RCEditions

Don Martino, who incidentally was a Princeton student of Babbitt, and I were friends for many years, and I remember occasions over several decades. 1n 1974 he was a Pulitzer Prize Winning composer teaching one of my peers/friends at New England Conservatory, Richard Hermann, who wrote a short solo piece I played for a student composers concert. Martino was there and told Richard 'He plays very well, but you need to get him to play accurate rhythms. Well, 13 years later (1987) Don wrote a Concerto for me, we recorded it, and I guarantee I played more accurate rhythms. Don was meticulous and he heard everything that he wrote, in many cases writing 2 or 3 defining notations on single notes. For instance-(CHECK THIS)a double tenuto (looking like an 'equal' sign with a dynamic, crescendo, dotted rhythm and a 'ballabile,' notation. After a few weeks of having Don singing it to me, and then singing it myself, I began to understand his style much better. And Don would say, 'That's good. The notation is just for people who have no imagination. Play it like Brahms.' And so I did. 12 years later (1999), he wrote 'Piccolo Studio,' for my concert at the Longy School celebrating 'teaching,' and I did 'get it' much faster. But Don hadn't changed--My recording of that work for the cd 'Radnofsky.com,' which took just a few takes for each of the other works which Don supervised took 55 takes!

A few years later, in the early 2000's Don was having a myriad of health problems, relating to diabetes, which he fought for years, but including digestive and back problems, concurrently. He was in traction for months, came home, called and invited me over for lunch; he was having 'enfamil' through a tube to his stomach. He asked what I would like. I said, 'not what you are having.' We laughed, and later he took me down to his basement studio, where he composed (with the most beautiful autography), and practiced the clarinet. He wrote a great work for clarinet, 'Set,' which is quite difficult. And he always told me he used to be able to play the piece. I never heard any evidence of it (!), but Don always kept going and practicing, redesigning a key to fit his arthritic hands, and that day, having me listen with eyes closed. He said, 'how did that sound?' I thought, 'just like usual.' But he proudly turned the mouthpiece toward me, to show me a plastic 'Legere' brand reed. Don told me, because of his inability to eat solid food through his mouth, that he basically had no saliva (needed to wet a wooden reed), and a plastic reed allowed him to keep playing. 'Wow,' I thought. 'This is a model of never giving up.' Incidentally, I tried the reeds, and switched over immediately. I have played ‘Legere ‘reeds exclusively, ever since. Thanks for everything, Don.

I love all the concertos I have commissioned, and will do my best to make them available here, on my website and in print, with directions how to obtain them and hear them. I am especially proud of the concerti of Gunther Schuller, David Amram, Donald Martino, Betty Olivero, Michael Colgrass, Michael Gandolfi, Elliott Schwartz, Baris Perker and most recently, Jimmy Yannatos

Some Thoughts on James Yannatos and the Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra (from the program notes of the 2012 World Premiere)

A Salute to (My) Teachers

5. Composers and Other Inspirations (cont.)