bloke wrote:Something I hear (and - of course - a recording, not live, but...) is that the sound is more brilliant than with many American wind bands.
The thing that discourages me from attending wind band concerts in the USA is the "mezzo-muffled/dampened" sonic effect that so many band directors seem to be *striving to achieve.
Symphony orchestras feature far more soprano instruments (which - unapologetically - shimmer) and far fewer alto-voiced instruments than American wind bands. Further (again), I believe there is a deliberate goal (with American wind bands) to muffle/muzzle sonic brilliance...with additional strategies to this goal being really large instruments (in several sections) played with really large mouthpieces.
...well: (even with the tubas) Look at the difference in these instruments and those that American wind-band tuba players (assuming they were supplied with precisely what they wanted) would typically choose.
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*With less brilliance in the resonance, intonation discrepancies are less apparent. Could this be part of the motivation?
to clarify: I like what I heard in the link.
I'd add to your speculation that a lot of the wind band directors are hearing their "reference recordings" in auditory locations (worst case, but likely common: a car) that have suboptimal acoustics. Even for orchestral transcriptions, if they are listening to the work on substandard equipment and in a room (assuming they aren't using reference-quality headphones) with poor acoustic qualities, they aren't hearing what an orchestra actually sounds like across the entire frequency spectrum.
Audio compression and cheap electronics have made audio media widely available and distributable, but at a significant cost of fidelity.
One of the local high school band directors that has a band of superior quality has a wind ensemble with one tuba, one euph, 4 trombones, balanced against 12 or so clarinets and something like 6 flutes. And he lets those clarinets push the envelope of volume in the upper register up to and including the occasional "squeak". Accepting the occasional flaw, the band sounds remarkably well-balanced and it's quite easy to hear the voicings of the melodies and harmonies.
