As apt a description of this roving bassoon
soloist anyone could imagine, I congratulate George Zukerman for his world tour
of 1969 - perhaps the longest and most varied for a bassoonist ever.
As apt a description of this roving bassoon
soloist anyone could imagine, I congratulate George Zukerman for his world tour
of 1969 - perhaps the longest and most varied for a bassoonist ever.
English-born and New York City-trained, Zukerman has resided in several countries (U.S.A., Israel, Canada) . . . probably setting off his current wanderlust.
George Zukerman started out with a "normal" bassoon career, playing with Mordecai Rechtmann in the Israel Philharmonic, then for #ffffffseveral seasons Principal in the Vancouver Symphony of Canada. But a strong managerial instinct enabled him to establish, in his "spare" time, a leading Western Canada concert management, OVERTURE CONCERTS, which for 16 years has presented various artists to known and little-known locations from Lake Superior to the Pacific.
The Canada issue of TIME magazine, June 20, 1969, featured an article with picture about Zukerman's long tour and mentioned his "unusual repertoire". In a letter, George commented to me, "Recently catalogued my microfilm and printed music collection, and find I have 147 concerti, and over 300 works for bassoon solo, duos, trios, quartets, etc."(!) Several composers have written pieces at Zukerman's commission, and I'm sure he would oblige helpful information to those bassoonists who have "run out of literature". (George Zukerman, The Penthouse, 2254 Cornwall Street, Vancouver 9, B.C., Canada).
The TOUR: 39 concerts, 16 countries, 17 weeks. From George Zukerman "the tour was half recitals and half orchestra dates. I played with four orchestras in the USSR (Moscow Radio, Kharkov, Donetzk and Zaparojie), with 6 orchestras in Australia (please list my meeting John Cran of Sydney and Gordon Skinner of Wellington: bassoonists), with orchestras in Heilbronn and Lugano, and with the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid (a subscription series of three dates).
Main works played were Mozart, Weber, J.C. Bach, Hummel, Graun, Weinzweig Divertimento (a great bassoon work - published Leeds.) [Ed. note: John Weinzweig Canadian composer], and the Villa-Lobos (MY favorite of them all, next to Mozart, I guess!) - [Ciran da das Sete Notas by H. Villa Lobos, published Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc., New York-Ed.]
Customs at Iran (Teheran airport) genuinely thought bassoon was some form of armament (it was at the time of the trouble with Iraq, and my instincts were all on the side of the Iranians, I assure you!) - made me assemble the bassoon and play our "national anthem" at 2 AM. ["national anthem" is for bassoonists and is shared by Zukerman, Mordecai Rechtmann and Sidney Rosenberg of Montreal - perhaps more on this later. -Ed.]
Kabul, Afghanistan . . . camels chewed cud (or whatever it is that camels chew) throughout the recital.
Moscow . . . temperature of 30 below outside: poor heating inside . . orchestras sharp to start with (448 in some cases, I think) . . . had to borrow a No. 00 crook. Just before recording Weber's Andante and Rondo for radio, High "G" ring seized . . . had to flick the damned thing closed every time I had a spare second (which ain't very often in the Weber!) In walked Yuri Nekliudov of Moscow Phil. on social call. Takes one look at the emergency . . . strips for action, and in between large swigs of vodka, and slices of orange (a great delicacy in the USSR) fixed the damn thing with the aplomb of Hans Moennig, and using nothing more than an old screwdriver and some string."
(The monogram figure of George Zukerman playing his bassoon with beard is the design of Warren Standard, principal oboe of the Vancouver, Canada, Symphony Orchestra. Warren is as fine an artist with pen as with Loree.)