A Century of Service in the Berlin Philharmonic! Klaus Wallendorf, Stefan de Leval Jezierski and Fergus McWilliam talk to Sarah Willis about their combined 102 years of service in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra live on Sarah´s Horn Hangouts. September 2015
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
[Music] it doesn’t work theous step traffic jam oh the traffic is terrible 35 minutes from stance I was sitting for 20 minutes on the highway hello everybody Welcome to the horn hanger we thought we’d play a little something the three of us and Stefan has just arrived so how about the four of us what do you think yeah should we try berl’s going to be like
Los Angeles right the [Music] oh that’s enough what do you think okay you guys had enough of that CLA has had enough of that right so here we go hey don’t throw the Guna hefta around it’s like it’s like a Bible a horn Bible Welcome to our very very well organized horn hangout where Green books are flying through the air um welcome back this is the first hang horn hangout the season that’s your camera yeah is there coffee coffee coffee there was coffee where is coffee coffee for
Stefan um Can Can someone bring Stefan a coffee please I’ll be okay smells so good it’s going to be one of those days um we’ll get some coffee for Stefan any moment um welcome there are loads and loads of you out there and I can see it all in the chat there’s Australia USA um my mom uh
Mexico Taiwan uh it’s really quite incredible New Zealand um yeah and Tim is in Townsville which is up by the Great Barrier Reef I think Tim you’re running the stream it’s in the middle of the night how about thuringia thuringia anybody from thuringia out there I’m not sure but write in if you are watching see if someone’s from
Durham North Carolina watching anyone from Durham Durham North Carolina is that where your mom Liv my mom maybe in vaness in vaness Toronto London elburg where dumpling Village dumpling Village okay um we have some guests here we have Stefan son and his wonderful girlfriend daughter at the back there they’re eating cake and uh and and drinking coffee um
George and ycob are doing the stream here hi guys welcome and lots of you on the chat what would you like to know from these wonderful guys between them how many years did we work out 102 102 years of service well you guys are pretty good for that did who invited her who invit I can leave it’s no problem 102 years of service in the bre phonic and we have a wonderful photo for you you oh the found another one too you found another one too do you have the photo of the whole whole horn section in black and white that we posted just just
A few minutes ago you know the one the one of you with the with the whole horn section should I get the one from I have it in my case here which one it’s a one that you don’t know I one I do pleas careful as what are we doing it’s okay yeah is it one from a tour or no it’s one from
Theon probably actually with a lot of people probably safe for children then oh it’s it’s not it’s fine it’s just like a grou and bu M that’s a really nice one you’re going to have to go back over to George and hold it into the camera it’s very very nice okay don’t step on your horn come on guys
The Hangout out’s almost over y so chean tell us what we what we’re seeing in this okay this is a picture your son has brought Nick come into the picture welcome everybody’s welcome on the Hangouts this is Nick chefan son hi Nick and you guys have known him since he was very little right yes well that happens when
You’ get doct this welcome if anyone else has any orders just ask here’s a picture of Norbert GTA Fergus uh uh G C’s wife G cyer Claus VOR manord clear me Garrett’s girlfriend my ex-wife’s girlfriend okay two Unknown People and Karina Fon chuk okay well we will definitely be posting this so you can get a good look at it um yob did you show the photo of the horn section we have the black and white one you’ve had all that um yeah 102 years uh which means what years did you start in
I should know that what you I started in 1978 and you 85 80 80 okay so you’re you’re the the the I was going to say grandpa but that’s not a nice word you’re the you’re the most experienced I’m the one that started I was also you know I was 23 W audition so 23 with a totally different haircut right
I had like long hair back then and then gradually became so that I just looked from the distance and it was long on the sides but on the top it looked like there was nothing so I just decided to match the sides to the top Fergus Fergus also looked a bit different we had we have a very nice photo of
Fergus and Stefan in the train and you guys haven’t seen that yet but we will show you that afterwards um where you you had a lot of hair here and you had a lot of hair here yeah yes and it was red it was redus look like George Michael back in the 80s George Michael well yeah there’s a scary photograph
Yamaha post but today Christina Masha Turner wrote on the Facebook post she said these days this beard full beard is in but unfortunately Stefan’s hair in those days is not in again so the long hair long that’s not in again thanks for the for the encouragement Christina but the only one who still looks pretty much the same is
Claus it’s unable yeah no it’s true there’s a we have a lovely picture of you playing duets with G Zer yob you have this picture and I think you still even have this pulley or the pulley pulley a sweater sweater no I sold it you sold it because because it was it was seen on playing duets with
G Zer it was worth a lot of money then so um there’s oh there’s oh I say I’m sorry guys I’m totally ignoring your questions that’s not on I’m going to get to your questions um there we can we can actually start from very enchant Stefan why did you not stay in the in the USA I finished uh going to music school and um
I didn’t have a job yet and I auditioned for Cincinnati Symphony forth horn drove there played for 5 minutes thank you bye-bye the same thing you know for Milwaukee for thorn I drove for two days played for 5 minutes thank you bye-bye then I got into the finals uh in Rochester um but uh a lady named Gail
Williams got the job and I Gail Williams she you know hi Gail if you’re watching she does and so uh I didn’t have a job I was graduating so the the thing was either uh hanging out in in Cleveland and playing some extra with the Cleveland an orchestra and trying to take auditions or then I this guy named
Eric to williger which some of you he’s actually in the horn room right now uh he called me up we didn’t know each other he asked me if I was interested in becoming the solo horn player of the castle State Opera Orchestra in Germany and in Germany and I thought well that sounds like a good idea it was like a long story but
I ended up getting the job in Castle and then just for fun I I auditioned um for Berlin I had also applied for the Pittsburgh Symphony for third horn but they didn’t invite me they didn’t think I was qualified but you didn’t you you you were quite adventurous and you just thought okay you’ll just go to Germany
I’ll go to Germany stay for a few years get some experience CU in America it was the problem was that you wouldn’t get couldn’t get a job unless you had experience uh if you didn’t have a job you couldn’t get experience so it was sort of a uh what do they call it catch 22 very good CL this is cat too yeah but you’ve never regretted it you’ve never looked back you played with car on at age
Kendall gray you know Kendall kend yeah he’s watching hi Kendall he wants to he says good grief what was it like to suddenly be per Performing for car on at age 23 yeah well actually by the time I started I had turned 24 so it was no it was no problem no it was like when I when
I first got the job I just couldn’t believe it I was 23 I said you’re in the Berlin philarmonic I couldn’t believe it I went back I had to play that that evening Castle you know I’ve been Soul horn in Castle I had to play some Opera I flew back in the uh I flew to Hanover and took my where had my car parked and
I drank a glass of champagne burlin fell I couldn’t believe it you know it took a while for it to sink in and and to play with Kion at age 24 it was uh for me yeah Carion was great he was had such magic he he uh had Charisma that would really help the uh the passages come of the horn properly he would sort of with brain waves he could send so much energy it was
I’ve never experienced anything like that he really would help his his people I had always a really good relationship with Kion he was very nice to me can I interrupt you just very quickly say a very good morning to Gail Williams who is really watching hello Gail yeah cheers are you wearing your horn hangout t-shirt I hope so that’s a great photo of
Gail in her horn hangout t-shirt um Claus who you came you came to Orchestra aged 30 something yes so you were 32 you were you came from the Opera yes you were a a passionate Opera player yes so and you were actually very happy playing Opera was after 15 years playing Opera and uh yeah actually I had this seven years experience in the
Bavarian State Opera with Carlos clber who gets more and more famous every day nowadays but who was quite famous at that time but I was very much attracted by something new a brilliant section where I might fit in as third and uh caran well something new after pretty many years uh some colleagues horn playe colleagues when I got the job in
Berlin said ah he is stepping down to third Horn uh and I still don’t agree it was kind of yes playing solo horn age 30 you’re in the middle of your qualities maybe but uh I have never regretted sometimes I regret not playing Opera so much Claus’s warmup Claus’s warmup consists of Opera excerpts salame um Electra but not long tun just sort of or or yeah yeah
I have um no warm up yeah yeah it’s tan simmerman oh I know that I play that in Castle and I’m the one accused of the one accused of not warming up but you always know if CL is warming up in the room because that’s when uh that’s when you hear the Opera excerpts your your signature and was
Kion a good opera conductor good as Carlos yeah yes probably yeah he was they admired each other I think we have a lovely picture of you uh that jakob’s going to put on the screen now of you um and yeah when you started your career with a nice little mustache you got that one how old were you were you in that
I don’t know I even tried a beard but it looked like soit because hair wasn’t growing where I wanted it to grow but that was in the ’ 80s ’70s okay 74 so Fergus the Red Beard beard beard the Red Beard days um you came from the B you came by Canada it’s their fault yeah it’s their fault their fault are we going to tell that story well
I have I can clear the air here once and for all straight this guy here I meet him in 1979 I’m a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra I’m touring Europe and there’s a party in Berlin after our concert was one of we went to wendles that a place that has a thousand varieties of beer any case in a state of considerable intoxication not wend
Ross wend near the rard bner wend wend he put the idea in my head okay so you went to bar he said I said why are you mysteriously mingling in mtown when you could be playing with us and guess what there was a third horn job open and uh I thought the whole thing was so mad I
I couldn’t even get my head around the idea I thought it was just crazy thanks very much but I went back to Detroit uh then that was 1979 and by 19845 I was playing in the orchestra complaining that his second horn I had far too many services to do compared to the third horn third horn yeah he had arrived by now taking that that free job from 1979 80 and when
I started to complain the two of them would point to me and say what was your on S silly thought you had your chance at the S Ono but no it was Claus who came to uh place called pedding ping yeah outside zburg in the Easter of 1984 and we there was a chamber music evening that organized with a mutual friend and we came up and we came with our camping bus and parked in the the backyard of teo’s house and we all played chamber music that evening until the very small we hours and
I didn’t realize that I was actually being scouted by him oh he went back across the border to the orchestra back across the border and uh then apparently very shortly after that I received an invitation to audition you didn’t you hadn’t applied I did eventually have to because it was required by the bureaucracy but I know the it went quickly yeah but the these two guys are so primarily responsible what what was this chamber music evening like
Claus I do you what do you remember about this Canadian SC I can’t remember Sprints we played you and I played the viola Parts what yes because yeah there were two Viola parts and Teo we did the bit of sex T and I couldn’t play the second horn part as well as he could so I played the first part and he played the second really
Longo you never told me that we could have swapped all these like that and he came to Berlin and I remember I remember he stayed at your place don’t you and he had coffee before the audition yeah Fus fer I got to tell you guys Fergus is a bit of a phenomenon Fergus has to drink coffee before performance otherwise and we ask him as well we say
Fergus have you had your coffee um yeah because otherwise you get nervous if I haven’t yeah I get nervous if you haven’t drunk your coffee and you guys there are someone Jerry has just said Jerry from New York says hope you guys are being paid for this great show don’t put ideas into their heads um Filipe says hi from
Lisbon um Howard pink from Nashville says lovely to hear such fun stories um horn stories from wonderful horn players hi Howard it’s great to we know all these people tros I still can’t pronounce her name even after all these Hangouts from Sweden hello Nick in Tasmania ask did Stefan overlap with Hector McDonald in the orchestra no Hector was in his probation year um two years before
I was and then uh he went to the uh radio Orchestra and the year before me uh um Engel be Schmidt was playing for a year second horn also in probation okay but I didn’t overlap I came there the year after Kristoff kler left to go to uh um I think he went to the radio Orchestra then um as first horn and then the third horn job was open and so then that’s when
I came and just saw Hector in in in Sydney this summer was playing the Australian World War still sounding really great really great um Maria is watching Rubio Navar who was just playing with us last week hi Maria and um mik OSI in um in Soul fil monic he wants he sees all the cakes he wants to know where the
Kim she is um there’s a question from Jeffrey cook saying what’s changed the most in the horn section during your time as members girls I had to give you guys that one and what would you say apart from the the age our age has changed so much yes no it’s not the inside the horn section it’s looking out of the horn section at the rest of the orchestra and seeing how much younger they’ve all become we’re not exactly the youngest horn you know horn section in the world no that’s look three speak speak for yourself oh three of us you know almost half the section
Three I I think one thing that has changed is the atmosphere inside the section tell us about that we used to have sometimes a little bit of stress every now and then what caused that stress St yeah I I have to I have to get to that it’s what people want to know they want to know about the
Berlin fony corn section how it was in the in the old days Stefan tell us about I know were just that just seemed to be uh certain elements that uh sometimes there was like uh people arguing and and sometimes it would be a lot of fun and then there would be it would be stressy I was misbalanced all the time
I admit what does misbalance me I don’t know doesn’t exist the world okay I don’t know um but if I’m understanding you correctly because I mean I know all the the the stories but um and I also I I was invited to play as an extra very early on I was I think 21 when I came to study with you and
I had the honor of being us to play and when I I must admit when I came here it was rather terrifying because there was not we have a really great time together you know we’re like a family we we can get on each other’s nerves but actually everybody’s really very supportive but when I was no just admit it
Fergus they don’t like to admit that that it’s actually quite nice here um but when I the first time I sat in this Orchestra it was it was a horrible atmosphere I must admit there were these amazing players but everyone was scared of the first hor player who didn’t seem to like me very much either she he remain nameless he was no he
Shan the most wonderful fantastic amazing horn player G zet yeah but he well he wasn’t very nice to me yeah he could be really nice sometimes and very charming and a lot of fun to be with and then sometimes he would just switch to another side of his personality that wasn’t very pleasant he would really be demanding his thing you know you were as good as your uh what you delivered if you didn’t play well if you missed a note you were a bad person really it was like you know it was it was rough you know so we just have to get out of
The habit of missing notes you and things would got better you know it just you know if you spad the same effort playing blowing the thing into the horn it’s not any more difficult to play the right notes than the wrong notes if you make the effort so so we start started getting in the habit of of not missing of course the the the danger there is to to play too carefully we don’t want to do either so one has to go for it and not miss that was that was the thing and um what what was the best thing about
G’s playing uh I liked everything he played because I adored him he was one of the reasons I applied give him the next horn Hangout to explain his uh no I really and he had he was a difficult person but I knew this because he was the colleague direct colleague of my teacher in dorf he had spent
I think 15 years as a principal in dorf when he where he started age 17 then went to uh Berlin and this is why we were pretty close from history for our private history or professional history so I tried to switch in and uh um I was scared too but not every day maybe every second he he he was a great player he really was the most amazing player but
I remember uh I got to play second to him once I don’t think he was very happy about that but I I noticed um I mean I have to I use all my air but I have to breathe a lot more often than you guys do just have to do it cleverly but sitting next to GE was a little bit difficult because he had to breathe even almost more often than
I did he was he was very small and he did it so cleverly you couldn’t you couldn’t tell but I just noticed that as being a a frequent breather as well I think it’s a bit of a shame that the media uh advances that we’ve gone through now in particular with digital concert hall and so on but there’s very little filmed evidence of actually seeing for players can actually see g i in action uh you know close in with good good detail because he was a remarkable um almost the perfect picture of the perfect technique um and you know me
I I don’t believe in technique but there’s this guy who who actually did everything the way everyone talks about it and in spite of of his small statue he was able to use air so how tall was he was he about like 165 or something something like that yeah as tall as me yeah he breathed a lot we always tried to we were playing we did a lot of doubling we used to play all the you know chaikovsky
Symphony or with eight horns cuz caran used 20 violins it was like the huge opulent you know 12 cylinder sound you extra had and so we would try to breathe um and we would try to breathe at places that the other person wouldn’t breathe and and then we would always end up breathing at the same illogical place it’s kind of funny
I totally agree about what Fergus said about the digital concert whole uh uh possibilities or something like that in those days because yakob and I were trying to find some footage of you guys playing in the old days and on YouTube there’s masses of stuff of Karan and we also in the digital Concert Hall has have lots of things um with
Karen but you never see the players you always see him and when you see the players like I was watching bethen 5 this morning all you see the mouthpieces and the and the horns but you rarely see who’s playing yeah why was that oh that was Karen’s aesthetic of of video actually there’s a a there’s a film on digital concert about
Ken’s film aesthetic and where it came from and so forth very it’s worth seeing I mean it’s it’s incredibly dated and I mean you look at this stuff now and your skin just crawls because it’s just so tacky now but in the 1960s and70s that was cutting in stuff so I do recommend people have a look at the film on digital conert about kion’s film what do you think
Kion would have thought about the digital con all you would have loved it probably definitely um uh oh there’s lot of it’s hard to Spring around and what did you think of carry on sound asked Matthew in Melbourne was there can you even say there’s a there was a carry on sound smooth silky silky opulent big uh
MH no it was an incredible sound unfortunately it’s not politically correct anymore but I still love it I was in the kitchen not so long ago and the kitchen radio was on and suddenly on came what was indisputably in the B fil Monica and Karan doing something like chovsky and my response was twofold simultaneously one was kind of excitement kind of a visceral reaction there’s that old sound and oh my
God you can’t do that today it was like realizing imagine something prehistoric I just walked through the door know you know a dinosaur walked through and say it’s incredible it’s absolutely fantastic you know see this living this incredible sound and realize how much time has changed now that’s it’s like fashion it’s like the size of people’s neck ties the opulent sound will come back people will play stovsky
Bach Arrangements again and love it I think it’s just a matter of fashion and it’s the times are going to change people are going to finally play romantic music in a romantic style everyone’s do Baroque music in a baroque style but it’s time that people play romantic big the big sound has to come back when I we were recording tragic
Overture my the first time clao came it was like a big cut in the orchestra we were doing tragic Overture with Carion we did this sound tragic Overture Papa we’re playing the octav Just nailing them and clao came and come on we’re playing the tragic Overture Beth hofen Symphonies with four bases imagine that Al well politically correct yeah politically cor but come on there some of car’s recordings will think remain kind of
Timeless for example the early recording of bethoven Symphonies they’re so precise and schlunk slim slender but noi it’s Timeless fantastic so how you did all the Beethoven Symphonies also with you always would double the fifth we would double the fifth we would double the fourth we would double the eighth we would double the sixth we would uh play quadruple quadruple the fifth quadruple no we we use for horns usually uh that was only when we did the concert with the
Israel philonic in Israel we did it with eight horns they five with eight horns yes yeah it’s it’s great I mean I I really liked it I don’t know I missed I missed the big sound you know what do you mean you miss the big sound well no everything is now it’s not that we play loud we have to play
Loud because you know because of the way the concert hall is constructed but I missed you know the big you know a lot of bases and you know just this opulent sound I think you know for some pieces it would really be uh fantastic but uh I guess you know times change one has to go with the flow as it were
I just realized the three of us are are now experiencing our third complete uh sort of bethoven ascent of of Everest with three separate Chief conductors true you know Carion b c I got in at the tail end of the last cycle uh you guys probably would started the last cycle and then you guys don’t have much to do in the
Big D we play the doubling we played fourth fourth Symphony we played the the so third horns were allowed to double the first horn parts of course allow of course obliged obliged you know for and then we had abadoo had a a checkered career with Beethoven until we got to Rome in 2000 and did a cycle in
Rome just straight through and that was absolutely brething yeah and happily that’s been uh conservative can come not buy that and now we’re starting over with rattle and it’s funny he’s been here for how many years and this is the first be ofen cycle we’ve done with him it’s it’s taking a while to get round over it’s really exciting
I think that’s obvious for this August a beat of is Everest this is the this is the test of all things and he want he we had an interesting moment in the in the Leonora Overture the other day we do Leonora number one and Leonora number one is one that actually not many people play else ever heard it you ever played
Leonora over number one well our we’ never really heard it before we just saw Leonora on the on the on the rehearsal shed thought ah we know that we there’s a reason why it’s not so well known as the other Leonor overd but but Simon said something very interesting he said the way we were sort of site reading our way through that and you know tripping up at every corner he said that that’s what it must have been been like in
Beethoven’s day when they were site reading these pieces and having to perform them on R I hope it wasn’t that bad it wasn’t that bad um interesting comment from Stefan says Gail Gail having a coffee you wrote how do you play differently from Hall to Hall I mean the Berlin Phil the filmon is an iconic Hall and we do play very loudly in here because we have to we have to play
Loud because there’s no wall for us to bounce off in a traditional Concert Hall let’s say U Symphony Hall in Boston or Severance Hall in Cleveland or uh almost all the older concert Halls one can bounce off the wall and the horns project more but with us we play into an empty space so we have to play a little bit early and we have to play loud otherwise in front the horns just don’t sound pres an empty space we play people’s tummies
I had to put a plug in here for the manufacturer of our instruments the company Alexander um who are sponsoring today is hang out thank you very much Alexander but I like to say things this way we choose we play Alexanders because they fit the orchestra better they fit the hole better the string sound of this Orchestra is what decides everything and first you establish what the orchestra sounds like and then you pick the instrument that with with which you can fit best and in the
Phil Harmony and with this this incredible string Army that we work with um I find that Alexanders project also forwards which is some because we have no reflection service behind us so it’s the instrument that has the best properties for working in the fil it’s a question that came in from Fred in Florida thank you Fred please um tell me about the choice of horns in the berin
FI has it always been Alexander and why did you come with an Alexander horn into the Bern fil yes I bought one a week before that no I had a in Munich I had the Paxman triple I now regret it a bit but I got the same sound I think and then I had to switch to you came you came
Alex K mod you played a k mod till like three years AG but there was no philosophy behind so you came on an Alexander but you I did my audition on a con ad with a janelli mouthpiece very uh American style Cleveland New York and then uh Garett iord said uh uh congratulations and after I for what you have the job just get a
German horn and German mouthpiece so I was looking around for a German horn I I played in Alexander and it was somehow was too low the pitch and then I heard that Garrett uh Zer play on a melor horn which is a handmade horn that was play on a meor yeah it was a handmade horn with a big
Bell sort of like a brass con sort of a narrow Le pipe you know the opposite idea of an Al s it had a a narrower lead pipe a bigger Bell was was possible to play very loud on the M or and I went to Kaiser slon and I got a meor and started playing the melor and you know it was it was really fun to play
I enjoyed it and I could play really loud on it and then gradually people switched to an Alexander and and I was working hard and playing loud but no one was thanking me for playing loud so I said why should I do all this work just get an Alexander you know fit in the section do my job and so uh
I think in 1989 we started uh you know I played the melor for a long time and then we played Yamaha for there’s a poster of you guys you sent me the photo um the poster of you guys all playing Yamaha we played yeah yeah for two for a couple of years they had the 667 model was was very good horn why did you stop somehow we blew them out the horn was blew them out the horn was made my theory is
I’m not sure if this true the metal they got in Japan was only AAL brass and so it was softer easier to work with but not as hard as the brat and after 2 years of playing the horn just didn’t have any you know it seemed to lose its its uh Focus lose its power and then so then we we started all playing
Alexander then around 1989 1990 it yeah we also did get a favor with the Yamaha and then tried it out it was not so we tried it out yeah they were good but I didn’t like later on I switched back to Alexander because I found where I sit it sounds well but not far away they told me don’t yeah again that’s the what
I was talking about before the lack of protection yeah so um but uh I like’s question because it really is true when we play in every Hall we go to on tour we you know we do I do have to adjust let me add on to my earlier comment I think with our 103’s uh we are able to play in more
Halls without too much effort I can imagine playing if I were stuck with another instrument which was less flexible I could have a great deal more difficulty working in a stranger Hall which with might some strange cic property um skipping around Chris in Denmark says if only four horn parts are scored who gets to play and how do you decide well yeah that’s uh that’s an interesting question because every horn section
I think does it differently we don’t have one one person that decides reveal the trade secret which is first first we get together in said who wants off when who wants free who needs free who a gig or a vacation or something and then if you once you’ve got all your free time organized then we look at what’s left and say okay you play that week and
I’ll play this week and then at the very end we open the book up to see what the repertoire is unless of course we have to watch the number of players that’s true we do decide before we know the repertoire and so if you’re really unlucky you see sometimes and I would uh would say no well you did the
Bron We There are a few pieces for third horn that are interesting to play like Bronx piano caner so you played last time so I’ll play this time or something sometimes we’ll switch off if you both would have time and would like to play something we would or or we would like flip a coin or something the answer to the question is it’s totally flexible it’s total rotation it’s this random and very much a matter of personal requests you know there’s no system
Aaron D says Fergus loved your book Thank You There You Go Allison adward wants to know how old were you when you started taking horn lesson clausy yes you horn lesson maybe did you take horn lessons did you ever take a horn lesson you just play yeah maybe 11 11 12 or something 11 or 12 Fus 11
I started with the Cornet made my way via the trombone and the trumpet to Horn I started when I was 15 multi talented yeah that’s where it came from and I started when I was 14 after having playing the piano um that’s why you so civilized why I’m so civilized you’re right um Kendall gray and Gail both want to know about um can you describe the influence of your mentors who were they mentors caros clber mentors yeah mentors not me mentors who were your mentors class non- musicians right so
Jazz mentors yeah who who I know the word but I don’t know the mentors who influenced you hor playing wise horn playing wise um my first teacher pitz influenced me gave me motivation and my second teacher who was the colleague of GS the same position gave me my uh idea deal of sound which is very similar to
G’s Sound by the way we’ve just said how wonderful horn player G Zord is and that means that you are a wonderful horn player too it’s true actually mentors Fergus so many um I’d like to do my hat to eer James who um after I’ve been pesing him for several trips to the pub in the summer of 1977 trying to squeeze some tips out of him about how to teach and you know basically how to help other people he said look just finally at the end he said look look stop getting your knickers in a twist your knickers in a
Twist a wonderful English just tell them to get on with it yeah just get on with it if you think about it folks out there that there’s so much wisdom in that it has meant so much to me i’ I think about that every week ever since um there’s so much truth in that uh when we sit there getting all tied up in nuts trying to work out our
Tech our technique and interpretations and all the other stuff that makes horn players go crazy I for advice is priceless just get on with it just get on with it yeah good advice Chef so my ment the first uh recordings I heard were those of Dennis brain so I would say an unknown to me Mentor as far as the sound and the the way of playing
I really love Dennis brain then I uh must thank Fred berkstone when I was in high school who who who gave me a good professional start and then my main influence um before I came to Berlin was myON Bloom who I studied with at the Queenland Institute of music and uh when I got to the orchestra I still didn’t know everything so
I really learned a lot from uh Garrett cyer and Norbert halman the two solo horn players and I just sort of learned as I went I had to learn the fingerings for the B flat horn when I came here because I was playing everything up to third space c on the F horn so I just had to really learn
I went it they liked that I played the fform let’s get on to no I just got to say good morning to Barbara just L Curry who’s watching in New York good morning bar yeah we’re going to see you very soon I just love it when uh when people join in from everywhere it’s such a global um
Norbert Norbert halman for me really one of the best home players I’ve ever heard he was not an easy person to to play next to he was a very um h a word to describe it nervous nervous yeah I was trying to look at the word sort of up wound up uh he was just a very nervous insecure sort of person but he he his sound was unbelievable magical wasn’t it
I mean when when when norber played a solo well it was it was the most beautiful thing and he rarely very accurate he never he would do anything to avoid missing a note but his warmup was really something to be usually during his warm most people would leave the room yeah it will last but it was all f1n and
F1 and spit it really yeah something that should have been recorded on video I’ve got I’ve got a recording on video of norber putting on his camer band um but he he used to he he he couldn’t do this cuz his tummy was so big so he he he’ put it together then he put it on the floor and then he’d step into it and then pull it up get it over his
T this was the first wasn’t it this was the warm up yeah everyone together all right okay everybody the norber hman warm up yeah the norber hman warm up [Music] two Norbert cheers to you it really was that was Norbert everything on the F horn and um yeah but his he was beautiful but he never played he was always made to play book four wasn’t he
Garett always made to play book did the recording of it okay but Norbert always had to play the concerts and some of the recordings you well did Garett push Norbert round a little bit well Garrett was there before Norbert Garrett called the shots and Norbert uh usually did what Garett asked him to do it was a very easy relationship for those of you out there who um are second horn players or would like to be a second horn player
I want to remind you of a small story I was not yet under cont contract I was the summer of Easter of 1985 T was conducting fourth Brook my first experience of norber in the orchestra and I’m sitting there and I’m seeing him getting ready for the entry and all he’s doing is speaking he’s talking he’s swearing under his breath string starts to tremble
T is looking terrified and he sees no but before before that happened I thought he wasn’t going to play yeah so I had my horn up and I had to be ready to play I Was Taking My Breath to make that injy as a second horn player and then he was suddenly there then I learned afterwards that’s the way he operated no worri swear at the conductor no worries he would be there and he’d get that note but before that the the 3 seconds before that than the other way wrong yeah that’s true just really calm no used to have never norber had so much
Grit and gravel and and and and fog in his sound if you sat next to him really didn’t he that was later before that yeah but it still sounded absolutely amazing outside but next to him it sounded like radio station on the wrong Channel there’s a lot there’s a lot of theories about that too that this is contributes to the to the projection if you remember the the flute all the flute car hillo who next to him it sounded like there was a windmill going a turbine whing sounds and yet just uh not so very far away by the edge of the stage it was
All around This Magnificent golden flute on speaking of flutes Woodwinds Lisa Nelson you know Lisa Lisa is watching Jeff Nelson’s sister amazing player herself hi Lisa good morning she says thank you Ferguson I for James she liked that bit morning Lisa Claire from New Jersey says thank you for holding these Hangouts I’m going to see you all at
Carnegie in November as my 18th birthday present that’s nice um and uh uh says it’s worth mentioning that for so many in the chat you’re are example you are all examples of the ideal sound thank you Simon that’s very nice of you Steve me is watching and also Steve that’s for you good afternoon um so and Barbara says very interest interesting topic she’s wondering why the
American tradition is so based on the eorn such as Stefan said and it seems like the European tradition of teaching is B flat orientated why what was it like you don’t you don’t agree played a lot of i f horn I don’t know if I could agree but I did differently it’s a generation thing uh we three all have our horns lying in
F you do too yeah so I’m implying that you belong to my generation that’s okay um but when I joined and I was the last one to join I mean anyway uh G played with the horn and F Nobert in F you Stefan me Manfred yeah it’s all that’s true there were two players who come to the orchestra on
B flat that was K and uh CR I think and they were the exception and so it basically until until our generation you played F1 and the move to B flat is more recent isn’t it mm yeah that’s my impression anyway but I still think the good reason to keep the horn in F and press for B flat is that when you’re playing in the upper register playing on the
B flat horn when you which is most of the time uh that you have you can hold the horn with the thumb as well you don’t have to have the whole weight hanging on your little finger so you can hold the horn you have more it’s it’s simply more stable if you press you’re holding the thumb valve and holding a little you know it’s you can hold it in one hand like this if you try to hold it with one hand and not press the thumb valve it you know it’s very awkward just my theory but everyone has their own like that you too huh
Everybody it’s kind of hard to answer the question in a helpful way because it’s what we do we play so oh Elizabeth Hillar from our press office says leave us some cake no we won’t um Richard asked uh when you audition for new members of the section do you audition for personality and blending with with the great camaraderie um we don’t really know about that when while we audition do we well sometimes we do if we know the people if we know the people yeah but that’s still they got to play a good audition you look pain
I haven’t understood the Outlander when we when we audition someone do we is it just as important as how they play as how they would blend in as people in the section that’s what they want to know how could we tell yeah we can’t really tell it aition plays no role at the audition well we knew that uh for example
Andre would I knew that he was a good guy because I knew him before we didn’t but it’s not a priority I don’t it’s not first the main thing is the artistic performance in the audition even if we know someone they play really well if they don’t play an audition it’s really when the strings decide they’re the ones who who have the final vote that it’s it’s every has one vote and if the strings say sorry this wasn’t good enough even no matter how much we like someone how much we know they’re a great player uh they’re not going to get the job you know
That’s that’s the way it unfor it has pluses and minuses but it’s really uh have to really convince the orchestra on the day you’re the person the there are like 60 or 70 people deciding on people we hire it’s not just the horn section unfortunately is camaraderie a negative word it’s a very positive word I think what
Richard was saying is that he loves the feeling of camaraderie that he gets from us and that it’s important that’s why we have a trial period so that so that we can it’s it’s important in the trial period that someone fits in personally as well I can imagine the next question coming in you’ve had a trial period and you’ve got this phenomenal horn play you really want to keep but he’s not or she’s not exactly the nicest person what would we decide and
I think that’s never happened it has no no it’s just a theoretical rhetorical situation but we’d have to say the the artistic stand stands come first they do but it I think horn players are such uh it’s very important at least to me to have Harmony in their section and you guys didn’t have that for quite a lot
I mean you’re Fergus you’re the sort of person you sat next to G you didn’t speak one word to him for five years 5 years can you imagine that you guys can you imagine second horn sitting next to the first horn you did not speak one word for 5 years you can do that I I couldn’t you you couldn’t do that either you you would suffer you think you could
I won’t be able to try anymore but no not really no not during the rehearsals yeah but I think it’s important what happens off stage as well and I think that if someone really doesn’t fit in as a person but I prefer this hor group yeah but you could have lived with it was the the way things are and there are lots of groups around the world not just horn groups life in an orchestra is is a is a tough place and there’s 100 people and out of any group of 100 people you cannot expect that everyone’s going to be friends and uh it professionalism
Requires that you do can try you can try but even if you don’t get along with somebody you still have to do your best mhm North Carolina darham North Carolina Carol canell good morning do you know her well you do now you’re friends now um aler Lisa just picked up on the alender um was there a problem with the
Vibes when as you came from another land what about did you you guys feel that in the Gs no I I must say that uh the horn horn players and uh also people in NE brass section were very nice to me when I first started and very supportive and you know cuz I could speak some German if
I had a beer my German was even better then uh so I had a few beers and my German got was pretty good so we had we had a good time I uh when I first came to watch people were very nice of course it was a different atmosphere people still came to rehearsals with like uh with suits and ties and and
I got I bought a lot of very conservative looking clothes what yes I was I never wore jeans I would always wear cloth pants and regular shirts I had my hair like cut like a banker and I tried to make a very conservative image um when I do you remember him like this no he was before me but
I can’t remember this it was like the first two years and then alander alander is the word for foreigners in German so alander means foreigners so but it was never really a problem was it being an Outlander not for me but now you’re an now you’re an Outlander yes yeah we have 50% Outlander yeah Claus is a foreigner in his own horn section yeah it’s good for the language remember the one rehearsal where um we were sitting there it was
Alan Jones and you and me and you it was big SN you and Joe Joe Joe and somebody said t and gar Zer had an absolute fit because we were speaking English in the rehearsal one syllable T he didn’t he didn’t he didn’t like that did he did could he speak English at all he could speak English a little bit
Carol is friends with Elizabeth yki okay great so yes you are yes you are friends um Sylvia has a good question you had mentioned earlier that the section was more opulent and by now and now by necessity it has to be more loud what would you choose now someone who plays loud or someone who plays with more opulent plays more opulent personalities can change the whole artistic enjoyment gosh we’re getting very philosophical
I would say that the horn section has to is played louder now the string were more opulent because there were more of them it was more like 12 cylinder engine compared to a six-cylinder engine and and uh we played loud back then we play loud now I don’t think that’s really changed you know but yeah the question one has to be able to do both otherwise you that’s why so some positions are open for such a long time it has to have loudness and the opulence and the sensitivity and the accuracy and then it’s all right and
I think the Trap or at least the place where candidates who are working to get into the orchestra have the greatest difficulty is playing quietly enough it playing being able to play loud is is is an art under itself loud and well and beautifully but to play quietly enough and we have extremely quiet dynamics in this Orchestra and
Incredibly quite incredibly transparent you know almost dematerialized and that’s easy to do on the horn or on the trumpet or on the low oo and these things and that’s what our colleagues are pretty good at doing yeah this is this is true um a couple of questions about auditions uh what was your audition like here is it is it was which one which one why how many did you do
I had two oh you had two of course did you have two I had two too yeah you had two that’s so we had four yeah um 71 I had the job in don’t know was it December not January the orchestra said you have the job and but you have to play to Harbert F caran again in two two weeks did he have veto right could he could he have refused you even the reason
I don’t want him could have said and I so you have the job they said and I said what what if I don’t if he doesn’t like my playing and they said that never happened oh so always everyone was always watch your play um and then you so you had to really do did you play for him by yourself or did you have to no it was an interval an interval in the big
Hall fomon recording interval yeah there were people around not many and him and what did you have to play uh Ry gold beginning a little bit softer okay bram’s First Symphony the solo the horn first horn solo bram’s third Symphony the solo and he wanted to find out if I have fantasy enough to change something that loud and lier was it loud and lier
I remember scary probably yes that’s a long time ago not that long ago Fergus you just want you just had one audition and it was in front of the whole Orchestra like in the traditional format I don’t know about theirs but Karen was present in the audition he was setting in the front row did he join in did he ask you to do some stuff uh no
I didn’t have to go and play for him again well if you played for him once it was at the audition right then that was enough you didn’t have to okay and you had to play I had to play once for the orchestra and they said come back in two weeks and play again for Mr funaron which was advantage to play for for
Mr funaron because if he heard you play and trusted you and liked you then you know you could be forgiven for making a mistake there were people who didn’t play for Mr funaron and then they were in the orchestra and that they messed something up and they were out and it’s happened like car I don’t want to have this person uh sorry uh we need to have uh someone else come and play no one would that was it that was it when and
Simon but we don’t say Herbert imagine no one thing we don’t ever say over here is Maestro but did you say Maestro to Herbert no never okay it’s funny because Americans use the word Maestro in every respect to everybody it was it difficult when clao came and said I’ve been cladio I’m clao for every that wasn’t the problem the problem with me that that clao wanted
I mean he just cut the Dynamics of the orchestra drastically instead of uh having the architecture of the sound he want only wanted the melody he would always have like the first violins and OBO those were his friends and and and the people that were there the young people that had been hired under his Reign were his friends and then the yeah the people that played for funaron they were sort of a necessary uh evil they were already in the orchestra but it was like the orchestra was very divided back then it was very uh it was not the ideal situation to point out what
SE point is I think it’s interesting that some of the struggle with with the new aado era was that um the vertical aspect you know the harmonic structures the the the Baseline the almost if you were the barck music structure what was going underneath the middle voices and so were less important to car to a um he was much more
A melodic Italian composer conductor and when we switched to um to Rattle again there was another change it was also less melodic but far more rhythmic and structured that way so each each music director brought his own particular preference to things naturally as car and era horn blares we’re going to I mean I admit I was only five years at the toward the end of his life but he left um a brand on me which she can’t get rid of you’re eyeing that cake you want another piece of cake no it’s we need more coffee where’s the coffee oh okay we’re good
I I can survive we can survive um Malia sinim says do do you have a favorite concert that you’ve played with the brilliant philonic is there anything that really stands out or is it just a very are there too many of them could to many but I like to remember uhad AR with cloudia MC yes but it’s it was just such good evening good music no no preference
I remember you being very we had a rehearsal with uman the lius and I remember you getting very emotional at the end of it was years ago but you just said that peace got you every time I don’t know you don’t remember oh great moment no yeah there are so many pieces yeah it’s just no I have to pinch myself virtually in every concert
I pinch myself cuz I cannot believe this is actually happening it’s real I feel you still feel like that I thought it was just me that felt like that after 30 years I still can’t get over that this actually is possible Jesus it’s remarkable yeah it’s great it’s that but we’re so lucky because yeah of what we do we’re in musical paradise and
I think that unbelievable privilege yeah it is I have some concerts I like to remember one time it was an incredible experience playing the fourth Brookner in Lin uh with Kion and then in zburg Don Carlos uh with with incredibly opulent staging and fantastic singers that was just amazing and then uh yeah that those were two concerts you know what
I’m sorry about there’s no film or recording of the bis godov the the V production from soubor with clao was that was Al amazing you play that did you play the no no I played it yeah I I played Don was We Came several times yeah you can see this this if we started listing our favorite shows it would be here until tonight there’s
I’m just going to get a few more of these questions because I mean we’ve been we I could G for ages but uh um poor Tim asked to go to bed in U up in the in no not Brisbane where are you Townsville he’s having a hard time with his life if he’s up on the great barer
I think he’s doing some live streaming of his own from tomorrow so um with brass band so if you want more brass stuff you can tune into his stuff um a quick question from Nicola in Brisbane uh when did you realize that you wanted to pursue a career as a professional horn player when did you realize that or did it just happen summer 65 50 years ago and what happened in the summer 65
I was uh I went to the uh International Youth Orchestra here in Berlin as a uh uh an award for reward for winning the first prize in the German competition for young people and uh at the same time the school teachers changed and I got the bad ones and I thought okay I told my parents please let me become a musician and they said okay yeah and
I got my first job a few weeks after I started studying so I was 16 and which is exactly 50 years ago now this is why recall it pretty precisely I remember when I was in the eighth grade and I had been playing horn for a few years and you know it seemed to go pretty well and
I thought wow if I could do this you know as a job I wouldn’t have to work this would be fantastic so uh yeah then I then I went to the North Carolina School of the Arts for high school and I when I was 17 I had my first job that I got paid for I got the job of assistant principal horn in the
Greensboro Symphony and I I did this you know for two seasons till I went to Cleveland and so that I started actually playing professionally uh when I was 17 and uh yeah that I just just knew great I just thought to well I hope I can get a job you know when I was going to college audition that’s really difficult we were joking that someone
I we’re going to end up yeah we’ll see each other in the Saskatoon Symphony or something you know uh but you know in college I was one of the better ones you know so I was hoping you know maybe I’ll get a job and then did I I was in the right place at the right time so
I ended up here at an early age not a bad career move Stefan and Fergus when did you know oh it was an epiphany experience 31st of August 1957 Ed so good with your dates yeah yeah well it’s easy to remember that okay don’t forget the 69 not encounter yes well it comes out in a minute that’s really funny 34 first of
August 1957 edenburgh Festival my first concert ever I went with my mother probably because the babysitter failed on her or something and it that’s night I decided to become a professional home I said I want to do that I want to be a home like that man on the stage and that man on the stage Fus was
Dennis bra was his last concert wasn’t it yeah amazing and then he got into his car after that concert and tried to drive to London and almost made it home very sad story you heard that concert amazing that’s a really Epiphany moment well I mean I’ve had three children of my own now their grandchildren and I I worry about what did my mother go through having to listen to this little twit saying when
I grew up I’m going to be a professional heart player like that man and she’d say what would you say you know then that cuteness sweet and and it happened and it happened and then there was Erica’s Pub in 1969 another Pub okay what happened in Erica’s pup in 1969 you remember s Mor yes but we never met what we could have met well we no we we had beer there you did meet
I don’t know yeah did you forget that another one you forgot forensically forensically reconstructed that evening we didn’t actually meet that we were in the same Pub drinking the same beer at the same time really wow that is that spooky I was playing percussion then because of my tonsil operation I had the that’s you ex snare drum part in the
SoMo this was an international Youth Orchestra festival chaired or at least patronized by by funar members of the orchestra were actually in samarit recording the the chamber music M including I think the H chers with Cipher and and other things in the white church up on the hill same year and we were all kids you know teenagers and late teenagers you know college kids and we were there at the same time 1969 and fate a few years later 1985 we
W up col fate well it’s it made 102 years of service altogether in the bur FM monic and um people have been saying please can you do this again in the future so and because there are just too many stories so I don’t I don’t see why we shouldn’t do that um but we’ve been on we’ve been on for for over an hour and
I think we’re going to have to maybe if they keep sending in the questions we could answer them that’s true that’s true you know you guys I really haven’t been able to get to all of them there’s been some great things um Salvador your question what is more important to play in the orchestra um Talent or work
I think if all of us would say uh work well I think without Talent then all the work in the world is not going to really be enough when it has to the talent but one has to if one has the talent one really has to work otherwise the talent isn’t enough yeah a great question Chris from
Denmark wants are any of your children following in your footsteps no thank goodness yours now Nick has got a really he’s got a proper job Nick has a proper job I don’t know about my twins you know I think they’re quite musical we’ll see you they’re quite musical they’re they into music Jak we see Jakey plays the piano yes yeah very proudly no recital so far no recital well we’ll see what we can we do with that um but uh yeah people are saying thank you very much for the stories and the oral histories if you uh have any more questions that you really want
Us to answer or my three illustrious guests then do write them into the chat maybe we can go on the chat later and um answer as many as we can if there are so many of them then we might just have to do a a brilant yeah we can answer them here and if they if they’re really so many we can do a hangout part too because you guys aren’t going anywhere
I hope for a long time um there has been the question what is planned post post retirement because um yeah Claus is officially retired but we’re not even thinking about that because I can’t even bear it so you’re playing at least another whole year um what are your plans uh I watched Jakey growing up who is now almost seven he’s tells me this yeah
I plan a new book just started about can you tell us uh yeah musician being a musician okay um I still play in German brass as long as they let me play but my colleague and friend Wolfgang is 7 too so they have to so you have a long time to keep until I’m sit at least and then we’ll let people know in the next hangover hang out yeah so busy busy busy but you’re still with us for all of this season so
I’m not even going to think about life you can’t we can’t even imagine the section I my whole experience my whole career in philonic with these two guys pretty normal it’s normal but it’s still not nice for me I can’t I can’t bear it and you’ll just say sentimental stop being so sentimental perhaps we have to point out to the
North American British audience is that compul retirement here is compulsory by law true at 65 so 67 no oh 67 yeah you should know what you mean I should know how should I know 67 yeah gradually gradually you might be lucky enough to get the 67 we’ll see well I can’t imagine the BR fil without you3 and
I I don’t even know if I want to be in it without you3 um because you’re the reasons that I I wanted to be in this Orchestra and I still have to carry on the I pinched myself sitting in the section with you guys and um just to try I I still don’t quite believe it that I can play with you guys every day so thank you and we’ll stop being so sentimental now well still it it means an awful lot and you three are are just incredible
Inspirations not only to me but to all our horn hangout friends all over the world thank you for doing this this horn hangout and uh and yeah anything you’d like Tok well thank you s for doing these Hangouts there so many may I finish my cake you may finish your cake I I have to tell you guys
Tim I reminded me to tell you these wonderful t-shirts which Stefon already has and you two are going to get um are available online now uh at our we have a shop um uh George I don’t know if you can hello George I think he’s falling asleep behind the camera um these great t-shirts are available online at uh at our shop because we took them to the
IHS in LA and they were sold out within within hour 30s 30 seconds so um go to the shop on our website and you can order them and um we will do our best to get them out to you as soon as possible yeah and the next hangout will be any ideas what would you guys like write in let us know thank you for being with us today should we play them out what do you think what okay um you threw your your music over on the other side yeah here you go okay should we play so much through without the repeats carry on writing
Your carry questions andeat it’s page 16 number three page 16 should we play it once through without repeats okay can we manage that okay or should we do with repeats nah no repeats repeats or no repeats okay so thank you we’re playing out and thanks to Tim for staying awake thanks to George and to yob for um doing the stream here and here we go see you next time all right [Music] the [Music] the [Music] a [Music] bye [Music]
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