Of the two clarinet concerti he’ll play Saturday, Gervase de Peyer says the history of one is a little racier.
“Mozart’s clarinet concerto is the last he completed at the end of his life,” said Alexandria resident de Peyer, who will join the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra Saturday night for a concert dedicated to famed jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman.
Wolfgang Mozart wrote the concerto on Saturday’s program for Anton Stadler, who played the basset clarinet, but the concerto is now scored for an A clarinet, in a somewhat higher register.
“I’ve read a report… that [Stadler] gave away the basset clarinet part in order to be able to afford to take some more people out for drinks,” de Peyer said.
De Peyer has twice recorded the concerto, but he’s put the other concerto slated for this weekend’s concert on record many more times. Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto was written for Benny Goodman, who recorded it several times on his own.
When Copland came to London to perform the concerto with Goodman, de Peyer stepped into the jazz legend’s shoes for the first time.
“I was the principal clarinetist with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Copland came over to conduct,” de Peyer said. “Goodman was supposed to come, but for some reason he didn’t. In the end, I played his part.”
That led to a string of performances under the American composer’s baton. De Peyer later met Goodman, and the two became friends until Goodman died in the mid-1990s. De Peyer is happy to see him remembered by the Alexandria Symphony. “He was one of the few jazz players to venture into the classical world,” de Peyer said. “The Copland Concerto has become quite popular, and it’s thanks to Benny that it appeared.”
Where & When
The Alexandria Symphony will perform their next concert, titled BENNY!: a Tribute Benny Goodman, starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, in the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall & Arts Center, 3000 N. Beauregard St., on the Alexandria Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College. Peter Fay, host of “Around Town” on public radio station WETA, will hold a pre-concert “Concert Conversation” starting at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $30-$60, with discounts for Seniors and Students. More information is available online at www.alexsym.org, or by calling Ticketmaster at 703- 573-SEAT (7328).