Appreciation by Ron Mitchell

"If only we had clarinets..." said Mozart. Well, we had abundance of them at Robert Calow's superb survey of the instrument. Quite a sight they were too, standing up on the tables or (the big ones) on the floor before us, creating a buzz of interest even before the talk began. Little ones, medium-size ones and a couple of huge ones, the latter carefully guarded by Robert's colleague Debbie Lee. And not only for show. Debbie and Robert played their instruments for us so that we could hear their qualities for ourselves.

Robert's talk was ingeniously constructed. The first half took us through the genesis and evolution of the instrument from the turn of the 18th to the 20th century, illustrated with appropriate contemporary classical excerpts from Mozart, Weber ... through to Rachmaninoff. The second half was a romp through other musical genres demonstrating the clarinet's huge versatility: jazz, klezmer, gypsy, Indian classical and even Bollywood. Though my favourite was hearing the incomparable Jack Brymer in Rachmaninoff's second symphony playing what I now know is the 'Rolls-Royce of clarinets', the Boosey and Hawkes Symphony 1010. (†)

We did learn a lot. Robert took an instrument to pieces and put it back together again; he showed off the key mechanism and described the keypads; he explained how the tone is generated in the cylindrical bore creating a standing wave that is reflected up and down inside; he demonstrated how the player's embouchure can create the characteristic swelling and diminution of the sound.

It added another dimension to actually hear those instruments played by Debbie and Robert, sometimes in duet. Altogether a very stimulating and informative evening.

See below for listings of both the live and recorded music that we heard.

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† Robert Calow adds: "In my view, as a British clarinettist, the B & H Symphony 1010 clarinet IS the pinnacle of clarinet making—but the French (Buffet), Americans (Selmer) and Japanese (Yamaha) may not see it that way! Sadly there are no British clarinets made any more. Jack Brymer was really the last pro to be playing on them in the 1970/80s.

"Lots of us still play on the Symphony 1010 and the next in line down, the Imperial 926 (my clarinet). The secret to the sound is the wider bore, which in Mr Brymer's hands gave us the definitive British clarinet sound."