We saw Professor Schickele twice at Boston Symphony Hall in the 1980s-90s. He made his entrance by descending by a knotted rope from the first balcony on to the stage. It was quite memorable--and a bit unsettling. The second time we saw him, he was "late" and made his entrance by running down the aisle and sliding across the stage in belly-flop fashion. The audience and orchestra were convulsed with laughter for several minutes. Professor Shickele was a comedic genius and an accomplished musician of the highest order! May he rest in peace, surrounded by music and God's laughter.
This performance was from (I believe) 1994. What many don't know is that Schickele is (or could be, if he desired) a serious musician. He earned a Masters degree in composition from Juilliard in 1960.
Nobody who listened to Professor Schickele's radio show could have been at all surprised by that "dead C scrolls" bit. This is the man who told us of novelist Emile Zola's ugly sister, nicknamed "Gorgon", for whom an ocarina-like instrument called the "gorgonzola" was named. He explained the invention of the piccolo by having Italian peasants cook flutes in boiling oil at the seaside until they shrunk to half their original size, a custom known today as the "Mediterranean flute fry".
dadoctah, regarding the Gorgons,, notice the pun in the last line of this poem by Ogden Nash: rowrrbazzle.blogspot.com/2015/01/medusa-and-mot-juste-by-ogden-nash-once.html
Check out the two humorless babes @ 6:08 just sitting there w/o cracking a hint of a smile. Bet they're fun to hang around with. Fun like a root canal! Sheesh!
Schickele's best joke is a rather lengthy one about a 'cello audition and "La Nozze di Figaro." Too long to relate here, so here's some short ones of his: Q: Why is a viola recital like a murder investigation? A: Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the case is closed. Q: What is the difference between a viola and a trampoline? A: You can take your shoes off before jumping up and down on a trampoline.
Have you heard the one about the viola player who left their viola in the back seat of their car and forgot to lock the door? As soon as they realized, they ran back, but it was already too late: someone had left them a second viola.
I was expecting the G-string joke, myself. I'm pretty sure the Dead Sea Scrolls joke is also on the Wurst album, if I recall correctly. Quite fun, though!
Actually it's possible to have a violin part that never ventures down to middle C or below, though I imagine most solo violin parts do use the bottom half-octave. Flutes almost never play that low, and soprano and alto recorders are incapable of reaching middle C!
No such luck. They reran most of the series about four times before taking it off the air altogether. You can't get recordings of it because of the rights to all the individual things he played.
Peter Dillydally Quagmire couldn't have seen it, but did you?! Arguably, Itzhak Perlman's shortest, most idiosyncratic and most forgettable performance. 5:04 Blink, and you cat-gut it.
It's not really that funny for someone who won 4 consecutive Grammy awards for best comedy album sandwiched between George Carlin and Robin Williams. How was he considered so funny 4 years in a row and nothing online that can account for it?
