Osborne Rhapsody

Rhapsody for solo clarinet by Willson Osborne

Peggy Friedmann-Gordon Music Competition Winners' Recital

Joel Weszka (18), clarinet - 3rd Place
Harold J. Kaplan Concert Hall
Center for the Arts
Towson University
08 November 2007

Category:

Music

Tags:

• willson
• osborne
• rhapsody
• clarinet
• solo
• joel
• weszka
• towson
• university
• peggy
• friedmann
• gordon
• music
• competition

[everythingever]

very, very nice! :) as overlord said, very musical. nice job of taking your time and VERY GOOD tone.

[overlord1294]

Very musical ! Love it

[hellokittykilla]

I played this song my 10th grade year and got a superior, went to state solo and ensemble and a solo because of this. I think this is one of my favorite solos i have played for clarinet so far.

[Clarinetyo]

Thank you for posting! I am a freshman playing this at state solo and ensemble, and your video was very helpful. Your tone is very nice, and your interpretation is great. What's best is how you take time, albeit some sections on the last page could be a little faster. You present it very well.

[AkEb0n0]

@costasimpson it's possible! I played this piece in junior high as well.

[CasperShorts]

I have to agree with all the positive musicality/ tone comments. I especially liked the smoothness of your switching between notes, if that makes sense; changes were fluid and unobtrusive. I'd say that some of your longer value notes could have been held longer and were in some places somewhat disturbing to my enjoyment of the piece, but this could be because I have the music in front of me. Altogether great performance, though!

[drfarrin]

@costasimpson

Mt apologies, I didn't know you were English (or at least living around/about the UK) so I'm not sure how your ranking system works. From what I've gleamed off of Wiki it seem grade 7 is very capable of playing this piece (depending on if this is a school or university performance).

Texas has 3 ranks we normally use for solos, grade 3 the easiest to grade 1 the hardest.

I recommend you master the arpeggiated runs of 8th notes. That's where anyone is most likely to mess up

[costasimpson]

@drfarrin

Not a 7th Grader. Grade 7 ABRSM?

[drfarrin]

@hypernanotechnology this is more difficult on a level of pure virtuosity. You generate your own time and its completely up to you determine your rhythm speed. the fantasy pieces can be more challenging if you're doing the entire thing. Fantasy pieces demand you have excellent control of your range. In the exas grading system the 1st mvt of the fantasy pieces would be a class 2 (med. hard) and the osborne would be a class 1 (very hard)

[drfarrin]

@costasimpson sorry costa, this is very beyond a 7th grader. This will even be a challenge for junior and senior high school students

[hypernanotechnology]

darn. This is my solo for solo/ensemble, and I've been playing for slightly less than three years. Had a steep learning curve, though, and I ended up lead clarinet for Wind Ensemble, so I hope I can handle it...

Do you know how this compares in difficulty to Schumann's Fantasy Pieces?