IDRS Day 3

Wednesday July 23 2008

Wow. It’s 1:30 am and I’m exhausted, but I couldn’t go to bed without documenting what I remember of today.

Today was the first day all of the vendors opened up their stands. I bought a couple of knives and little trinkets for friends back home. I also tried a BUNCH… of oboes, of which I’ll do my best to summarize.

• Lorees are Lorees, and they haven’t changed much.
• Covey classic felt great. the other Covey also felt good, ut the classic had more flexibility in it which I liked a bit more.
• I liked the Marigaux’s 901, but not the 2001. The Marigaux 2009 (Clear plastic) plays REALLY… well! Unbelievably well in fact, and has great tone. The Marigaux with the short top joints was okay, but didn’t keep my interest.
• I didn’t like the Bulgeroni’s very much. They all seemed quite stuffy.
• The Rigoutats played very nicely, and I liked that they had a great scale, good flexibility, and nice tone. There were some consistently odd tuning issues I had with them (sharp high A, REALLY… flat middle C) that were odd, but could be reamed out.
• The Buffet Greenlines felt better than they did previously. It felt more responsive to me, and less “thick”
• Howarth XLs are definitely some of the best instruments on the market. I also really liked Howarth’s standard S5 model, and would pick it over any AK.

The big surprises were:

• The Fossati has a new model out. There were four out, and I really liked one. In fact, after I left, Richard Woodhams walked over and was drawn to the same one I was. He stood there playing on it for 20 minutes or so, and I saw him write his name on the “contact info” sheet. Apparently I wasn’t the only one!
• The new Yamaha 841-L Kingwood with a plastic topjoint liner was remarkable. It had one of the darkest tones of any instrument there, but still had a lot of zing in it. In fact, while trying it out, my most memorable experience occured.

I was playing a normal C major scale on the Yamaha 841-L and I hear a voice saying “Hey, you sound great on that!” I turned around, and who was standing behind me but Richard Woodhams! My jaw dropped and I wasn’t sure what to say. Apparently, it was obvious because before I could say anything more, he said, “No really! I’m not trying to flatter you! You really sound truly beautiful!” to which I managed to mutter, “Thank you sir!” I’m not sure what he heard in my normal C major scale, but apparently he liked what he heard. Later, I told Mr. Weber this, and he just said, “Wow, he doesn’t say things like that.”

Speaking of Richard Woodhams, the masterclass went well. He emphasized rhythmic integrity in a syncopated Beethoven 6 excerpt, saying, “Don’t confuse good phrasing with bad rhythm.” The next girl played Brahms 2 mvt III…, and he was just trying to get her to do more with it, such as taking soloistic risks. The third girl played Mahler 3 Mvt. II, and talked about the importance of having a good reed for the solo. The last thing he said about the solo was, “I could stand up here and talk about it for some more time, but you really just need to make sure you get a good reed!” Finally, the last girl played Schubert Symphony 9 mvt II, where he encouraged her to play with more snap. He insisted that the first grace note be faster than a 32nd note in order to set the tone for the “snappy” character.

I also attended the “Curtis Spirit of 76” recital, featuring Robert Stevenson, Martin Schuring, Harold Smoliar, and Christopher Millard. That concert was hilarious, as they were obviously just more interested in having a good time that looking good. On the first piece, Martin Schuring was putting his pages in order, before finally announcing to the audience, “Um— I’ll be right back.” as he ran off to find his missing page. Harold Smoliar just rolled his eyes, and said, “Obviously some things never change!” The crowd had a good laugh. Martin came back and gave a little speech on how they had all been at Curtis together during 1976, and that they had discovered the previous day after having lunch together, that their maturity levels had not changed one bit. The audience roared and with that, the recital began! It was a fun recital, and they were obviously having a lot of fun together.

Tonight’s concert featured a Handel double concerto arranged for oboe and English Horn, performed by Stevenson and Smoliar, which was great to hear, and Carolyn Hove playing a bunch of English Horn pieces. Mr. Weber, who was sitting next to me gave Stevenson some of the highest praise I’ve ever heard Mr. Weber give to anyone, saying he sounded the most like de Lancie of anyone he’d heard at the convention.

Tomorrow is going to be a great concert; Martin Schuring playing 2 Telemann concertos!