Posts made by barliman2001

As a few people here already know, Vienna now has a proper British brass band, under the name of Pfadfinderfanfare Wien (Scouts' Band Vienna), and I've been honoured with the flugelhorn position. So far, I've been using my own Courtois 154R flugel, but last rehearsal, the conductor approached me and told me that the band had several world-class flugels lying around and he would like me to use one of theirs... I agreed - no problem with playing a good flugel and thus aving playing time on my own.
Yesterday was The Day. He brought along what he described as "the best flugel the band has, and one of the best flugels ever made."
I was expecting something really, really special... what be brought out was an old and slightly decrepit Bach Strad 135... serial number 423 xxx, dating it into 1994.
Following orders, I played the first two pieces on this, ... until the conductor exclaimed, "Your own flugel is obviously much better than this, and you certainly know how to get the best out of it... I'll take back the Bach."
Inviting comments.

@trumpetb Blame that dance prohibition on the radical Killjoys... after prohibition failed, that was their new method of getting back to what they call "Christian morals". Dance was seen - and some still do today - as the direct road to hell, as were innocent things like milk bars - in fact anything that might give pleasure to people. As one wit once said,
"The English Puritans banned bear-baiting not because of distress to the bear, but because of the pleasure of the spectators."

@dale-proctor So we can conclude that wet is always preferable to dry - a sentiment shared by glasses of whisky.

@kehaulani It does not show anything of that; only that they did not have the same kind of access to up to date instruments, and, older instruments usually being narrower bores than later ones, the sound may have sharpened and thus given an edge to the playing. As to the surviving of older instruments... most instruments of the Leningrad Philharmonic were kept in the Philharmonic Building as they were not the private property of the musicians, but owned by the orchestra, rules about private property being what they were at the time. Musicians were not supposed to practice at home, many even before the war living in shared apartments (one three-bedroom apartment shared between three or even four families), a condition that became even more crowded as war destruction worsened. Professional musicians were expected to practice in the orchestra building - the Leningrad Philharmonia housing both the Leningrad Philhrmonic Orchestra and the Academic Symphonic Orchestra of the Leningrad Philharmonia - which suffered heavy damage from German bombing resulting in the loss of many older instruments and part of the sheet music archive.

@trumpetb No one so far has mentioned current politics; as far as my knowledge of the Ukrainian music scene goes - and it is pretty good, seeing that I am in daily contact with quite a number of professional and non-professional musicians in Ukraine - the actual instruments they are using are from pretty decent to absolutely stunning. The days of the old Soviet bloc instruments are gone. Their main problem nowadays:
a) many musicians have volunteered for the armed forces, territorial defence or emergency services
b) frequent interruptions of rehearsals
c) unavailability of venues due to either destruction or repurposing (Lviv Philharmony was converted into a storage for medical supplies).

Still, they continue playing wherever and however they can.

Example: A video of a concert played yesterday in Lviv by drummer Dmitrij Myloslavsky and his band. https://www.facebook.com/dmitriy.myloslavsky/videos/655678329587434

@kehaulani Well, I only know that almost every Soviet bloc brass player went to extraordinary exertions to somehow get his hands on Western instruments... and Courtois and Selmer made a high percentage of their sales into the Eastern hemisphere, France being a NATO member but having opted out of the integrated command system. Many Soviet bloc leaders drove French cars on any occasion they were not compelled to use Russian or East German vehicles.
My last regular trumpet teacher - solo trumpet in the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan - made a pretty penny out of regularly being asked to sub in East Berlin... he brought a brand-new Bach Strad every time, and returned with some old, played out Soviet hooter and a car load of vodka and other Eastern goodies...

@seth-of-lagos Mravinsky certainly let the brass do their thing , as you said, "on the ragged edge"; but that ragged edge was most probably sharpened by the instruments they had at their disposal... look at the year the recording was made: 1953. Stalin was probably still alive during much of the recording process, the Cold War was in full swing, trade relations between East and West were almost inexistent and "the Leningrad Factory" - one of only three places in the Soviet Union where brass instruments were made - still lay in ruins, only being rebuilt and back into business some years later. They probably had to do their best on - if lucky - very old instruments, or - if not - on some student grade horns slapped together somehow; and it is known that some of these musicians were reduced to building their own horns out of any materials they could find. One tuba is known to have had engine springs from a military truck as valve springs, being made out of the brass of spent shell casings...
As the joke went...
What is the difference between a Capitalist and a Socialist violin player? -
The Capitalist has an old violin and a new car, withn the Socialist it is the other way round.

Ok, the tone of the discussion is getting more and more acid. I am closing this thread before bad language and undesirable arguments creep in.

As all the possible arguments have been mentioned, and before the discussion grows heated, can we agree to disagree and close this thread? Please give your opinion in ONE WORD ONLY.

@stv13402 Well, you would be missing out on some of the best Handel solos... some of them are already difficult to manage on the A four-valve picc, which is why by this time, most of my picc work (the Baroque stuff) will end up on my G picc - so much easier to play, and that extra tone to the lower end will help you indeed. And most G piccs have slightly bigger bells and are less finicky in tone quality. At least that's my experience after a series of Bb/A piccs (two Selmers, a Besson, a Stomvi, a Courtois, a Roland Meinl, a Scherzer, a Votruba and now, as a backup, the ACB Doubler - I can't stand Schilke in any form) a Bach Strad high-F (which was bloody useless and in my collection only to complete the alphabet) and a couple of high-Gs (Stomvi, Scherzer, and now an old Selmer from the estate of Maurice André).
That is my experience. And now you're free to do whatever you like.

@kehaulani Did you mean the federal prison?

They should just have taken the existing Astronauts' March.

@administrator The soloist, even though obviously classically trained, manages the utmost pathos without singing one really recognizable note...

@trumpetb Preparation is everything - not only for yourself, but for the whole orchestra. Which is why I'm always bringing at least one spare music stand and light, a couple of handfuls of pegs and a small sandbag or two (for weighing down unsafe music stands; my own are safe even in a small hurricane), and my gig bag always contains one 15-tool Swiss army knife, a small multitool, a mouthpiece puller and four or five pencils and rubbers... the knife, amongst other bits, sports a metal saw which we once needed to cut off a padlock that had been put on a Bb bass by a mischievous bystander and which was clattering horribly...

@trumpetb I do understand your point, and I am somewhat of your persuasion... I have one very special Besson International cornet that nothing seems to top... so, in fear of it going over the rainbow bridge or being stolen or whatever, I looked for a cornet that might be a backup... and, after many years of searching, found another Besson International... whenever I am travelling to a distant location, I carry the trumpet(s) I want to use; but in good time, I always post a spare instrument (usually my second Antoine Courtois Balanced) to a secure location or recipient...

@trumpetb A to borrowing instruments... Ron Romm tells a story that once en route to the Soviet Union, the cases containing some of the instruments got lost in transit and did not reappear for several weeks, including all of Fred Mills' instruments and mouthpieces, and poor Fred had to play the whole tour through the Soviet Union on instruments and mouthpieces borrowed locally...

Wife in front of the mirror, "I've got a big belly, my breasts sag, cellulite on my legs---Hubbykins, say something nice!" - "You've got perfect eyesight, my dear."

@newell-post He's probably poisoning pigeons in the park...

@tptguy Besson did nothing topper than the Internationals at that time.