Jonathan, you are absolutely right. Today´s young & less young players are much better prepared - technically - than we were or are, but they miss the music all too often or completely. Everything needs to be "set up", nothing from the heart, nothing naturally (with few exceptions, by far not enough exceptions !).
Well, I agree, the "Emperor Concerto" is a real challenge, but a good first horn must have a perfectr secure high c & be able to enter with it in an ideal way & hold it a few measures, nearly being able to guarantee these entrances. If he or she fails it one out of ten times, well, this must be regarded as accident not more. Watch some so called famous gurus of the baton, how they spoil the performances, how they make their accidents - and we bring them back to safe haven ...... Shows how stupid & noble we are the same time. Regarding musicality in these delicate part of the musical panorama (Mozart & Haydn & around): I miss the feeling of joy, I miss the champagne feeling Mozart is so famous for, I miss the absolutism of Haydn, the lighness, the "light of the sun" with them, also Mozarts serenity & solemnity. Most pieces are executed in a most SELFISH way today and too many horn player avoid any kind of "musical risk", they even do not understand what is meant. If you hold a masterclass & tell the one particular young player "do not rush, keep more time for the sixteenths here, think playing it with a violin, think up-bow-wise", they first seem not to understand what we are telling them, but the next candidate playing the same piece & movement seems not having listened to the teaching we gave just the other candidate. Is their brain not able any more to concentrate ? Are they so much spoiled from the acoustical environment ? Do they have so much disorder in their brain ? If you tell them, (Strauss 1) take care that the first octave be a real clean octave, they do it once, but the next octave jump is the same disaster. Do not shift the triplets but play them musically results in an accordion-like strudel, as if we have not given any advise. But they can play fast things & double- & triple-tongue ... But if you tell them to make the upbeat for a typical Wagner motive with a separated sixteenth or eighth at the upbeat to express the musical sense, they do not understand, or they play a Mozart concerto (first mov.) like a long "wurst" (sausage) without any articulation, but have a collection of recordings at home ...... That is our problem, a BIG PROBLEM, an illness WORLDWIDE. ============================================================ ================================================ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jonathan West Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2007 9:13 PM To: The Horn List Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Mozart Sinfonia no.29 in A On 19/08/07, hans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What is so difficult with this symphony ? I have received several > stories about it, that it is feared very much & horn players are just > happy when the horns are back in their case. Yes, off course, it is a > difficult piece, IF PLAYED ON THE REGULAR BIG HORNS. But this symphony > - I nicknamed it "THE UNAVOIDABLE" - is a standard for every > professional chamber orchestra, which required a very light sound from > the horns. Surely much the same can be said about the horn parts for most Mozart works? In fact, I wouldn't rate the 29th symphony as the most difficult of Mozart's orchestral works. It certainly has its challenges, and the held high Gs for horn in A have to be approached with delicacy. But there are other Mozart works I think are tougher for the horns, for instance the Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat, which has a number of very exposed sustained high Gs for horn in B flat alto. > To day we have the right instruments to produce this very special > silvery sound: the single high-F horn. I accept that the single descant F horn can make it much easier to play such pieces with the lightness of touch that is necessary, but it seems to me that the musicality with which you approach the piece is more important than the instrument you use. Regards Jonathan West _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/hans%40pizka. de _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
