| Hi Ed, thanks for drawing attention to this - hope you enjoyed it.
I was playing my medium yellow Eclipse on this show - and it was much admired by Kate Moore, who is the principal trumpet player in the BBC Concert Orchestra. For anybody who is intrested, I was using my trusty Giardinelli 6S.
In case anybody is interested I thought I'd share some information about the gig. I was only playing in the Bernstein - as what we call over here a bumper.
In effect this means that I played all the loud, high and sustained stuff - while Kate handled all the quiet solo parts.
I have played this piece many times before with, amongst others, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (in Norway). I have played the first part entirely on my own, as a bumper (meaning i play the parts that the regular player doesn't want to play) and with a bumper (meaning I tell the bumper to play the parts that I don't fancy). Thats a subtle difference but it can make it a lot more comfortable to perform when you are in charge. I don't really mind either way and, on this occasion Kate was very pragmatic encouraging me to play as much as I wanted to - it's pretty obvious in this piece anyway. I must say that playing the closing bars ppp in cup mute with whispering strings is my defenition of scary - especially after the demands of the 'mambo' earlier in the piece.
We gave this performance - which was broadcast live - with only 2 hours rehearsal time given to the Symphonic Dances. Believe it or not that is something of a luxury in this town! Often there will only be time to 'top and tail' the pieces for a concert or broadcast - whereas in Norway we rehearsed for about 4 days!!!
On a personal note this gig slotted in nicely to my schedule last week. We finished playing at 9:15pm so I had just enough time to get into the west end, down a large cappucino at Bar Italia (best coffee north of Milan) and stroll over the road to start the first set at Ronnie Scotts with Tim Garland's Electric Underground Orchestra. I finished work at 2:30am every night and got to bed some time after 4:00. I'm still catching up on my sleep now - but it was worth it - what a great week at the club!
All the best. Noel.
__________________ Noel Langley - Eclipse Artist noel@eclipsetrumpets.com
Eclipse Medium Yellow, scratch gold
Eclipse Medium Heavy Red, custom 'Diamond Back' in 24ct gold
Eclipse Red Brass Flugel
Custom Scherzer piccolo with copper Wedgewood bell, finished in scratch gold
Giardinelli 6S, 6M, 6FL Bach 3CW |