How the Concertgebouw launch a soloist

How the Concertgebouw launch a soloist

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norman lebrecht

February 11, 2017

McDonalds’ Maestro burgers campaign reminded one reader of how Amsterdam launched the Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst.

Comments

  • Alexander says:
    February 11, 2017 at 7:49 am

    what a wonderful ad 😉 ( I said ad , not lad 😉

    Reply
  • herrera says:
    February 11, 2017 at 5:51 pm

    I don’t get it.

    Is it poking fun at the Dutch? at the Swedes? at clarinet players? at clarinets? at Fröst? and who the heck is Dirk van Vleuten????

    Reply
    • John Borstlap says:
      February 11, 2017 at 6:34 pm

      It’s very dumb minds suffering from the idea that one has to ‘sell’ classical music news in the style of the usual TV commercial, so that the message comes across that classical music is fun.

      The problem with this approach is that people, being lured into this trap, will be very disappointed when they find-out that Mahler is not the same as Radio Head and they will never come back.

      Reply
      • herrera says:
        February 11, 2017 at 8:20 pm

        I guess I get it … Fröst is Swedish, IKEA is Swedish ….

        Interesting fact: IKEA is headquartered in the Netherlands.

        Hmm, a little free product placement for IKEA in an ad for the Concertgebouw.

        Is IKEA even a sponsor of the Concertgebouw?

        Reply
        • Bruce says:
          February 11, 2017 at 11:31 pm

          Ohhhhhh… IKEA.

          There isn’t one within a 5-hour drive of where I live and I’ve never been (or purchased anything from them), so the whole video made no sense to me. Thanks for explaining 🙂

          Reply
        • Robert Holmén says:
          February 12, 2017 at 1:59 am

          Where is the IKEA reference in that video?

          Reply
          • Bruce says:
            February 12, 2017 at 6:37 am

            I figured it was when he opened the case and his clarinet didn’t have any keys on it, and he started opening little plastic bags with little bits & pieces in them… and then when he tries to play and it doesn’t work 😛 (Never been there or bought anything, but I’ve heard about it)

            Not an actual advertisement, but that was what I gathered from Herrera

          • BRYAN says:
            February 12, 2017 at 11:29 am

            The IKEA reference is at time marker 0:57. The paper that says “KLÄRYNETT” is in the same design / house style as all the assembly instructions that ever come with any “built-it-yourself” IKEA purchase (lamps, shelves, etc.)

    • Bryan says:
      February 11, 2017 at 10:42 pm

      The man in the background says: “Dirk, we still need you out here.”
      So, Dirk (the fictional performer) panics and tries to put the clarinet together.
      When he fails, as is obvious from the 1st note he attempts, it says “Leave that up to the Swedes” (or “That’s best left to the Swedes”), in which case they pan over to the IKEA instructions.

      The ad is trying to make some statement that it’s best to leave solo clarinet performances up to the Swedes (in particular Swede Martin Fröst), which is a bit snooty IMO and dismissive of the talent that exists in Nederland. Consider how sterotypically insensitive it would be to air “Leave that up to the blacks” if they had some kind of jazz concerto on the program: Artie Shaw or Copland etc. Or “Leave that up to the Jews” for any kind of Klezmer work, a genre in which Fröst is currently starting to make waves from his Giora Feidman interpretations.

      Either way, it’s a terribly placed ad in the context of reality b/c any clarinetist with a brain should know that when it comes to clarinet assembly, you should really “Leave it up to the French” or “…the Germans”, considering the Wurlitzer hybrids are what they use in Nederland anyway.

      I do agree that it’s a bit funny though.

      Reply

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