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American hornist and pedagogue Nicholas Smith was able to briefly study in 1977 with Roland Berger (b. 1937), longtime solo hornist of the Vienna Philharmonic, with a focus on correct interpretation of orchestral excerpts. Smith has converted his lesson notes into what we are able to present now as a series of nine articles for Horn Matters readers.
To begin the series, Smith sets up his personal road that brought him to Vienna for lessons with Berger. In subsequent installments, the focus will be on the excerpts he studied with Berger, the Vienna horn, and the impact this study had on his career.
THE VIENNA HORN,
Studying with a Master of the Instrument
By Nicholas Smith
Last Fall (2019) Eldon Matlick, the long-time Professor of Horn at the University of Oklahoma, sent a request to the members of the International Horn Society to announce that he was interested in forming an American branch of the Vienna Horn Society. In the replies he got was one from Scott Bacon who owns Siegfried’s Call which sells a wide range of new and used horns. Scott mentioned that he had a good Yamaha Model 601 Vienna Horn for sale. The price was reasonable so I bought it remembering how good the Yamaha horns were when I tried them at conferences back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I had also played on several of the horns made by independent makers in Vienna which gave me a real comparison. Most of them were very tight and had a lot of resistance (back pressure) which was unlike the Yamaha horns and one other incredible instrument owned by Roland Berger, the famed first horn of the Vienna Philharmonic.
From the time I first heard Berger’s playing and his incredible rendition of Siegfried’s “Long Call” I had hoped to be able to study with him even though I had no idea if he took “outside” students. The opportunity came during the summer of 1977 when our Lieurance Woodwind Quintet was in residence at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. I thought I could somehow make it to Salzburg from Graz on the train and so I wrote Professor Berger in care of the Vienna Philharmonic. I was prepared for rejection or no correspondence at all but received a really nice reply from one of the Philharmonic staff that he would be willing to take me during the summer. I was to meet him at the stage door of the Salzburg Festspielhaus where we had the lessons on stage where the horn section sat. While I had seen a few pictures of Berger, in real life he was a rather imposing figure. First, he was a big man by Austrian standards at over 6 feet in height and probably weighed over 200 lbs. At that time he had a short-cropped black beard, longish swept back hair, and was wearing a black leather flite (or motorcycle) type short jacket. He mentioned that he had just finished a football game and he was definitely in great physical shape (always a big help in playing the horn!) We both sat down and made a little “small talk” (his English was quite good) as I pulled my horn out of its case and put my mouthpiece in the receiver.
The first thing he did was look at my horn (Conn 8D) which actually drew no response from him. I asked him what he would like for me to play for him. He replied that he was most comfortable working on orchestral excerpts since that was what he had been working on his whole professional career. During the six hours total that I spent with him, he never wanted to work on any solos and especially no etudes. I did ask him what etudes he had studied and he mentioned the Karl Stiegler studies but seemed uninterested in showing me what they were about.
The series will be posted here on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule. Part II will continue with Till Eulenspiegel.
