Notes from a Recital

The recital this year will be one that stands out for a long time for me for a number of reasons.

One is it is the recital where I played on the most different horns ever. I posted a series of articles on this topic (starting here) but in short I played on ultimately 4 instruments, one of them set up two ways, with and without a valve section. In this photo taken at the sound check at the MIM (bigger view here) I am playing on the convertible Seraphinoff natural horn as a valved horn, and in the video at the end of this article I am playing on it as a natural horn. (More on this instrument here).

Speaking of the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum), this was my first recital ever where the audience was packed! All 299 seats were in fact full fifteen minutes before the recital and literally hundreds were turned away. That was exciting! Then I repeated almost the same program at Arizona State University four days later, played it a bit better but for an audience that was probably the smallest I have ever had at a faculty recital I have given. Some of the local “regulars” probably went to the MIM concert and there was a conflict with a brass band concert for others, but the low number of brass students at ASU that attended outside of the horn studio was in particular disappointing.

Before checking out the video at the end of this article check out this audio clip:

Schumann: Dedication

It is the Schumann Dedication (the opening work) performed on the ASU recital. It reflects actually some pretty big changes in my playing, including a major change of style of horn and an “effort” (if that is the correct term) to aim for a more relaxed approach, driven in part by the way I needed to tongue on natural horn for the best articulations. Also the horn used on the outer works on the recital, a vintage Hoyer (described here, at end of article) is pretty different that what I have been playing for the past fifteen years. I find now at the end of the process of preparing the recital that this horn is definitely easier to play but had been sitting in my office for most of the time I have been on the faculty at ASU. I am very much at a crossroads in terms of equipment. Again, check out the clip above, it has a sweet tone and is the direction I am heading.

I also have for those curious a short video from the sound check at the MIM. It does not have great video quality or sound but will give readers an idea of how I sounded on another horn, the natural horn. I hope to play it more in the coming months; for sure I played more accurately on the modern horn due to the effort to hone accuracy and tonguing on the natural horn.

With that I close the books on recital 2010 and look to the future. I expect I will stick with the changes I made and it is exciting to see new directions to explore in horn playing.