ecarroll

Nick,

I have a soft spot in my heart for the third Mahler. It was the first piece that I performed with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, going directly from the airport to the stage to rehearse (Jimmy Conlon). When the horns opened the first movement I knew instantly that my life had changed. By the way, I played the entire first trumpet part -- leaving the stage for the posthorn bit and returning afterwards. Yikes.

The instrument you choose to play is strictly determined by the acoustic of where you are performing from. Johnny Ware famously used to play it on the Eb trumpet and take his bow at the end holding a flugelhorn (cracked the guys up).

Since you're just fooling around with the piece, feel free to try all sorts of combinations of horns/mouthpieces. Experiment. Find solutions that sound good!

I've performed the posthorn solo in a variety of occasions on flugelhorn, C cornet, C trumpet (with felt) and Eb trumpet (from far, far away). All of these solutions worked. One bit of advice: don't play it softly. The distant sound comes from the situation, not interpretation (see all offstage playing).

Best,
EC