oboe oh no

[calimac]

But the most moving and disturbing news of the weekend was the collapse of San Francisco Symphony principal oboeist William Bennett from a stroke during a concert, and while playing the solo part of Richard Strauss's oboe concerto, yet. This article from the Mercury News reads a little more full than the SF Chronicle's, except that the latter says it took 20 minutes for the paramedics to arrive. That seems awfully long in the circumstances and considering the location. Time is everything in a stroke.

Whether Bennett will recover remains to be seen. But the incident itself, besides raising concern for his health, and for being a horrible embarrassment, is a musical tragedy, because Bennett is one of SFS's finest players. I would name three in the current lineup whom I've heard perform particularly outstanding in-orchestra solos, and Bennett is one. (The others are principal flutist Tim Day and associate principal horn Nicole Cash.) If he must depart, it would be a major loss.

(One point about the Merc article, where it tells you that a concerto is "a virtuoso piece where the soloist stands alone in front of the orchestra." I'm amused that it was thought necessary to explain this.)

Comments

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Re the 20 minutes: Who knows where they got that figure from. It might have been just an estimate, incorrect even, from a random person. You know, newspapers, quality reporting and all that. Though what I think is more likely is that the paramedics probably arrived fairly quickly, but it was 20 minutes before they took him away.

How awful, in any case!

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

I have a report saying that the 20 minute business is wrong - friend of Patty Mitchell's was in the hall and texted her as soon as Bennett collapsed - and another report that his wife, who is an MD, got to him almost immediately after he collapsed.

The Daily Mail's report had Bennett falling off his chair, so, sadly, for some that definition is necessary.

Agree about his great playing. I have heard unbelievable playing in the last year or so from principal horn Robert Ward and principal trumpet Mark Inouye as well as from Cash, Day, and Bennett. Cary Bell is also great.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, they're good all too. The horn section as a whole is particularly outstanding, and the winds together have done some brilliant work. Inouye is very good; it's not fair to him that I still miss Glenn Fischthal. (Not his fault either: as a matter that's recently attracted your attention demonstrates, it's a wise player who knows when to retire.) Bell, for some reason, has just not had the opportunity to really wow me with solos. And let us not forget Catherine Payne, who impresses me more as a technician than with her artistry, though, again, not that the latter isn't excellent.

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

I don't remember Fischthal's playing to speak of; he stepped down from first chair around when I started attending regularly and certainly before I started paying a lot of attention to the solo wind chairs. The greatest Inouye moment of the last couple of years was in Mahler 3, if I'm remembering this correctly; if not, Mahler 2. The one with the long posthorn solo. So it's likely you missed it.

The entire brass section was incredible in the Janacek Sinfonietta, but it was programmed with Debussy, so, again....

Bell's solo concerto was the Mozart, which, you know, great piece, but not what I'd most want to hear him in because I've heard it so often I just go on autopilot. One or two of my killer memories of him are from his time across the street. The overture to La forza de delstino has a fantastic clarinet solo and, well, he killed me when they performed it in 2005.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Oh, I heard it all right. I hated it. Though I did acknowledge Inouye's brilliance in the solo, albeit not by name.

I don't hate Debussy enough to keep me from a concert with other stuff I like. Only overblown Richard Strauss tone poems are likely to do that. That Janacek performance you praised just was not on my series, and I didn't make a point of getting it as an extra because I'd heard SFS give an antiphonal performance of the Sinfonietta some years ago, and the memory of that wonderful event contents me.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am sorry for that poor man.