Shock death of Ernst Ottensamer

[Belle]

The death has just been announced of Ernst Ottensamer, Principal Clarinet from the Vienna Philharmonic. He suffered a heart attack at 62 years old. I'm terribly shocked and his musical family will be devastated, as will the entire Viennese musical world. This incredibly gifted, classy and handsome musician used to catch the same train home as myself after concerts at the Musikverein when I lived in Vienna in 2011 and I'll always carry a mental image of that. His wonderful son Andreas is Principal Clarinet in the Berlin Philharmonic and his other son Daniel plays in the Vienna Philharmonic. This is just dreadful news and I'm very upset about it.

http://slippedisc.com/2017/07/tragic-ne ... rt-attack/
Here he is in 1991 in Brahms #2, sitting up on the left in the clarinet section:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHmkl7GM_es

With Carlos now.

[Ted Quanrud]

My sympathies, Belle, and my thanks to you for providing this sad information. I am re-programming my radio show for tonight to include a recording by Ernst Ottensamer.

[John F]

Very sorry to hear that. It seems that the Philharmonic's principal clarinets do not live very long; the greatest of them, Leopold Wlach, died at 53. (Wlach's pupil and successor Alfred Prinz lived to retire at 65.)

His wonderful son Andreas is Principal Clarinet in the Berlin Philharmonic and his other son Daniel plays in the Vienna Philharmonic.

Keeping it in the family is not uncommon in that orchestra. Time was when the wind section was partly populated by Oehlbergers, related to Karl Oehlberger, principal bassoon for nearly 40 years.

Wlach and Oehlberger recorded Mozart's concertos for their instruments, both for Westminster with Artur Rodzinski conducting and Wlach previously for EMI conducted by Karajan. All are on YouTube and well worth hearing.

[Belle]

The comments appearing on "Slipped Disc" (link posted above) overnight are very moving. I'm dedicating my music appreciation lecture/presentatioin this Thursday ("The Theatre Music of Henry Purcell") to Ernst Ottensamer, in grateful thanks.

Ted, I'm glad you're going to program Ernst into your radio spot. Lovely to read your own and John's comments. And just I read on the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung that Ernst Ottensamer was, in fact, 61 years old.

[John F]

I read on the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung that Ernst Ottensamer was, in fact, 61 years old.

Well, there you are - you can't trust Slipped Disc, aka Norman Lebrecht, to get all the facts right.

[Belle]

I read on the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung that Ernst Ottensamer was, in fact, 61 years old.

Well, there you are - you can't trust Slipped Disc, aka Norman Lebrecht, to get all the facts right.

It is a pretty good site, though, for finding out what's happening in the musical world. Many well known musicians contribute comments. And the people who comment there often correct Norman's errors.

Here's Ernst with his two talented sons:

http://www.theclarinotts.com/files/clarinotts-home.jpg

[John F]

It is a pretty good site, though, for finding out what's happening in the musical world.

How good can it be, when Lebrecht has such a poor record for factual accuracy? He isn't just careless, he's been caught making up "facts" to suit his views - kind of like American politics nowadays. I'd rather get my news from sources I don't mistrust.

[Belle]

It is a pretty good site, though, for finding out what's happening in the musical world.

How good can it be, when Lebrecht has such a poor record for factual accuracy? He isn't just careless, he's been caught making up "facts" to suit his views - kind of like American politics nowadays. I'd rather get my news from sources I don't mistrust.

As I said, the comments section always irons out his inaccuracies and its easy enough to double-check what he says anyway. The comments he makes about the Wiener Philharmoniker are appalling enough to give the site a wide berth, but there is often very useful information amongst the trivia. I actually wrote an email to Lebrecht and asked him to explain some of his comments about Carlos Kleiber and he behaved like a petulant child stamping a foot..."you take that back right away!" he said.

I would not have learned about Ernst Ottensamer without Slipped Disc.

[John F]

There are other, more reliable sources for that kind of information, in this case the Vienna Phliharmonic's own web site.

http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/en

And of course there are the Viennese newspapers, for those interested in keeping up with the Viennese musical scene. The American correspondent for Der Standard was once a member of the CompuServe Music Forum, to which some of us belong, and the Viennaphiles among us got to know what was going on there pretty well.

http://derstandard.at/2000061671676/Kla ... verstorben

Another source of news about the arts generally is Arts Journal, where I found the story about the lost and found Holst scores which I posted in another thread.

http://www.artsjournal.com/

It depends on where you choose to look. For me, reading Slipped Disc for news about music is like viewing Fox News for news about American politics. They just can't be trusted.

[Belle]

It's an easy one-stop-shop for me, that's all. And the comments usually reveal the facts if these are MIA! Some of the comments themselves can actually be appalling, but that's the internet for you - but these types of behaviours are mostly in the minority anyway. Thanks for the heads up on those other sites.

That article in Der Standard was lifted almost entirely from another source anyway!! And it appears other media outlets also rely on "Slipped Disc" for their information:

http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/new ... r-has-died

[Belle]

Here's Ernst Ottensamer playing Mozart. Somebody has put this up as a tribute from a concert he did in Moldova. It's just terrible that he's gone!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59EwS9i82zg

I sent a sympathy message to his son Daniel Ottensamer and just received a lovely email in acknowledgment.

[maestrob]

That was lovely, Belle, thank-you. Condolences.

For those who are interested, here's a recording with Ottensamer and his two sons:



He also recorded clarinet concerti with Colin Davis: