Harnoncourt

[jayne lee wilson]

He needs to get his 'facts right' about the Chicago ( and other USA symphony orchestras) and their brass sections.
It is NOT correct to say that those brass sections use 'shorter tubes' or 'shorter instruments' ( compared to the Viennese orchestras).
The horn sections of the CSO, NYPO and Cleveland Orchestra have for at least the last 50 years have used double horns in F and B flat. In the USA there has always ( for those 50 years) been an emphasis on using the F horn ( 12 feet long) as the 'basic' instrument, using the shorter Bb 'side' only for the high octave and a half.

Ironically the VPO and VSO horns in the 1950s-1960s when required to do anything remotely 'difficult' have always resorted to the 'short' ( 6 foot) F horn for greater accuracy, e.g. the legendary Gottfried von Freiberg playing Mendelssohn's 'Nocturne', or the (Decca) Vienna Octet's recording of the Spohr octet, whose 1st horn Josef Veleba used a Vienna horn crooked in A ( shorter tube) rather than the 13 foot E horn specified by the composer.
Today's superb horn players of the VPO play anything and everything on their Vienna horns crooked in ( 'long', 12 feet) F!

Fascinating, WH... is this why, at least historically, CSO and other American orchestras (but especially Chicago) seemed to have a more prominent, more "brilliant" brass sound?

[bluestateprommer]

What exactly did he report Klemperer saying about Szell? I couldn't catch it despite repeated listening.

For VC, the line about Szell is this, the key part sotto voce at 12:03 in iPlayer:

"What Szell did in America, and what he tried to do with us, was, for me, he didn't know anything about music. So, and a man like Klemperer, he said, 'Szell....forget him'. But he was a kind of a god then."

Interestingly, Robin Holloway has dismissed Harnoncourt as unmusical, in the context of the Telefunken set of the complete Bach cantatas. But getting back to this interview, for jlw, regarding Chicago and American orchestras on the prominence of brass, in the case of Chicago, just from my post-Solti experiences of concerts there, Orchestra Hall, at least from the balcony, has traditionally been a weak hall for string sound. I've never heard the CSO in any other hall besides Orchestra Hall, which makes me wonder how they'd sound in a venue like Carnegie. Plus, since the brass are usually on risers, the already strong and loud prominence of the brass, by their acoustic nature, is projected the more strongly. I've seen Haitink put the brass, except for the very back desks, all at stage level without risers, perhaps in an attempt to mitigate this sound.

BTW, for those who want to express their appreciation about this interview via Facebook, there's an entry on the BBC Radio 3 page (or BBCRadio3, to find it) about this program, and you can "like" the entry and comment positively (hint, hint).

This was indeed an excellent interview and chance to hear the great man speak. Sadly, I don't think the chance will ever come my way again to hear him live, as the only time I've ever seen him conduct live was in Vienna back in 1999, with the Concentus musicus Wien. I don't see him crossing the pond again with a touring orchestra, unless he comes to NYC, so I'd have to cross over to hear him again live if I want to.

[jayne lee wilson]

I think the brassiest - and the most splendid - I've ever heard them sound, is when recorded in the lamented Medinah Temple - especially the 1972 Barenboim recording of Bruckner 4...
And I wonder if their string sound was ever, really, their strongest suit...? Conductor-dependent, of course.

[John Skelton]

Robin Holloway has dismissed Harnoncourt as unmusical, in the context of the Telefunken set of the complete Bach cantatas.

Yet another reason to love Harnoncourt .

[DublinJimbo]

Indeed, an excellent and fascinating interview.

My favourite moment was towards the end, when Harnoncourt says he'd like to conduct Meistersinger, but would treat it like operetta, so it would end up sounding like Offenbach.

[Chris Newman]

I guess it was probably NH's age but his conducting of a very pleasant Bartered Bride performance (in German) last week on R3 was fairly leisurely paced, almost Klemperer-esque. Not the fire-brand he was sometimes of old.

[gurnemanz]

Just caught up with this thread. Thanks for the Harnoncourt interview link. We're off to the Barbican on Sunday for the Missa Solemnis and it was a good appetizer. I have only a few CDs (Poppea, Brandenburgs, Beethoven Violin + Kremer) and we've never seen him live before and, given his age, we probably won't see him again. I have read that he is being given his Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal at the concert. I am really looking forward to it. It will also be the first performance I will have heard after recently having sung in an amateur Missa down here in Wilts. Having sung in a work even as an amateur gives you new perspectives on a work, especially in one with some fiendishly difficult choral bits.

[JFLL]

I guess it was probably NH's age but his conducting of a very pleasant Bartered Bride performance (in German) last week on R3 was fairly leisurely paced, almost Klemperer-esque. Not the fire-brand he was sometimes of old.

Yes, it was leisurely – but far too leisurely, even sluggish, to my ears. I had to put on Frick, Wunderlich and Kempe to remind myself just how much fizz there can be in this music, and how well it sounds in German. Wunderlich can be seen here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OecDjeVOyw

with Kurt Böhme, not quite as good as Frick, but almost. A pity this opera seems to be rather out of fashion now, at least in this country.

[bluestateprommer]

You can watch a video of NH accepting the RPS Gold Medal here:

http://www.royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/awards/gold_medal/gold_medal_recent_recipients/harnoncourt