TubeNet

What do YOU think? This is probably your best answer.

Practice.

This might help:

http://www.tubanews.com/articles/contentid-118.html

tubashaman wrote: On the movement IV Capriccio, it says dotted half =96.

It should be Half=96. Maybe a misprint?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Tubanese has it right on the tempo issue of the Capriccio movement: Half = 96. That mvmt is a bit of a mind bender, compared to what's going on around it. If you could work it up, maybe a good solution for things like that would be to coordinate tongue-valve movement in a sort of "doo-doo-lee ooo-doo-lee" articulation, much the same way trombonists tongue their way through slurs to avoid the sloppiness of the slide interaction. Makes for a crisper delivery. The audience gets to experience EACH of the succession of pitches. Granted, it sounds like an over-sized uzi going off up there, but they have a sense of it, nonetheless.

On the slower sections, there is definitely NOTHING wrong at all with even a bit of super-imposed rubato/ bird's eye toward the end of the first slow intro before all hell breaks loose -- or other places, too, for that matter. I don't think Mr. Persichetti would have objected at all, or even taken mild exception. It gives you a pillow of contrast to the next section, allowing it to speak stronger, and leads the audience's ear a bit. There's nothing wrong with being a bit interpretive about each section/ sub-section here. You're out there by yourself and don't have to interact with any other players, why not make EACH PHRASE it's own DEFINITE statement ??

As to models for this, for my money the best rendition of it that I know of is the one that Harvey Phillips did. After all, it was commissioned by him, and he knew Persichetti quite well. Kind of moves you right into the kitchen, right next to the fire. The one that I have is in vinyl, so you might have to do some SERIOUS digging for it [it's long been out of print], though there's a good chunk of talk about bringing back many of Mr Phillips's recorded work. I believe that Steve Shoop on this board could be a good contact in that arena. Hope this helps, best of luck.