Isabelle's Notebook
International Bassoon Competition in Paris: March 14-15, 2009
This competition has been announced by Jean-Louis Petit, organizer and
composer of one of the required pieces for the final round. The Paris
newspaper, le Figaro, has called him "l'un des piliers de la vie musicale
francaise (one of the pillars of French musical life").
Details and registration information can be found at
http//int.comp.paris.va.free.fr/index.html The application must be
received by March 1, 2009; registration fee is 60 euros.
Quintet Lore
Neilsen composed his much-loved Quintet, op. 43 in 1921-22, inspired by hearing leading Copenhagen wind players rehearsing the Sinfonia Concertante for winds by Mozart, Neilsen's favorite composer. Nielsen's quintet was premiered privately in Goteberg in April, 1922, and publicly in Copenhagen on October 9. 1922. Schoenberg heard a rehearsal and was moved to write his own in 1924 (op. 26). Soon after the Denmark premiere of the Nielsen, the Copenhagen group was invited to play in Germany and asked their agent in Berlin to find a German work for that program. He did, with the result that the same concert that introduced Nielsen's work to Germany included the world premiere of Hindemith's quintet, Kleine Kammermusik. from IDRS Journal
Motorist Fined for Playing Flute
According to Reuters, a man in Germany was arrested for playing the flute while driving 130 km/hour on a highway. The police spokesperson said he was playing the flute with both hands, and steering with his knees and feet. The best part of this story is his excuse to the police: The 52-year-old from Salzburg in Austria, birthplace of Mozart, told police he was not actually blowing the instrument. He said he was just practicing fingerings. from Reuters
French Oboe Makers
Philippe Rigoutat, from the family of French oboe makers, once posted on the Double Reed Forum, "You can't imagine 100 or 200 years ago the number of makers there were in Germany and in France.Ê We are used to say for a joke that you had one oboe maker for each village, and that they make instrument with a pitch like the organ of the church. We have in our collection an oboe with three top joints of a different length for a different pitch, probably a moving artist, village to another village." (IDRS forum, Feb. 1997)
Isabelle welcomes submissions from the woodwind community. Please send them to bostonwinds@bwsweb.org.