Western Europe Group

And one more clip of the weird and rare...

We are getting more and more modern... I present to you the

VALVE OPHICLEIDE!!

With Vienna Valves...

There's something new in the neighbourhood...

And the illegitimate love-child of the Serpent was the Ophicleide...

Was it a good deal?

A case is the least of your worries…

@Dennis-Anthony-Ferry I've been trying to learn that since I started playing in 1988... never worked for me...

@robertwerntz Alphorns can be dismantled into small pieces!

Hi all,

in a few weeks - departing Munich on 25 April - I am to play 2nd trumpet in Brahms' Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, in the Teatro Salvatore Cicero in the lovely town of Cefalu in Sicily. Now, the part is written for trumpet in D - originally for those big low D trumpets then in use. Last Brahms I played - 2nd Symphony - was written in D as well, and it worked quite well with my Courtois Roger Delmotte Then, it was no problem - I drove to Sicily with my own car and had enough luggage space. This time, I am going there by train, and luggage space is extremely limited. Last year in Cefalu, I carried three instruments... this year, I can at most manage two, and only one would be a bonus... the other pieces of the programme (Wood Notes by William Grant Still and 2nd Symphony by Kurt Weill) only require a Bb, but need lots of mutes... so if anyone here has the Brahms in a Bb transposition, I would be very appreciative indeed!

I do not think that I have missed anything. It is a simple fact that our lives are far more public than we realise and that brings a bunch of opportunities - good and bad.
As far as someone "secretly" recording me and publishing, that would only be a (solvable) problem if my name or picture were attached somehow. Especially in Germany, there are very fast venues to take care of situations like this.

That being said, my practice sessions are generally purposeful and I think for the most part it is audibly very clear what I am working towards. I almost never "noodle around". This means if a recording was made without a picture or video of me or my name, I probably would not care. The chance of someone "stealing" my practice work and making money with it is so unlikely, I have never given it any thought.

The idea of a private detective digging dirt up about trumpet practice sessions reminds me of Guy Noir of "a Prairie Home Companion" fame. Garrison Keillor is my hero!