Posts made by barliman2001

@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.

JUST FOUND THIS: https://www.facebook.com/1419043114/videos/554059923071376/?idorvanity=297930707852474

@tptguy That is correct. Internationals were made until the introduction of the Sovereign in the early 1980s.

@tptguy The Besson International cornet models were the first instruments Besson made after the change in the Brass Band world from High Pitch to Low Pitch (i.e. normal concert pitch). They followed the dual pitch Imperial models and were the direct predecessors of the Round Stamp Sovereigns. At the time, they were Besson's (or B&Hs) top of the line. Even today, Internationals are sought after instruments, and some first-class players in the brass band world still stick to them despite Sovereigns and Prestiges. And I know why... in 1990, I fished one out of a Scottish band's bin (put there after what they thought was irreparable damage - the connection between first and second valve had a big hole from being gripped there too often), had it restored by Hermann Ganter, and I've been playing it ever since. Tried to find a more modern one to have a back-up in case the International had a fatal accident, spent a fortune on Yammies, Stomvi, new Sovereign and such... and finally, after re-selling all of those, ended up with a second International (which is now in the market because I found a 1955 Courtois at an Ukrainian dealer). A friend of mine played in the same brass band all his life, for an incredible 71 years, 55 of them as Principal Cornet. Every ten years or so, the band bought a new set of instruments and handed him a new and shiny Sovereign, which he duly held when the appropriate pictures were taken. And at the next rehearsal or gig, he played the old International... his best friend and former band mate, Phil McCann, did the same...

Every one is a natural. Otherwise they would be robots.

Joking apart - everyone is a natural, with a certain talent for something. It is never the same thing, and will still need very hard work to attain the dizzy heights of professionalism (be it as a professional or as an amateur). But it is a fact that you need to be born with the proper talents and anatomy for a certain thing, or you can put in all the hard work you can and still achieve nothing.

A naturally colour-blind person will probably never become a painter notable for vibrant colouring.

@rowuk To that list, I can add my Courtois cornet - built 1908, and still original springs. Or my 1929 Besson Imperial cornet - same... The only instrument I ever changed springs on was my 1995 Stomvi Elite cornet - but that came with two sets of different springs, and I exchanged the factory-mounted springs for the slightly softer exchange pair.