| Review
of Paul Harvey's 70th Birthday Concert featured in the Clarinet &
Saxophone Magazine June 2005
A
capacity audience filled the Barn Church in Kew in early June for a concert
to celebrate Paul Harvey’s 70th birthday. Paul heralded the concert
in “Hold the Back Page!” in the Spring 2005 issue of Clarinet
& Saxophone and the decision to hold the concert in the afternoon
paid off as old friends and colleagues travelled from far and wide to
listen to Paul’s music being played by his ex-pupils and new friends.
I went round to see Paul on his actual birthday, 14th June, to chat about
the concert and he was wearing a red and grey striped tie which was a
gift from an ex-pupil Nigel Hinson, but this was no ordinary tie as it
had belonged to Artie Shaw and Nigel had bid for it when the Shaw estate
was auctioned off. Paul was practising the Artie Shaw Clarinet Concerto,
hoping that wearing Artie’s tie would help him to play it better.
The concert kicked off with a Fanfare for the Big Seven-O played by Paul
and Ian Haysted, accompanied by A Good Reed quartet then Paul read out
a “telegram” from HM The Queen which so amused me that I quote
it here in full:
From the Office of the Lord Chamberlain, Buckingham Palace, “Her
Majesty the Queen has asked me to convey her thanks to Mr Harvey and his
colleagues for their message of goodwill and loyalty on the occasion of
the Sovereign’s Official Birthday, which she has shared with Mr
Harvey for many years. Her Majesty regrets that she is unable to attend
the concert in person, owing to her annual gig on Horse Guards Parade.
She has, however, every confidence that Messrs Harvey and Haysted will
carry out their duties as efficiently as she has observed them, during
different eras in the past, negotiating the Spinwheel with the Massed
Bands of the Foot Guards during the Trooping of the Colour.” Signed
– Lord Chamberlain, Duke Ellington & Count Basie.
Ian Haysted studied with Paul at Kneller Hall and although they lost touch
with each other for a while, they are now firm friends and Paul often
writes music for Ian to play. One such piece is Salt Lake Symbiosis, written
for the 2003 ICA Clarinetfest in Salt Lake City. Paul wrote the piece,
then Ian added the cadenzas and special effects such as quartertones and
multiphonics – a truly symbiotic relationship! Ian gave a splendid
performance finishing on a top C, and accompanied by piano and A Good
Reed on clarinets although Paul plans to make an arrangement of the accompaniment
for strings.
A Good Reed also featured in Clarinet & Saxophone recently and the
varied instrumentation in Permutations was described there. The four girls
in the quartet are all versatile doublers, so much so that most members
of the audience could not distinguish which instruments were their principal
studies. Needless to say they gave a faultless première performance
which delighted the composer who was also hearing it complete for the
first time.
Southwold Sonatina was the only piece on the programme not composed by
Paul Harvey. It was written by James Rae who is very fond of the Suffolk
town of Southwold. Rae’s name (together with Mr Harvey’s)
is so well known to single reed teachers for his first rate teaching material
and it was good to hear a more substantial work from him, performed by
Ian Haysted on clarinet. The three movements were titled Sole Bay, Harbour
Reflections, and Off To The Nelson! James Rae has also written a Sonatina
for alto saxophone, premièred by Paul Summers in June, and a tenor
saxophone Sonatina is also about to be composed.
Paul’s daughter, Paulina, introduced the last piece in the first
half – one of Paul’s musical stories written for schools’
concerts when he led the London Saxophone Quartet. (For more background
on the LSQ read Paul Harvey’s Bandroom Jottings.) The story concerns
Hippolyte Saxopotamus whose invention, the contrabass hippophone, is to
be presented to the Emperor. Paul narrated (in a slightly dodgy French
accent), A Good Reed, on saxes, supplied the musical interludes and a
small girls’ choir, consisting of Paulina and pupils and ex-pupils
of Paul’s, sang the Saxopotamus Song. Then we all went and had a
glass of wine.
Among the highlights in the second half was Puerto Rico Suite, written
when Paul was a regular visitor to Puerto Rico, based on Puerto Rican
folk tunes. Paul and Ian joined A Good Reed on alto and E flat clarinet
respectively.
This was a useful warm-up for Paul’s solo of the afternoon, one
of his contest solos written for an annual competition at Kneller Hall.
The piece exploits both the lyrical qualities of the alto clarinet and
the full range of the instrument. A version for basset horn and piano
will soon be available. I’m sure if George Bernard Shaw could have
heard this piece he would not have said, “The devil himself could
not make the basset horn sparkle”. The alto clarinet has served
Paul well in the past when American publishers chose to record their wind
band catalogues in Great Britain. The clarinet section for a session would
typically include Jack Brymer, Ted Planas, Paul and Stephen Trier and
although the first pieces were from the very easy end of the catalogue,
the music got considerably more challenging as the week went on.
A light-hearted song called My Boyfriend Plays The Clarinet showed the
considerable versatility of the newest member of A Good Reed, Laura Parker.
She sang about her boyfriend’s constant practising and gave him
an ultimatum, “either the clarinet goes or I go!” but all
is happily resolved by her taking up the clarinet too, and so they can
now play duets (cue quotation from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet).
And next, the noisiest item on the programme, Concert Für Dudelsack
K.621.5 attributed to McMozart. James Rae took up the bagpipes last December
and it sounded as though he’s been trying hard to play K622 on them
ever since. It wasn’t quite what Mozart wrote but with bits of Amazing
Grace, Auld Lang Syne and Happy Birthday thrown in, it made for a hilarious
few minutes.
And so to the finale. For the 2003 ICA Clarinetfest Paul wrote a musical
version of Three Billy Goats Gruff with lots of “in” clarinet
jokes and he thought that another children’s story with a clarinet
take on it would go down well at the Birthday Concert, so Kloséchops
and the Three Berrs was born. Goldilocks is a fanatical clarinet player,
nicknamed Kloséchops, and of course, when she comes upon the house
of the Berr family she tries out their bass clarinet, a very good quality
B flat and an E flat clarinet. She ends up being invited to form a quartet
with the Bears, sorry Berrs. Again Paul narrated, A Good Reed played and
accompanied the Saxopotamus Babes. Paul regards these musical stories
as the most important works he has written and he has evidence of their
influence on young audiences who have been inspired to take up the clarinet
or the saxophone as a result of hearing a performance of one of the stories.
After the concert, some of the audience, with Paul of course, adjourned
to a hostelry on Kew Green and Paul was able to catch up with old friends
such as his schoolfriend Peter Fisher who had travelled from Cambridge.
Peter is a year older than Paul and they often played duets at school.
Paul attributes his good sight-reading skills to Peter’s insistence
on those regular duet sessions.
Looking back on his career, the B flat contrabass clarinet has also brought
Paul some interesting work including the film scores of Rambo and Total
Recall, and on the Beatles’ album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band. Among the many faces on the cover is that of Karlheinz
Stockhausen and Paul is directly responsible for that. A chance conversation
with Paul McCartney about Paul’s part on contrabass in Gruppen at
the Proms that summer led to the composer’s inclusion on the album
cover.
I asked Paul what compositions are in the pipeline in the near future
and straightaway he said, “More Christmas carols!”. The arrangements
he made last year have proved very popular and have left pupils and teachers
wanting more. Paul has also written a piece for the First World Bass Clarinet
Convention in Rotterdam in October. It’s in twelve parts and an
open air performance is planned, weather permitting. Another project involves
the West Point Clarinet Quartet, and a piece for them to play at the 2006
ICA Clarinetfest is a distinct possibility.
As I was leaving, I mentioned to Paul that I was playing in My Fair Lady
that week, and I learnt that Paul had played in the original production
in 1960 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane which starred Julie Andrews and
Rex Harrison. The pay was a princely £19 per week and when it became
London’s longest running musical, champagne arrived from Alan J
Lerner with the message, “We have beaten Chu Chin Chow!”.
Inevitably with a long running show, boredom can be a problem and Paul
and Keith Deacon’s way of solving it was to swap shows with Ted
Planas and John Denman who were playing in The Sound of Music down the
road. After a few nights of that, they were glad to get back to My Fair
Lady.
The 70th Birthday Concert was a lovely idea and a huge success. The programme
was so varied and the playing first class, and it was not so much like
a formal concert than like spending an afternoon with friends. It is hoped
that a CD of the concert will be produced and be available for sale very
soon. I’m sure I overheard someone encouraging Paul to start planning
his 80th Birthday Concert!
Susan
Moss
Clarinet
& Saxophone Magazine (the official journal of the Clarinet & Saxophone
Society of Great Britain)
Bandroom
Jottings (£10) available from Paul Harvey 020 8898 4869
Saxopotamus from Reynard Music reynard@argonet.co.uk
All other music referred to in this article is available from Reedimensions
www.reedimensions.com
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