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I gotta give a shout out to Craig Knox and his great playing last night in Bruckner's 9th Symphony.
Having moved to the Pittsburgh area recently, I am enjoying being able to walk to the PSO concerts--I love buying my $20 "bleacher seats" and savoring the great sounds in beautiful Heinz Hall.

Mr. Knox plays with such solid sonority and supports the whole orchestra as a tuba should! The unison-like orchestral themes in the Bruckner were amazing, along with, of course all the other great brass work in that monumental piece.

Upcoming concerts will include Prokofiev Symphony No. 5/Janacek Sinfoietta, Symphonie Fantastique, Elgar Symph 1, Verdi's Requiem, and the World Premier of the Higdon Tuba Concerto.

If you have not yet heard the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Heinz Hall, plan on it--you are in for a sonic treat!!

(I want to add that the PSO just won two Grammy's for their recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 5!)

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You will not be disappointed!

Here is a bit of today's newspaper review:

"There are some symphonies that need to be heard live. Bruckner's Symphony No. 9--a mammoth even in its unfinished, hour-long, three-movement state--is one of them...
...While there are some wonderful recordings of Bruckner's night nothing can match the rafter-rattling sound of eight horns, four Wagner tubas, four trumpets, four trombones and tuba blowing the roof off of Heinz Hall. Glorious...."

bloke wrote:Admittedly, having only heard recordings of the orchestra, I will look forward to hearing the new principal trumpet, Mr. Micah Wilkinson.

I was sad when I learned that the legend George Vosburgh retired. Expect the trumpets to be a bit more subdued now

Subdued indeed. Thankfully.

That is a fantastic hall, and the seats in the top balcony are the best in the house. I used to go for $10 back in college. What a great time!

So this one time we went to hear John Williams conduct Planets.

Back then the orchestra had a habit of playing really loudly unless they had a conductor that reigned them in and that they really respected. Ussually those two did not coincide.

Anyway, The orchestra was totally blasting away, and at one point I thought it was the loudest thing I’d ever heard an orchestra play. But only then did George Vosburgh make his entrance and completely obliterate the entire thing. It was astonishing. Not the most musical thing. But holy smokes could he create volume.

Will Jones wrote:So this one time we went to hear John Williams conduct Planets.

Back then the orchestra had a habit of playing really loudly unless they had a conductor that reigned them in and that they really respected. Ussually those two did not coincide.

Anyway, The orchestra was totally blasting away, and at one point I thought it was the loudest thing I’d ever heard an orchestra play. But only then did George Vosburgh make his entrance and completely obliterate the entire thing. It was astonishing. Not the most musical thing. But holy smokes could he create volume.

I guess I've never really understood the mindset, "I'm bored, I'm playing this for the 100th time, I'm just going to blast the sh*t out of it, everyone else be damned!"