As a clarinettist and bassoonist I can testify that this is hooey. I have played professionally on every size of clarinet from Ab piccolo to contrabass; it takes about 30 minutes to master any one of these if you play the regular clarinet well, and once you have mastered them you have the skill for life. Bassoon vs. contrabassoon is a bit more complex, since the fingering systems differ, but there too an hour or so of practice will give you a lifelong facility on the contra.
Would anyone put up with a sax or recorder player who said "sorry, my high professional standards require that I play only tenor"? I think not.
Well, I DO regularly deal with saxophonists who are specialists on one or two saxophones, and I HAVE called players who say "I only play alto" or more to the point "You won't like the results if you ask me to play soprano" and I appreciated the candour and called another. And every jazz arranger knows that since soprano and baritone are usually played by non-specialists, that range, projection, and tuning are issues, whereas they aren't if played by a specialist.
What this is really about is turf protection. The first desk player plays only one size not as a musically necessary requirement, but as a mark of status. I regard this as grotesquely unprofessional--maybe a cynic would say "grotesquely professional," I don't know.
Isn't it more about sticking to the instrument you know best? I play trombone (tenor and bass, and tuba, too) but I don't sound up to my best standards on a strange instrument, even if it is the same brand and with the same mouthpiece I usually use. Oh, I sound all right, but I wouldn't win any auditions on a new instrument for at least two or three months, I'm sure.
The local music store had two Bach tenor trombones with consecutive serial numbers. I bought one, a colleague bought the other. We found ourselves on the same gig a few months later and switched instruments just to see. We each were blown away by the difference, and couldn't seem to even get consistent tuning out of them. This may say more about the fabrication standards of Bach brass, but it illustrates the power of knowing one's instrument, too. Incidentally, we each preferred the one we owned!
I do know I wouldn't put up with it. "You won't play anything but timpani? Fine, the timp. in this piece will be played by one of the general percussionists. You won't play English horn? Fine, We'll play Haydn's 22nd without you."
But he will get paid anyway to stay home, according to most orchestra's agreements.
I deal most often with pickup orchestras, so I don't have to deal with the first chairs agreements. But I know that if I ask a first trumpet to pick up a piccolo trumpet, then I risk having him crack the delicate solo in the next number, so I put it on second trumpet (or third if I have one). The first player WILL do it if I ask him to, but as the saxophonist put it, "you won't like the results."
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