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Play "The Inextinguishable" on which tuba?

Big-*** Eb.

bloke wrote:http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/a ... wBrass.pdf

I'd pull out an inextinguishable F tuba and refer back to the LAPO Roger Bobo sound.

A 2+3RV smallish F tuba would have been the likely instrument played at the premiere, but then all orchestral instruments were less loud back then.

Klaus

All you have to do is hear the Chicago Symphony recording with Jean Martinot and you know that a York-sounding tuba is the only horn to use. The opening 2 notes still get my immediate attention after years of hearing it. Nobody plays this like Jake did.

Here's a CSO live recording from 1966. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7n63zb8BXw" target="_blank
DA-yam!

I agree with the last two guys. Also, there's a stellar recording of Floyd and San Francisco where he's playing a Holton. Ed

If its any help, it was on the contrabass excerpt list for the stockholm job a couple of years back. No choice. They expected it on cc.

Have to agree with UncleBeer - a large Eb tuba would work perfect on that piece.

craig2000 wrote:If its any help, it was on the contrabass excerpt list for the stockholm job a couple of years back. No choice. They expected it on cc.

You're aware Nielsen was Danish, right?

Alex C wrote:All you have to do is hear the Chicago Symphony recording with Jean Martinot and you know that a York-sounding tuba is the only horn to use. The opening 2 notes still get my immediate attention after years of hearing it. Nobody plays this like Jake did.

Here's a CSO live recording from 1966. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7n63zb8BXw" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
DA-yam!

The Nielsen 2 w/Morton Gould from the same year is EPIC as well...

There is a fantastic DVD set on the Dacapo label, with the Danish National Radio Orchestra performing all 6 Nielsen Symphonies under Michael Schoenwandt.
Jens Bjorn-Larsen is using a Hirsbrunner 6/4 for No. 2-6.

http://www.amazon.com/Carl-Nielsen-Symp ... 592&sr=1-1" target="_blank

It depends on many things:

the sound of the brass section (particularly the trombones)
the acoustics of the hall
the size of the orchestra

Having said that, I played it last week on a Willson 3400, which is either a small contrabass tuba or a bass tuba - depending how you look at it. It didn't lack weight or power for my purposes.

Similar this week for Bartok Concerto for Orchestra

Cheers

Cam

No-one's yet mentioned the scoring: the tuba's always with the rest of the brass, almost always in octaves with the bass trombone, and never scored with the contrabasses. Obviously Nielsen heard the tuba as a brass instrument, and not as just a "bass voice". This leads me to a sound defined more by the brass- rather than the wood end of the aural spectrum.

And I know what Jake/Gene/Floyd/Holton/York did. That's not really a contributing factor in my instrument choice.

The late Danish composer and conductor Ole Schmidt was considered having a very good grip on Carl Nielsen’s style. He also was very much aware about the tuba having written a a concerto for John Fletcher. And while he conducted the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, he shared a double house with their then tubist Hans (last name forgotten), who played Eb & CC.

When Ole Schmidt 15 or 20 years ago recorded all Nielsen’s 6 symphonies for TV broadcasting with our RSO, Jens Bjørn-Larsen, their then regular tubist, played his Yorkbrunner in 5 of the 6 symphonies. In one of the symphonies he was absent for reasons unknown to me. His substitute, Carl Boye Hansen (then the lifeguard band, now Odense Symphony) didn’t have a Yorkbrunner back then, so he played his piston Hirsbrunner with the tuning in the leadpipe.

The string body of these recordings was quite massive, so I didn’t hear the choices of tubas being wrong at all.

Klaus

If I remember correctly Herebert Blomstedt did record all the symphonies with DRSO too. Do you remember something about the tuba on those records?

Aren’t we 40 years back here? As I remember it the predecessor of Jens Bjørn-Larsen, the late Erik Åkerwall, played German rotary instruments. One of his F tubas, a 3+3RV from Meinl-Weston, was discussed here within the last 3 years. I have seen him in live concert only once around 40 years ago, where he had an F as well as a contrabass on the stage for Pictures. The Bydlo solo was played by the lead trombonist on a Conn bell front euphonium. I am not even sure whether that contrabass was in CC or in BBb.

Klaus

Oh, is it that many years ago?! Suddenly I begin to feel like a very ugly old fart...
Yes it must have been Erik Åkerwall then. Was it Carsten Svanberg that played Bydlo or some of the older boys, maybe Carsten was not with the DRSO already then?
When did the trend start that Bydlo should be played on larger tuba? I remember the first times I played the pictures Bydlo was always played on smaller instruments. Isn't written for the french 6v c-tuba?
First time I heard the pictures played on a large tuba was with the Stockholm Phil and Michael Lind, I think, so it must have been some time after 1975.

That concert was in 73 or 74 with Celibidache conducting. There was the premiere of Niels Viggo Benzons clarinet concert, Ravels Pierre la Nuit, and Pictures. Bydlo was played by Thorkild Graae (associate solo tromb) who was first while my then teacher Ole Engler (the principal) played second. Carsten Svanberg may have gone from the lifeguard to the radio light orchestra at that point of time. He then was 1st in the opera before getting OEs chair some years later.

Last I saw our RSO do pictures on TV, the current solo trombone, Jesper Lund Sørensen, played Bydlo on a euphonium of a darkish red colour that made me think of one of boutique euphoniums mentioned here some years ago (Inderbinden?).

Klaus

bloke wrote:My sparkly sousaphone makes more racket than my 6/4 concert tuba...and it is certainly inextinguishable.

Redo the poll.

Extrapolating from the above logic:

In Espansiva bloke will play his waistline.

K

bloke wrote:My sparkly sousaphone makes more racket than my 6/4 concert tuba...and it is certainly inextinguishable.

Redo the poll.

Are you saying you can't distinguish your 6/4 from a pimped-out sousaphone?

I flat-out don't get this piece. It might as well be called the "Indistinguishable" as far as I'm concerned.

imperialbari wrote:...That concert was in 73 or 74 with Celibidache conducting...

It must have been a very nice concert with Celibidache. So you have studied with Ole E. I met him a couple of times back then. A great player and a very special person. You must have learnt a lot from him. And yes now I remember that Carsten did play with the opera and then with the RSO. Many great musicians back then, and now in Copenhagen.

Hehe, seems to be popular with red instruments. I have a red Bach trombone that I use with our orchestra from time to time. Looks nice when we play for the television.

Anyone out there with a red tuba?!

Back to Nielsen. I remember at the first scandinavian brass symposium I had the pleasure to do some section playing with three nice Danish guys on the 4th with Harvey Phillips as instructor. For me as a young man that had just begun to study at the Royal Academy it was such a great experience. This symphony has a special place in my heart ever since. The other music by Nielsen is also fantastic but the 4th is something extra.