Posted by Rick Denney on June 17, 2003 at 22:56:39:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Who's Copying Whom? (Long) posted by Chuck(G)/WTH on June 17, 2003 at 09:35:37:
It seems to me any answer one gives will be interpreted as an attack. If talking about the quality of the York and its copies is creating a cult or putting an instrument on an altar, then it is only so because the man behind the instrument is already on that altar and there's no more room.
But even the great among us can make mistakes. The accounts I've read suggest that he wanted to play it on the instrument Vaughan Williams would have known. If so, then I think historical considerations superseded musical considerations, and that seems to me like an error, though perhaps I'm wrong there. But you ask if it was "awful" as if that is subject to question. The Jacobs recording is far superior to the Catelinet recording, but noticeably inferior to Jacobs's own recordings using other instruments (including the York), and noticeably inferior to the recordings of Fletcher and Lind (both of whom are arguably as much masters and Jacobs, and both of whom played it on their daily axes). The result speaks for itself.
I have played for a few minutes on an instrument quite similar to the one Jacobs used (owned by Jay Rozen, who could play it pretty darn well, but who now apparently uses a Yamaha 621), and it sounded airy and unfocused for me, too. Of course, everything sounds airy and unfocused for me, especially years ago when I played it, heh, heh. This one, though, was moreso than my other tubas, especially my Yamaha which is nearly as small. I think it demands a very particular approach, if it will work at all. The same could be said for the Alex in the lower register. Perhaps achieving that approach takes longer than Jacobs was willing or able to invest. I don't believe saying so shows any sign of disrespect.
Rick "who has heard far worse renditions of the RVW on far better instruments" Denney