Christopher Earnest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Not long ago I got the CD "The
Art of the Vienna Horn" featuring Wolfgang Tomböck, first horn in the Vienna
Philharmonic. It is a truly wonderful recording, showing how beautiful the
sound of a single F Vienna horn can be, and Tomböck is a great horn player and
musician.
I particularly admired his performance of Auf dem Strom, which is much more
relaxed sounding than usual. In fact, in his program notes (as translated) he
even writes "We have never understood why Auf dem Strom is always interpreted
so hysterically". His performance certainly makes it sound easy and peaceful,
and the higher notes sound so relaxed that it almost sounds like he is playing
a half step lower than written. In fact he is!!! He plays it in Eb rather than
E!! This does give the piece a whole different flavor, which may have been his
intent. But perhaps the intensity (or hysteria, as he calls it) of other
performances comes at least partly from the higher key.
I assume he did this at the request of the singer. The lower key does make the
horn part easier, for both endurance and fingerings, but surely that can't be
a problem for someone of his caliber. But whatever the reason, shouldn't the
change have been mentioned in the program notes?
Chris Earnest
Listers,
This leads to something I've wondered about for some time ... is it
acceptable practice to perform a piece in a key other than the original?
Singers have done this all the time, and on Prof. Pizka's web site, there is
an edition of Auf dem Strom available in 3 or 4 different keys. But, I have a
copy of the Weber Concertino for horn in Eb (ed. by John Cerminaro), and a
copy of Mozart 1 transposed into Eb by Lorenzo Sansone (solo part is horn in
F). The fingerings are easier, but would any horn teacher allow a student to
perform Mozart 1 in Eb instead of D?
Just wondering ...
Bill
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