Wolfgang Vladar, horn player in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, talks to Sarah Willis about life in the orchestra and the secrets of taming the Viennese Horn on Feb.20th, 2013.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
Everybody out there in Horn hangout land I really hope that you’re out there and watching us do write it and tell us if it’s working we had a little bit of a technical problem here but it’s all been solved thanks to my amazing team yakob here in Berlin and Tim in Melbourne who had to get up very early this morning for this hangout and may
I welcome a very very special person and very very fine horn player Wolf Gang Vlad live from Vienna Wolf Gang welcome to the horn Hangouts hi nice to be here it’s great to have you Wolf Gang what were you playing this afternoon you just got back from Lin is that right yeah but I wasn’t playing there I just had to look for some
Stone from my for my new kitchen so Ah that’s far more interesting we should maybe talk about the design of your new kitchen we’ll do that on the next hangout I think you have many fans better we have fans that want to hear about the Vienna wh not about stones for your kitchen um the chat has been going crazy we have a lot of
Vienna horn questions for you and the biggest one that people keep writing they keep saying what is the difference between a Vienna horn and for me a normal horn are you going to answer that for us sure the the the for you normal horn doesn’t make mistakes and the Vienna horn is the well sounding instrument so that’s enough explanation you mean that the the the horn that
I play on doesn’t make as many mistakes as the Vienna horn but your horn sounds better yeah no the the difference is is is is rather easy to explain because the the Vienna eorn as the name says says is just an F horn so we don’t have any possibility to to switch onto a b side because it doesn’t exist as you can see the the valves are completely different there are no rotor rotary valves can can you can you make your movements quite slow because
Google is struggling a little bit with the beauty of your instrument sure sure that’s what we are used to to to be slow with our instrument so no problem because of that valves it’s a kind of a double tubing valve I mean it does the same like a rotary valve but just a little slower and in a different way and we have this
F crook which is kind of a remaining of the natural horn area or time do you have do you have do you change Crooks while you’re playing no but you you tip the spit out of it that’s it okay sorry we usually you know we don’t spit into our instruments it’s it’s it’s condensed water I say that to all the kids in all the kindergartens we go to
No it’s it’s the the the the diameter of of the tubing is smaller than on the on the rotary instrument it’s just about 10.9 mm I have no idea how it is in inches your instrument is about 12 mm the diameter of the tubing okay we’re getting very technical here a little bit beyond me yeah but that’s the difference you know yeah so that’s different so do you remember
Wolf Gang when we played um Wolf Gang and and I met when we went we did a tour of Japan with four Berlin horns and four Vienna horns now we were all four of all eight of us were quite apprehensive about meeting each other well we knew we’d like each other but we weren’t sure about playing with each other um whether that would fit and it was absolutely brilliant we had a great time but for the for the
Encore we swapped instruments and the thing was Wolf Gang you guys sounded great on the double horns and we sounded absolutely terrible on the modern on the on the Vienna horn and um that’s that’s nice that you say that but it’s not really true I mean we all struggled with with instruments we didn’t know but you had the the the main problem for you was we are used to play fide so we couldn’t we could play fide on your instruments but you couldn’t play the
BS side on our instruments because this is true and also for me as a lwh horn player as a lwh horn player it was a nightmare I don’t know how you guys get those low Nots out of there it’s not easy yeah we don’t know either but it works sometimes no you know if if you grow if you grow up with that it’s it’s it’s no problem
I always say if if you’re born blind you never know how it is to see so you you’re used to it and and I never did anything else than than playing this type of instrument so for me it’s completely completely normal if you could go back and start your um your horn playing career again would you choose the
Vienna horn or do you sometimes wish for an easier life on the double horn um as I said for me it’s it’s not a a difficult life with this instrument because I mean I grew up with the sound of this because I’m one of the the rare real vienes guys in this Orchestra so I’m I’m born in
Vienna I grew up in Vienna my dad was crazy about this Orchestra so I had to listen to all the broad casted concerts and all the recordings of Theo philonic Orchestra so I really grew up with that Orchestra and it was fascinated of the horn sound all the time and after a short violin career from five I think five years you were quite a virtuos on the violin
I remember you telling me yeah yeah that’s it so after five years my my my musical education went that far that I couldn’t stand my own viol playing so I switched to to Horn and I was allowed to do that so this was great in my life sorry I’m just refreshing your chat hey if you are watching this and you’re having problems reading the chat all you have to do is just keep refreshing the chat um we had some problems with that last time so just keep refreshing and the the questions keep coming in um
Wolf Gang I had a question in here from Tim in DC hello Tim um have you or your colleagues or predecessors ever gotten pressure to switch to a more modern instrument I’m not quite sure what he means by modern um but I guess maybe rotary valves or yeah no we we were never forced to do that because the the the orchestra is is kind of proud of what it has because it’s it’s it’s rather unique in the musical world and um the the the technique of the instrument makers developed that that much that all the the the new instruments we we can buy they’re really
Good and they have all tones all notes on it because when I started you couldn’t get any instrument where every note was perfectly to play really really but but now it’s it’s completely they they are really perfect instruments so you you’ve been designing one too haven’t you you just I saw on YouTube this one with the is it from vilt the horn um there’s something on on
YouTube about the it said that you designed it umal it’s not true I I just sometimes I’m using um I bought B High F horn from T which has is a rotary instrument it’s just for special things really high stuff or really technical modern stuff I use that not very often and the the it’s a rotary valve instrument and the valves are not on on the upper side of the instrument they are on the lower side so all the crooks are on the different side and and it looks like a
V6 yeah W I didn’t design it it already existed ah okay because I I was looking on YouTube I just I just made them to to change it to F High F instead of B High F okay okay so sometimes I’m nervous in in in concerts and then I refer on what I learned and this is just the
F side and not the BS side yeah incredible when I get I do the B fingering I promise because I have to to play the B Tu as well sometimes when I get nervous I use the B horn not the F horn that’s more secure really much better with the F fingering so yeah Wolf Gang the chat is going crazy with all sorts of questions now
I would prefer to just chat with you and ask you my question but there’s so many good questions coming out I’m just going to fire them at you if that’s okay um for example B has asked he’s not a professional player but he plays the Vienna horn um and he wants to know if it’s if we’ve already said what the difference is but is it the instrument that makes the different sound why does the
Vienna horn sound so different it’s a good question yeah I think a a percentage is the instrument but the main thing is how you you grow up with the with which sound you grow up and and you can because if I switch to the double horn and and I I’m I get familiar with the instrument then it might sound much closer to to a vienes instrument than to the real double horn so that’s just the the the type of school you you learn the instrument
I had a show you W and I us speak German so it’s it’s it’s quite funny would be much easier for me but no you’re doing great you’re doing great um uh well you maybe even forget what I was gonna ask um oh yeah I know what I was gonna ask the training in Vienna in in Austria um there the the players are really schooled aren’t they in the
Vienna hornn and and when you do an audition um and also someone’s asked this um do do you have to you have to play on a Vienna horn to do to do an audition with your Orchestra I mean it sort of goes up through the generations that nowhere else really teaches Vienna horn do they I I don’t know just in
Austria I think yeah but when you do an audition for your Orchestra like for us they have to play on Alexander’s and for your Orchestra they have to all play Vienna horn there’s no way they can win the audition and then change no it’s not possible you you you have to play the audition on on on the
V and you have to to play in the orchestra with the ven horn I mean you’re use for special things you you you can use a a discount horn or something else but but in general you have to play everything on on this instrument okay um Hadley has just oh hello Hadley he just asked what makes the
New Vienna horns easier to play than a normal single F horn from one of the big manufacturers like Alexander are they easier to play I have no idea because I I never tried a single F horn from Alexander okay I mean they are different to play because of of the of the different um measurement of the tubing this makes a big difference in in in response so they they they measured normal double horns or also normal
F horns with rotary valves with a with a bigger tubing MH and it’s now really technical I don’t know the expression the an for you have to translate that from from The Sound it’s it’s slower on on the vena horn than on all the other instruments the way that the note speaks I think you’d say that yeah the the the notes speak slower on the
Vienna horn than on on the on the normal single F horns I think I think that’s what you mean I mean I I I think I just know I just remember very embarrassingly in um in Japan trying to play eighth horn in our Ensemble on FAS Veno horn and it was just one of the most embarrassing things
I’ve ever done so I’m learning a lot about it here too um uh let’s move a little bit away from um from the technical stuff we can get back to this I mean I’m I’m just going here by the questions we have so we may skip around a little bit if you don’t mind um there’s a very good question from
Ryan that made me giggle and Ryan said uh does the does the Vienna philarmonic have more than one Orchestra it seems that the horn players on tour are different than the orchestra in Vienna this is a good question Ryan so our Orchestra has 10 home players wow and and as we are at the same time or with the same persons we have to to play in the
Vienna State Opera so we have to serve two things we have to to serve the Opera and we do the concerts right now today the the orchestra starts a tour to London and then New York for I think 10 or 11 days and every night the Opera is is performing so we need sometimes Subs there and here yeah so we have a um a pool of about four or five substitutes they’re very developed players they really played very well in the in the auditions but only one can win so from this pool we recruiting then some some substitutes because if if if you have a
Tour with with eight horns we we can’t do this because four of us has to stay in in the the Opera to play the shows there I because have 10 then it can happen that if he sees one concert there and the next concert there he can see completely different people but it’s still yeah also when when you’re in
Japan there’s so many chamber music formations that go to Japan aren’t there um and and it’s almost seems like the Vienna philonic are all the time they’re either they’re at the same time in Vienna at the Opera sometimes it’s the orchestra and then there’s always always I think the Vienna film Monica are all the days of the year in
Japan some the one reason is that that many people just skip holidays okay yeah like you sometimes I did that when I was younger yeah and did holidays when I have had the the possibility to to perform somewhere with chamber music or something then I did it because I I really like that job but now yeah now you stay at home even when the orchestra in not all the time but my wife gets a baby in
August so I will congrat the new kindy is she watching she’s not watching She’s practicing outrageous maybe she’ll come by and say hi in a few minutes um I have I have another question for you um the audition audition procedure you just took Yosef um the audition procedure is uh Carla’s asked I think it’s probably the same as in our
Orchestra it’s not behind a curtain or anything like that it is behind the curtain it is behind a curtain okay and why is that for you guys because we don’t do that oh we we it’s it’s the rule of of the of the audition in in in Austria or especially in Vienna is it prob is it maybe because there are so few of you that do that that you know everybody who’s playing anyway
I think one reason is that that you are at first not distracted by how the the candidate looks or how he acts as the normal reason you should just listen to to his abilities of playing yeah then the the the rule is that there must be one round U before the curtain not behind the curtain yeah yeah yeah that’s that’s that’s normal the first rounds they are always behind the curtain yeah okay okay and there’s one thing
I want to ask for me I’m ignoring all my questions now because I want to ask why do you guys sit round the wrong way because you you don’t sit one two three four you sit the other way around so basically um you know the first one is getting everybody in his face yep why this is I mean we sometimes some some conductors want us to to change but it’s a tradition going back to
Gustaf Mala when he was the director of the vi State Opera and also conducting the Vienna philarmonic Orchestra so it was his idea to do this stage setting from the orchestra and we are used to it and sometimes some one reason is also that horns two to four are not too loud they should listen to the first horn all the time
I know I know I know um but I would still find it very frustrating as the first well not frustrating but weird to have everybody blowing into your face um you know that that that’s not so it depends if if you have bad players it’s it’s distracting but we don’t have those so it’s no problem but but as a second horn player um it’s harder to adjust to the first horn player if he’s blowing in the other direction that’s true so the fourth horn is the boss yes nope a okay it’s the same you you you get used to it you know uhuh okay there
A lot of things you have to get used when you get into this Orchestra I was 10 year 10 years before in in another Orchestra it’s called Vienna folks Opa and which Vienna folk Opera so there’s there’s the Vienna philarmonic the Vienna Vienna State Opera and the Vienna uh folk Opera those are the three main or oh and then the two the radio
Orchestra as well yeah there’s a radio Orchestra as well yeah and when I first played with the Vienna philonic Orchestra I I was really embarrassed and frustrated because I thought I can’t play that loud I can’t play that soft and I don’t have 10% of their endurance but you get used yeah I guess so um well gang there’s more questions we’ve just had a question from um
Jeff Collinson who’s Tim’s boss and my boss sort of as well hello Jeff um he’s asked if you use different CR Crooks for different pieces because Jeff was a horn player so he knows about this yeah um Ronald yanit my colleague from the first one he’s doing this sometimes okay because he have one cook which is really good for the high and
Loud stuff and and the C he’s using all the time is is good for the rest of it okay I I don’t like that I I just found the best compromise for me and I just lose one crook yeah okay um we are having oh gosh uh we’re getting on to the girls now in your Orchestra might wait for a bit before that
Kendall gray is watching you remember Kendall you summer and he says congratulations to your beautiful wife so there we go hello Kendall so well I don’t know I guess if we’re getting if we’re getting on to this oh John wants to know why does wolf gu have a big picture of a horn behind him is it your horn now should we tell him the real reason because
I’m a nerd no that’s not true it was a funny story because couple of years ago uh Austrian Airlines which is the the local air carrier here they had a an aeroplane called Vienna fonic and they had I think three instruments on it it was a violin started V violin one harp who the hell knows why and they had the one
VI horn and I was a friend of the pilot who was organizing all that that this happens so they took my horn they pictured my horn and they they they sticking on the plane it’s like a sticky foil if that’s the right expression yeah and this is just a probation foil and they gave it to me so
I have it if if you look at it it’s completely the wrong side so it’s if you play you have you have to but but you know what I’ve got to tell you something John it wasn’t actually there yesterday when we did the text the test with Wolf Gang what was there some vien vienes uh Countryside was behind you or something wasn’t there some some picture no it’s not the
V Countryside it’s a actually it’s a be for me it’s a beautiful picture of the Vienna philarmonic Orchestra in the mque F okay it 1923 it’s a okay but I don’t know what this is in English bossy Sarah said Wolf Gang get another picture that’s not good enough for the background so we sent W going into his kitchen and he comes back lugging this huge picture saying how about this one and we made him hang that one up or it’s sitting on the sofa so so that’s the real reason why
Wolf Gang has a picture of a horn hanging in his living room I mean it’s much much worse that it’s normally hanging in the kitchen but that’s true well you can you can throw stuff at it um Kelsey Bean asked does Wolf Gang have any tips for Vienna horn players that want to study at your university practice there no you also have to audition if if you want to study at the
University do you teach at the University I’m assistant professor who’s the main Professor Toman Ronnie okay okay it’s Ronnie’s father yeah how difficult is it to to change from uh valve torn uh you know my horn onto a Vienna horn because there people that really really go crazy for it I mean it’s the most beautiful sound I
I much prefer actually the sound of yeah there are a lot of people trying it but not all of them succeed with it mhm because I don’t know if if if you’re not used to not be able to refer on on a b instrument it makes it really difficult and as I said before just taking the vien horn doesn’t make a viah horn player out of you true but if you
Kel’s asked back again he said what should he play so what should you play for an audition it’s quite interesting I think for the students to know if it’s the same sort of stuff you have orchestral excerpts I assume um Mozart um normally we we don’t really care what a student is playing for the University audition they should just play what they are best what they can do the best just okay what what we care is that they are able to produce a nice sound nice slurs and they they don’t have to be perfect because otherwise we don’t have to teach them otherwise you’d be
Scared yeah that’s Kendall’s asked a question since you joined the V Vienna philarmonic what would you say were some of the musical highlights for you because how many years have you been there now 20 you’re a yeah 20 you’re a real Old Pro yeah I’m the second oldest in the horn section now which is really scary Goodness
Me So musical highlights I think it it’ll be really interesting to can you remember any you can probably remember the ones that there were a lot of highlights my one of my greatest highlight was I was still substitute there was the the last concert with Leonard Bernstein he did right before he died it was ninth of Brookner to
New York which is Unforgettable for me because he was just an amazing person still in his age I had beautiful concerts with tan with a German Repertory I had beautiful concerts with Maris yanson I had one of the most amazing parcifal in salsburg with um Valerie GV so there’re there are a lot of highlights I can’t name them all now yeah yeah no
I bet um and Corno music has asked once again a technical question what is the biggest challenge for you in playing the Vienna horn apart from getting the notes that’s the biggest challenge no we are really we we really care about about the the entering of every note that it’s really soft and clear this is one of the biggest challenges to to do that in in in every
Dynamic situation even the you know what now I’m going to show you what I was doing you were talking about this wonderful um soft attack yeah and so I I I wanted to show you but we were trying to play it on another thing and this is of course the softest and the best that to get there you are and you’re coming in a minute yeah that’s playing you’re right there back so guys that is the beginning of the blue danub as you all know that’s played every year at the
New Year’s concert and for me that just epitomizes the viones horn sound I mean that that those are really beautiful entries quiet entries just a shame that third horn doesn’t get to play it lot of different things to play so no problem no but I I just adore the sound of it and just you saying that that’s what you take care of is that the beginnings of these sounds and the really quiet beautiful entries
I wanted to play you um the blue danu on our new special video mixing desk but somehow we didn’t quite get the audio so I do apologize to my horn hangout friends but we are we are trying to go with the times here and update our stuff for you so that the quality gets better and better so bear with us
I me that’s that’s completely normal talking about V horn then you have technical problems that’s saved by the professional thank you darling um tell me um um here we go Alex Mando wanted to know um he said would you say aside from of course VI other phonic recordings that the CDs by the Vienna horns are a good resource to enjoy the sound of a
Vienna horn now you don’t play with Vienna horns but um you think that’s a good way to really be introduced is that a very typical sound that they make or they very acrobatic it’s quite unusual actually no it’s not unusual it’s just no one did it before but it’s as you can hear with this recording it’s it’s possible and yeah and they they did a great job yeah it’s yeah it’s good
I mean it’s not the the the most typical stuff to to introduce the sound of the venise horn but still I think it’s can be heard difference no definitely um Campbell has asked other than the instrument what this is quite yeah quite complicated what are the particular musical characteristics of the Vienna Phil harmonic what for you makes the
Vienna fil the Vienna Phil apart from your wonderful morning suits that you wear at concerts that was my question not candles it’s a yeah it’s hard to explain because the the the style they they tried to to write books about it to explain it it’s it’s really hard to explain because it’s um it’s a way of of how we want to to sound not only we also the the strings as you as you can realize the strings are completely different to to every for example
American Orchestra and it’s the the way we try to phrase it’s it’s a tradition we we grew up in it’s it’s part of all all is is part of that and and to explain it within a few minutes it’s it’s rather impossible yeah but okay but we have a few more minutes and we’d really like to know because
I’ve sat in concerts and listened to your Orchestra and thought what makes it for me the Vienna philonic and not the brilliant I mean it’s the same with any great Orchestra they have their characteristics but with Vienna philarmonic it really is something about the sound I think it’s the instruments you play on for example the the horns of course the the obos on the
Vienna OBO that’s very unique and for me it’s your strings because your strings there is no string section like that in the world this is just discipline and this this incredible and I get the feeling is it true that you have to have been you have to have studied with someone with the from the Vienna fil ammonic string section to get a job no it’s not true but you have to be able to produce this kind of sound yeah yeah and and the way to do the music because part of the audition is also to play a wals of the string audition this is really
Interesting because this this has nothing to do with horn playing except if you’re a tooty horn player like I am you often have to play the offbeats you know so dot dot do dot but in Vienna sing the off beats that how they go in in Vienna no I won’t sing because this is embarrassing but but okay but the the the two comes early and the the three late this is the technical expression okay so if
I’m going to sing it and make a total full of myself it would be like like that you can’t do that if you’re not vien you can’t just can’t do it yeah you can you can it’s it’s you get used to it if you do it for a couple of years you can do it but I mean this is our this is this is our folk
Fulk music we we we grow up with that yeah so we can do it if if we have to play some American fog music we really we’re bad in that we can notes how it’s written but we don’t we can’t play the style really perfect but with Wales it it works pretty good yeah yeah I had a question it’s it’s gone dropped down the chat somewhere
I know I saw one somewhere about what sort of other horn sounds do you like apart from low horn sounds in the Berlin philonic American horns film music horns um I can’t remember who asked that sorry it’s it’s way down in the chat but it was a good question yeah no problem I mean I kind of like almost every wellplayed horn the sound
I like it more if if if you or if the the the players care about beautiful round sound and not the aggressive style good good answer Chicago horns for example yeah yeah okay great good answer thank you I’ve just had a very funny thing in from Andrew Deacon said did you know about the Scottish Vienna horns I heard of them there there’s a
Scottish Vienna horn Club that’s so funny years ago I met some guys in in London sometimes but I never heard them play so well he’s put a link up here which I’m going to check out in a minute and I’m sure these Scottish guys play Vienna horns in kils at least I hope they do there’s a um there’s a a
Japanese vieno horn Club as well isn’t there yeah yeah great I don’t think there’s a berin one maybe we should uh maybe we should form one yeah not um yeah so listen we’ve got to round up you’ve got to get back to your um to your evening I think you had a beer there somewhere I was seeing is it finished already still something almost
Okay so we’ve got that much that much time to ask us a couple more questions um Jeff has asked is there a course of study that you followed that is unique to the vienes school of playing so but I guess you were schooled who was your teacher I I had three teachers yeah the first one was yoseph
Vala he was home play in the Vienna philarmonic my second teacher for short time was fried gbla he was in the Vienna folks oper and then I studed most of the time with Roland Burger who was one of the greatest first home players in this Orchestra in last century for my op so basically you were schooled to join the
Berlin uh Berlin excuse me Vienna philonic I don’t know if I was coool it’s it’s was just the way you could learn horn in the best way it was the the the venes horn yeah so then I had some luck with the auditions I wanted to to to be a veterinarian when I was young I never thought about being a a professional musician yeah he still could
I mean you know people change it would be a real shame because I must say I’ve played with Wolf Gang and the sound that he gets out of Vienna horn is really quite extraordinary and I wish I could do the same things that he could do to make that Vienna horn sound nice we have one in the
Berlin Phil horn room that we play around with occasionally but uh we it’s it’s hard not to miss a lot of notes I’m afraid that’s no you can do it this is just you have to do it more often BBE then it works I hope that we do another tour at some point yeah to for berlins for um for for viennas how and my last questions to you it how do you answer when someone says to you well
I think I know the answer to the question who’s the better Orchestra the Berlin Phil or the Vienna filer monic because people ask that all the time I think it’s it’s not there’s no challenge or no fight between those orchestras because both are really good orchestras both are have their their typical style of playing which is rather different and one will like your
Orchestra more and the other next one maybe our Orchestra so it’s hard to to to discuss about what is more beautiful or what not because it means to anybody else it means completely different things that’s I absolutely totally agree and we had a wonderful time actually when Sir Simon um turned 50 his birthday present to himself was a concert of was it
Mala 6 yeah we did Mala 6 with 50% Vienna and 50% um Berlin Phil and um it was the best time we had it was like a youth orchester we did a concert here in Berlin and a concert in Vienna and it was the first time that the strings weren’t too weak comparing to the to the winds because the if you remember they played with
I think 24 or eight no 18 or 20 double bases 26 first violins it was crazy yes it was but it was such a fantastic time and I really I’m play the mus friend because it’s too small for that that’s right it was a fantastic time anyway the best thing about that was that I got to meet you guys and um and to experience
Vienna horn close up I hope that you’ve you’ve got a little bit more insight into the world of Vienna horn um wolfang thank you so so much for um for being here with us tonight and pleasure for me I I hope you’ll come back because uh it’s just we’re we’re all so fascinated by the Vienna horn and tomorrow
I’m going to go and get our Vienna horn out of its case in the horn room here in Berlin and see if I can have a go good okay thank you Wolf Gang thanks all to you for watching thanks for bearing with us for the the little audio hiccup we had there don’t forget on um Friday we have
Fergus McWilliam here my colleague and um and friend and he will be talking about the new book He’s written um uh the anti anti- horn method um how to blow your own horns so uh join us for that 9:00 Berlin time um that’s 3:00 in the afternoon in the USA um some people were saying thank you for not doing this hangout at the crack of dawn so um you’ll be well await for that thanks for joining us
Wolf Gang you’re wonderful thanks a lot see you all on Friday Bye by Pleasure bye
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