GET OFF THE PLATFORM...

Jack Brymer (1915 - 2003)

In the winter in the United States there is a problem in concert halls which become so dry with the excessive heating.  In my bassoon case I would put a humidifier,  a sort of rubber tube soaked in water. 'A London Symphony’ of Vaughan Williams has some very pianissimo sections.  In one of these, with Previn conducting on an LSO tour, one of the double basses literally exploded.  It was an amazing noise, followed by the Mancunian voice of Stuart Knussen (father of Oliver, the composer and solo double bass), ‘git off the platform, Robin!’, to Robin McGee, the owner of the ruined instrument.  Previn really enjoyed that.

Once in the Royal Festival Hall we had just finished the first movement of a symphony when Jack Brymer, sitting next to me,  got up and walked off the platform through the violins.  I think Previn must have suspected what was the trouble for he just stood on the podium and waited.  Sure enough, after probably not more than two minutes, back comes Jack, who says in his marvellous, sonorous voice ‘Sorry, André!’ and goes back to his seat to complete the performance of the symphony.

Roger Birnstingl

THOSE FOUR NOTES - Tchaikovsky Symphony No.6
the bassoonist's nightmare

 by Roger Birnstingl



is very puzzlinIt g why Tchaikovsky didn’t put those four notes on the bass clarinet, an instrument he used quite a lot, particularly in his ballet music, the Manfred Symphony and more. There must have been some technical reason why he chose the bassoon and this we shall never know. It is the only occasion that I have seen a bassoon part of any work with four pppp, so he must have known that he was asking a lot.
He conducted the first performance  himelf, shortly before his death. It's impossible to know whether the bassoonist played this passage on that occasion. My guess is that he did, and it was a disaster so that from then on it was played on the bass clarinet. Interestingly it remains in the  bassoon part and in the printed score. 
I have only had to play this bit on two occasions. The first was at the RFH with Markevitch conducting the LSO. I had got through the opening solo and was feeling relieved that the worst was over. Jack Brymer was in the middle of his long solo when I became aware that the bass clarinettist was looking at me with a desperate expression indicating that his instrument was not working. No choice for me but to play the notes for him, and with the reed I had on which was not the one I had used for the opening.
Jack, being a real pro, made a subtle crescendo towards my entry so that I could play fairly comfortably thinking ‘better too loud than not at all’. Amazingly, Markevitch gave me a bow at the end although I am sure that most of the audience had no idea why he had got me to stand up.
The other time was when the bass clarinettist of the Suisse Romande, a friend of mine, asked me to do this because he would have had a completely free week and wanted to go away. This concert was right in the middle so of course I agreed and worked out some tricks with a duster in the bell and the Bb key closed with a rubber band.

Roger Birnstingl started playing the bassoon at age 14. He was educated at Bedales School and later studied with Archie Camden at the Royal College of Music in London.
He has served as principal bassoonist of the London Philharmonic (1956–1958), the Royal Philharmonic (1961–1964) and the London Symphony Orchestra (1964–1977). He later served as principal bassoonist with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande until his retirement in 1997. He is currently professor of bassoon at the Geneva Conservatoire. He is also a joint president of the British Double Reed Society.

Long Serving Orchestral 

Woodwind Principals in the UK

by Ian Denley

(Experienced teacher, performer & examiner)

I wonder how many will remember that the team of woodwind principals in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of the 1950s was known as the ‘Royal Family’, their length of service conferring on the orchestra a unique identity in the quality of their sound and phrasing.

Woodwind players have, arguably, always been the emotional centre of an orchestra’s heart, claiming, as they do, the most prominent solo work.  Brass players do have their solos, of course, but physical and instrumental restrictions have tended to limit their display, and solos from the other departments of an orchestra are few and far between.

I have been musing on the tendency, certainly in the UK, for some woodwind principals to cruise regularly between orchestras and I wonder if this has had a deleterious effect on that sense of unity which inevitably comes about from playing together over a long period. I was fortunate in my training to have two of the best principal flutes ever as teachers: David Butt, who was a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for thirty-eight years from 1960 (occupying a principal flute rôle from 1962), and Andreas Blau, principal of the Berlin Philharmonic for forty-six years, having been appointed at the age of twenty in 1969, and staying on for an extra year past retirement to accommodate the delayed arrival of his successor, Mathieu Dufour, previously principal flute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  I believe it to be no accident that latterly, the longest serving UK principals have proved to be a particular source of great inspiration. As an example, I mention Rosemary (Rosie) Eliot, who recently retired from the BBC Scottish Symphony as the long-standing principal flute - an outstanding figurehead, whose beautiful tone and phrasing were second to none, and like some of the names below, with no desire to become a super-star of the flute, just getting on with the orchestral job and doing it superbly.

Many past principals, for example, Gareth Morris, Ken Smith, Colin Chambers, Roger Rostron, David Haslam, Douglas Townsend, Robert Dawes and Susan Milan, to name but a few, helped to give their respective orchestras a following, which does not appear to be the trend nowadays.  Hopefully, the splendid Gareth Davies at the London Symphony orchestra and Sam Coles at the Philharmonia will be there for a long time. 

It would be interesting to hear the views on this from players of other wind instruments. Names such as Terence MacDonough, Jack Brymer, Reginald Kell, Gwydion Brooke, John McCaw and Archie Camden are bound to crop up!