oboe. Good condition. £500 ono. Contact: [email protected] For sale: 12-year old well kept Huller Bassoon – £1,200 ono. Tel: 01694 722036 for further details.

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J Myatt Woodwind 57 Nightingale Road, Hitchin, Herts SG5 1RQ 01462 420057 Crowther of Canterbury 1 The Borough, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2DR 01227 763965 British Reserve Insurance 6 Vale Avenue, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1EH 0870 240 0303 The British Double Reed Society is a non profit-making organisation established to further the interests of all involved with the oboe and bassoon. The BDRS acts as a national forum for debate and the exchange of ideas, information and advice on all aspects of double reed instruments. It also fulfils an important role in encouraging greater interest in the instruments, and securing their place in the wider cultural and educational environment.

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Index to Advertisers Britannia Reeds ...........................................................................................................................25 Paul Carrington ...........................................................................................................................36 David Cowdy ..............................................................................................................................21 Da Vinci Oboes ...........................................................................................................................12 Emerson Edition ..........................................................................................................................25 Fox UK..............................................................................................................Outside back cover Pete Haseler/Gregson Knives .......................................................................................................36 Howarth London ..................................................................................................Inside front cover K.Ge Reeds ...................................................................................................................................5 Le Roseau Chantant ....................................................................................................................18 F. Lorée ................................................................................................................Inside back cover Andrew May ...............................................................................................................................36 Medir SL......................................................................................................................................34 Oboereedsdirect..........................................................................................................................36 Püchner/Jonathan Small/Graham Salvage/T. W. Howarth.............................................................18 Jessica Rance...............................................................................................................................25 Tiger Books .................................................................................................................................17 Torda Reeds.................................................................................................................................17 Woodford Reeds..........................................................................................................................21 Woodwind & Co. ........................................................................................................................34

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Depuis 1881

HAUTBOIS

OBOE

HAUTBOIS D’AMOUR • COR ANGLAIS • HAUTBOIS BARYTON • HAUTBOIS PICCOLO DE GOURDON. 48 rue de Rome 75008 PARIS France Tél. : +33 (0)1 44 70 79 55 Fax : +33 (0)1 44 70 00 40 E-mail : [email protected] www.loree-paris.com