| Re: Orchestral Sound
Two things to mrtrpt...
Have you ever read Crime and Punishment? There's a great conclusion that Raskolnikov draws that history is always made in the perception of the victors. Had the American Revolution failed, it would be written and studied as a small insurrection in the 1770's. I like the idea that the Chicago style and the American, French, Spanish style were only the styles of those who made it onto CD are still widely listened to today.
The 2nd, can anyone accurately give Jim Thompson's international style spectrum. I can't remember it exactly, but it went something like (left being long and dark to right being bright and short) German, American, Scandinavian, Russian, British, French. Please correct me if it's at all wrong.
We only really consider the top orchestras when we do this drop the needle test. Maybe we should be trying to hear a difference in sounds of the Boston Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony and the Bamberg Philharmonic and the American Symphony and the other orchestras of a slightly lower stature. There are some really great players in smaller orchestras too. Hakan supposedly says the best trumpeter in the world is Assistant Principal Trumpet in Monaco or something like that and that he married a beautiful Mediterranean French woman when he was 20ish and stayed there on the French Riviera ever since. Maybe not such a bad trade-off.
Matt |