It is always pleasant to look forward to the IDRS convention each year, both the the professional uplift gained from hearing the finest players on our instruments, and for the continuation of friendships cemented in previous years with our colleagues throughout the world. We always seem to attract new faces each year, and this August's convention was extremely successful in this regard. With over 500 registrants swelling our ranks, Gene Griswold, our host at Towson State University, north of Baltimore, Maryland, could relax from worry about making the convention a financial success so that he could worry more about the logistics of performers and audiences! The convention this summer was well organized, and proved to be an artistic, financial, and social success.
President Sol Schoenbach was notably brisk in conducting the business portions of the meetings, which concentrated more on essentials and less on details which are usually worked out in the Executive Committee anyway.
The performances began on Sunday night with two bassoon works, the well known Hummel Concerto and the almost forgotten Danzi Concerto in F, both played elegantly by John Miller, principal bassoonist of the Minnesota Orchestra. His tone has a beautiful, dark quality which lends itself well to his graceful and reflective playing of these late Classic-early Romantic period works. The accompaniments, although not perfect, were remarkable considering the fact that Mr. Miller, because of airline problems, had arrived just before the performance.
The next evening's program, presented by Harry Sargous, oboe,
Christopher Weait, bassoon, and Susan Chenette, piano, was admirably
well-balanced in terms of variety and pacing. Two of the works were
arrangements by Chris Weait -- a Fantasie by Telemann and
On another oboe-bassoon duo program, Baltimore Symphony principal bassoonist Phillip Kolker was featured in a performance of Paul Chihara's The Beauty of the Rose Is In Its Passing, for solo bassoon, two horns, harp and percussion. This is a hauntingly beautiful work which is well written for the bassoon, and Mr. Kolker made the most of its possibilities. He is a fine bassoonist, with a resonant, projecting tone quality and musicianship to match. He was joined by oboist Joseph Turner and pianist Katherine Jacobsen for a superb performance of the Poulenc Trio. This was also a well-balanced program, full of variety and including some fine performances by the Baltimore Symphony Woodwind Quintet.
The Ohio State Wind Quintet chose standard quintet literature, the Samuel Barber Summer Music and the Cheminee of Milhaud, for its concert, and performed both pieces very well. A particularly interesting and nonstandard work on their program was the Skizzen of Jan Bach, composer-in-residence at Northern Illinois University. This is a very good quintet, consisting of several musical miniatures, each accompanied by descriptive slides. Not only was this work well played, but it proved to be very popular with the audience --who can forget that bane of all performers, the dreaded and dreadful Art Critic?! This is not a new work, but we thank the highly proficient players of the Ohio State Wind Quintet for bringing it back to our attention.
Linda Harwell, assistant principal bassoonist of the National Symphony, was coupled with a program of modern oboe music, and offered a marked contrast with her choice of the Vivaldi E Minor Concerto, Weber's Hungarian Fantasie, and Corrette's Le Phenix concerto for four bassoons and harpsichord. Her playing was brilliant and well controlled, especially in the final section of the Weber, which was highly virtuosic. The minor flaw in her performance was that all of the works were somewhat over-embellished, which left little room in important lyrical passages to expand the phrase.
Patricia Rogers of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra played the Tansman Suite and the Sonata of Saint-Saens. Although her pitch rode on the higher side, her playing was characterized by musical warmth and a clear technical style in these two French pieces. Ms. Rogers was joined on this recital by Japanese bassoonist Yoshiyuki Nakanishi, principal bassoonist of the Nagoya Philharmonic. It was a pleasure to welcome Mr. Nakanishi, who was introduced to us at the Los Angeles convention. We are grateful that he exposed us to a new work by Japanese composer Yuzo Toyama, the Lyric Suite for Bassoon and Piano, which rounded out a very pleasant recital.
Ms. Rogers and Mr. Nakanishi were also joined on this program by bassoonist-composer William Winstead of Florida State University in a performance of his Trio for Mixed Voices-Sofrothe, a very intense work for mezzo-soprano, bassoon and harpsichord. This work was particularly interesting for its interchange of ideas between the bassoon and voice, an almost operatic role-playing which heightened the dramatic nature of the material. This piece would bear repeated hearing to enable one to appreciate its many subtleties.
The IDRS commissioned work for oboe, bassoon and piano by William Bergsma was admirably performed by oboist Laila Storch, bassoonist Arthur Grossman, and pianist Joseph Levine. This piece, although serial in approach and intellectually appealing, is not as austere as some compositions in this style tend to be. As a result, the working out of materials did not lead to a sacrifice of the work's more emotional qualities. Let us hope that this new composition will be available to us soon; it would offer a perfect contrast to the Poulenc Trio, even on the same program. Arthur Grossman, performing other works on this concert, continues to be a strong, solid performer with a real flair for solo playing. He is equally at home with the quiet subtleties of chamber music and the bravura style of solo performance.
The search for new and interesting literature is time-consuming and often fruitless; for this reason we were particularly pleased to hear some Eastern European works performed by Polish bassoonist Jerzy Lemiszka, principal bassoonist of Teatro del Estado Orquesta Sinfonica de Mexico, and to hear his up-front style of bassoon playing. There must be literally hundreds of decent works for bassoon hidden away in the countries beyond the Western border. We can only wait patiently for the day that these works become more readily available to us. The performances at the convention were balanced with a number of interesting clinics. Kenneth Pasmanick (principal bassoonist of the National Symphony Orchestra) braved the waters that few would try -- presenting a clinic on orchestral excerpts. Mr. Pasmanick offered some helpful suggestions on getting around those problem excerpts we all know and love, with amiable style and a witty presentation. Contrabassoonist Lewis Lipnick, also from the National Symphony Orchestra, led the audience to a new level of appreciation for the complexities and differences in technique from bassoon to contrabassoon. His presentation was centered around events relating to the composition and performance of Gunther Schuller's Concerto for Contrabassoon and Orchestra, commissioned by Mr. Lipnick and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Thanks (?) should go to the Boerlin/Fetcher team for resurrecting the Sarrusophone. Can we look forward to seeing a book of orchestral excerpts for sarrusophone in the near future, Dick? Representing the Baroque bassoon at the convention was New Yorker Phillip Levin, who was impressive in both the lecture/discussion and performance/demonstration related to his reconstruction of a Stanesby, Jr. bassoon in the collection of William Waterhouse. It is rare to find an instrument-maker who can perform as well as Mr. Levin; we look forward to hearing more from him.
It was good to hear Sol Schoenbach, Otto Eifert and William Winstead perform together. Their choice of three of the Weissenborn trios greatly pleased the audience, and their playing was tasteful and ingratiating. We are eagerly anticipating more of "The Sound of Philadelphia" at future conventions!
The Baltimore Symphony Bassoon Quartet (3 bassoons and a contrabassoon) displayed extremely fine ensemble as well as individual playing of high caliber. This is certainly one of the finest bassoon ensembles it has been my pleasure to hear. They performed a very interesting work of Victor Bruns, Kleine Suite, Opus 55. It seems that this work is next to impossible to find, let us hope that it, too, can be available soon. Following the Baltimore Quartet, the North American French Bassoon Quartet again amply demonstrated the effectiveness of the French bassoon. They have performed at previous IDRS conventions, and have always helped to remind us of the many beautiful qualities of the French instrument. Their program ranged from Bach (a very good quintet transcription of the Prelude and Fugue in C Major, by Ronald Klimko) to Milde, the latter work a birthday present in 1980 to Sol Schoenbach which harmonizes the Study #1 (studies in scales and chords) of Milde. This short and very good arrangement by member Charles Holdeman elicited more than a few chuckles, especially at the famous last line of the original. Mr. Holdeman had previously presented an interesting and informative clinic related to problems involved in making and adjusting the French bassoon reed, information gleaned partially from his year with French bassoonist extraordinaire, Maurice Allard.
Not to be forgotten was the Georgia Bassoon Ensemble, no doubt organized by professor, bassoonist, and composer William Davis of the University of Georgia, and capably conducted by professor, oboist, and composer John Corina, who also had a work premiered at this year's convention. The Georgia group was a well-rehearsed, tight ensemble with a nice blend.
We must not forget the climax of the convention, a massed band of some 200 oboes and bassoons, with a few trumpets, horns and drums sprinkled in, playing the Royal Fireworks music of Handel, very ably conducted by Don Christlieb. What fun it was to out-fortissimo those brasses and drums, for a change; fireworks would surely have been extraneous at this concert!
A special word of appreciation should go to pianist Reynaldo Reyes, who did a remarkable job accompanying these masses of performers, and to Gene Griswold and the administration, faculty, staff, and students of the Towson State University Music Department, who did so much to make this such a highly successful IDRS convention, and to leave us looking forward to next year's convention in Tallahassee.
Editor's Note: Dr. William Allgood has earned degrees in performance from East Carolina University (B.M.J, The University of Illinois (M.M.) and The University of Michigan (D.M.A.). He has studied bassoon with Charles Sirard, Sanford Berry and Hugh Lewis Cooper. He is currently bassoon professor at Western Michigan University Kalamazoo where he performs regularly with the Western Wind Quintet and the Fontana Ensemble. In the spring of 1980 he gave a very successful Carnegie Hall debut recital in New York City. Besides his bassooning he is also active as a composer, and is co-owner, with his wife, Leeann, of the Dulcian Music Company.