Posted by jeff miller on June 23, 2003 at 12:32:43:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: use of F tubas in Europe posted by Rick Denney on June 17, 2003 at 11:08:54:
Hi,
Of course.
I should have made it clearer that my previous post was actually divided into 2 parts; the first explaining the difference between the modern approach of playing tuba as a person's primary instrument, as opposed to it being a double. This could explain most or all of the things you mention regarding Catelinet's performance.
The second point, I think, still holds, even if the Catelinet VW recording isn't the best example (I haven't heard it, but have no difficulty believing your reviews).
Now, an elaboration on section two:
I have thought for a long time now that many people use a cookie-cutter mentality to decide whether or not a player or ensemble is any good. I think this is particularly common in, but not limited to, students.
In figuring out whether chimps, dolphins, and computers are intelligent, scientists will engage the subject in conversation. However, they have a difficult task determining whether the test subjects are actually understanding the conversations, or are just responding to stimuli by reiteration of sounds and gestures that they have learned through association. I believe many people affect a developed personal concept of good and bad performance by this means, when in fact they aren't really listening and deciding for themselves what is good or bad.
A couple of examples:
When I was a student in NYC, everybody wanted an Edwards trombone. So, when a visiting orchestra came to town, if they weren't using Edwards, the buzz in the student post-mortem the following day would be that the trombone section had a light sound, or wasn't powerful enough, weren't good enough to handle Edwards horns, etc. I know from experience that most of the time, people weren't really listening, thinking, and judging. They were tending to look and judge, or occasionally listen and judge without the thinking part.
I was very priviledged to hear the Berlin Phil play Mahler 5 at Carnegie once. The principal trumpet did an extremely impressive job of splitting the ascending minor arpeggio all over the back wall of the hall; the last note sounded almost like a shake. The orchestra rallied behind him, and played with exceptional ensemble for the rest of the gig.
The next day, every trumpet player I talked to was going on about how horrible the orchestra sounded as a whole. However, the string players and wind players I talked to commented on what a great concert it was, and how musical the orchestra sounded. Personally, I agreed with the string players.
The trombonists didn't like because they weren't using Edwards instruments.
(The last line is a joke, but was probably true...)
As I said, just a couple of thoughts to whomever is interested enough to read them.
Jeff