“The Silver Horn, the Berlin Phil and lots of Tennis! “Stefan de Leval Jezierski, horn player in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, talking to Sarah Willis live in Berlin on the Horn Hangouts. 9.05.2013
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
Hi everybody out there in Horn hangout land welcome back it seems like ages since we had the last horn hangout it really was quite a long time ago wasn’t it anyway I’m really really happy to welcome my dear esteemed colleague Stefan Yi to the horn Hangouts Stefan thank you so much for joining us today Sarah it’s great to be here
I’ve been looking forward to this and it’s a great event and I’m happy to be here you’ve been actually a guest on the horn Hangouts already twice or three times you were with ravan yes I said hello to ravan who else we have Jeff Nelson and Myon Bloom and Jeff Nelson that’s right well we have some guests we have some extra guests today um the the horn hangout room is totally full we don’t only have
Stefan and yacob um Stefan’s our cameraman yacob is our video mixer we have the local TV team which uh Stefon will show you now from the air Bay Bay they’re doing a they’re going to report on the horn Hangouts for local TV which is great hi guys hello and we also have some uh family of Stefan Stefan’s mom and his cousin at the back there hi you guys welcome to
Horn hangout land so um Stefan let’s start start okay today’s Father’s Day it is yes what did you do today you oh you have four kids that’s quite a lot well two little children the two of them are are grown up are they watching uh I think so yes hi I think they’re all watching yes great yeah hi there um and uh we have a we have a free day from the orchestra we have a concert tonight you’re not playing
I’m not playing no so do you have to cook for all your children tonight uh no I probably not uh our our nanny is coming tonight and and my wife has cooked for them now so they’ll have a meal now and they’ll just be relaxing in the evening great well we’ll work hard here on stage and think of you yeah great
Stefan we’ve got so many people watching um from all over the world I’ve got everyone on the chat here and please um write in your questions for Stefan I’ll get to them as soon as I can um but I wanted to ask the main question which everyone’s wondering how did a horn student from North Carolina get into the
Berlin film on a con 8D no less okay well I’ll just go back to the beginning when I was in the sixth grade I’d been playing a bit of ukulele and guitar and the teacher said anyone who wants to go play in the band can beat with M Mr Jones in the cafeteria so I thought I’m out of here anything but this classroom so
I’ll go meet with Mr Jones and so I went to the band room and um so he said you can play one or four instruments uh trombone cornet flute that’s that’s for you girls and Claret and so I picked the the cornet and I played that and after a while I played trombone um cuz I thought that was really cool and then cooler than ukulele a little bit not nothing against ukulele trone was great
I love the glissandos and then when Mr Jones told me after practicing all weekend that I couldn’t uh do the glissandos on the trombone I had to tongue every note I thought oh wow this is not for me so I switched to a real trumpet like uh like m Davis was playing and uh and yeah I played trumpet for a while and in the eighth grade our band director
Mr Fleming said anyone who wanted to play uh the trumpet and cornette players wanted to play a French horn and I’d always liked the pictures of the horn you know the round sort of thing and the Romantic sound the forest and everything that horn is associated with so I thought well I I want to play horn and
I was waiting for him to bring a horn said I’m going to I’ll bring one oh I forgot and finally brought a horn so I was playing the horn and it was a lot of fun and so I practiced until our band split up uh with a redistricting and then I went to the North Carolina School of the
Arts for 11th and 12th grade and I figure wow this horn playing is fun if I could do this for a living then I wouldn’t have to uh I wouldn’t have to work that would be great ah okay so horn playing you could do for fun and not for a Liv that’s what I thought okay and um and so
I decided to study horn in in in college and juliard was $100 to apply for and I’d always been a fan for of Cleveland U the old recordings with myON Bloom and George C Cleveland Orchestra I just love the the way they they sounded you know they really went for it and so then I auditioned I studied with
Mr Bloom uh for four years in Cleveland and I still and I needed to get a job so I auditioned uh drove all the way to to uh Cincinnati an audition for fourth horn I drove to Milwaukee you you drove all that way and Gail Williams got the job to that was Rochester Rochester I got into the finals but
Gail Williams got the job he was a bit older and more experienced so I didn’t feel too bad about that uh uh anyway so then finally I got I didn’t have a job I was playing extra with the Cleveland Orchestra and a a friend Barry Shapiro a viola player who’s playing now in SS Rand Orchestra recommended me to
Eric to williger who I’m sure most of you horn players must know great Eric’s principal horn now in radio great player great guy hi Eric if you’re there anyway um so he talked me into coming to Castle to take the audition I was a little bit skeptical uh because an audition you know it’s a lot of money just to play an audition and what if
I don’t get it and I gave him a really good tape that I did of the Mozart third horn conera when I won the competition the conero competition at Cleveland Institute of music I gave him the tape and he thought oh it’s all in the bag please come and I said I don’t know he said well if you if you come if you don’t get the job
I’m sure you’ll get it I’ll pay your roundtrip Transportation so uh okay that was a deal he he pay your flight if I didn’t get the job get the job yeah so I thought I don’t have nothing to lose I’ll come and so I practiced and I played the stra Concerto No problem and they said will you want to hear something loud and
I said oh great loud playing that’s just my thing I’ve been playing extra in the Cleveland Orchestra and uh and you know we we like to play loud in Cleveland that was sort of you know Fergus is watching yeah hi Fergus hi Fergus um and so then when I tried to play the third bethoven the the loud passage in in the slow movement uh strangely enough not much sound came out of my bell it’s very unusual for you step very unusual
I’ve been practicing All Summer in the apartment and I didn’t really practice that much loud and then I didn’t notice that uh the horn had hadn’t it all somewhere anyway so I tried to play Loud nothing came out Eric said he saw the dollar signs in front of his eyes he was and all horn players you know they were just uh so upset what’s wrong with what and then one of the horn players said let me see your horn they didn’t give anyone to anyone the job that they a guy yor fman in the orchestra in cast let me see your horn the horn is
Kaput it’s kaput and he went to the conductor and said the horn is kaput and then he took a mouthpiece brush and cleaned the Le lead pipe and about two uh teaspoons of cud came out said now play loud so then he told the the conductor that his horn was kaput then I managed to get another chance in
Castle I played some operas I knew Albert Herring and that was in their you were very young though that’s that’s quite early I was 21 that was 21 but you don’t know that many operas at age 21 and I did know Albert Herring cuz we done in school I knew The Magic Flute and Albert Herring and Albert
Herring was something that had to be continue so that was a big plus for me because they weren’t rehearsing it and someone had to play Albert Herring and that you know it’s not the easiest of operas and so so they gave you the job they gave me the I had to play again and it was no problem they gave me the job in
Castle I was 21 did you ever imagine starting in Germany was that yes well the plan was to go to Germany for two years and then get some experience because you can’t get a in the States you couldn’t get a job unless you had experience and you couldn’t get experience unless you had a job so Europe for two years
I thought I would go to Europe okay so then I was in the castle Orchestra and I applied for the Pittsburgh Symphony third horn and they said well no we not interested no invitation why because they heard I was playing a con a d and Andre prevan was the conductor and from what I understood he wanted only people that played brass horns cuz they wanted a more
European sound anyway so I didn’t get an invitation for Pittsburgh two weeks later I did get the invitation for the Berlin philarmonic now why did did you were you such a self-confident young thing that you just thought You’ just go for it for the Berlin philarmonic well I I figured yeah I didn’t have anything to lose there was no one who would have paid for your ticket if you hadn’t have got the job no they the thing no
I already had my didn’t I had my job in Castle I’ve been there for two years almost Eric had no risk anymore back then in Germany if you got an invitation to a job they would pay for your roundtrip train ticket plus your hotel even if you didn’t get through to the yeah okay so that was if you got an invitation and because uh there was a a colleague a friend of mine in
Castle G who played in byid and G cyer and monford clear he he recommended me to them he said oh he’s a good guy good horn player and so I got the invitation for the Berlin fonic and I wasn’t he he’d give me some valuable tips he said okay first I I played for him tried to get the sound a little bit brighter and more focused to open your hand open my hand a little bit but
I was still playing my uh con 8D and my Jordan La board out C10 mouthpiece that’s really American and uh and so I was practicing just opening my hand a little bit and so uh grta said you go there and uh drink one beer before you play no more no less and the best thing one beer before you play that’s a polling advice these yeah and and the best thing if you invite
Mr halman to have a beer with you Mr halman the principal horn he’s former principal horn player and so we I had a beer with with Norbert halman before the uh audition I went on stage I wasn’t at all nervous because they said oh they don’t take Americans for the Berlin philonic you know and especially playing on a conad so
I just went out there and played basically for fun and I I you know it was going pretty well except you know I the first note of the cadens I split but I thought oh well that’s it then but then they said okay uh come back in in two weeks and play for Mr funaron and I still thought it was a preliminary audition for foreigners
I wasn’t really nervous uh because there weren’t that many so you had to do a private audition for carer well no the whole orra was there but he wasn’t there for the first audition there was uh uh January 18th 1978 was it was it the same 1978 that makes me feel so young yeah well you are no yes thank you more more more um uh did you of course
I was only 13 just kidding I was I was 23 at the time okay I can’t do the math um but was it the same as my audition you had to stand on the big stage here totally on the big stage the first time we had uh three people in the finals uh and we had to play one after the other all three yeah and uh one of them got invited
John Stobart got into the academy and they asked me to uh to play in the um in the uh Orchestra this was like the second audition and anyway I was playing along and it went really well and and uh then I played till Ole the low part um in my this was the audition for third horn we third horn yeah it was uh
I played it in the wrong key yeah cuz it was in play in the wrong key I played it in D instead of an F so I started bit lower but I played it correctly in the wrong key and someone said hey wait that’s the wrong key and they said oh well was was wrong in his book it’s okay and then uh zek fre chaer was there putting the uh or passages on my stand and he said keep going if you keep going like this you’ll get the job and so you press believe it you know but then you know everything went okay
I still wasn’t you know I thought that okay then maybe I’ll get into the real audition where the the German players are also playing but I didn’t realize that that during that time all the German players that would be good enough for the Berlin fonic uh would rather have a job in a in a radio orchestra playing first horn where they muchoney didn’t pay better money but it had a lot more free time and you third horn and third horn the berin filmon it’s a dream job it’s a dream job but it’s it was a you know it’s a tough job anyway so after
I I played the audition I went off stage and Garrett ciper the former solo horn in the orchestra said congratulations and I said well for what and he says you have the job but you’ve got to get a German horn and a German mouthpiece and I was 23 years old said okay I’ll get a German horn and a
German mouth yeah sure those 23 I’m in the ber fell Amic I can’t believe it you know amazing I didn’t realize this was a probation probationary year which could be very tough 2 years probation well back then it was only one year okay but uh you know I had good luck and a lot of support from the section and you had to change well then
I had to find a German horn so I went to Alexander and I came home with a Alexander brought it back to Castle and I was playing but I had problems with the intonation the horn was at pitched at 440 and I you know I actually needed shorter tuning slide it’s still my tuning slide is much shorter than everyone else’s
I’m just grew up with playing on 440 and I just have for some reason I play with a shorter tuning slide otherwise I’m just uh too flat well for our for our for all our hor nerds because that’s what most of us are out there um Lee has just written she says she has a Yamaha poster from the 90s of the
Berlin fil now how did that happen that you guys all played on Yamahas well for in yeah about 1988 we were all invited to uh the Yamaha Factory uh in Tokyo and they had been working hard developing uh the 667 horn and so I we all tried these horns and they seemed very good and so we all uh got a horn for a very good price and did the poster for them and
I played it for 2 years and uh the horn was good it was easy to play and easier than my melor which I’ve been playing on so after the Alexander I switched to a melor which was the horn that uh G sier the model gett played and we it Blended well with him but anyway we played Yamahas for about uh two years okay and then
I switched in Alexander um what were your highlights in the burin philonic can you can you actually can you say that one of the most some of the highlights definitely uh was the in the news that I had passed my probationary time that was a big highlight yeah I would say that was one of mine too the funny thing it same thing happened to me
I came out of the audition and someone came and said congratulations I said what for cuz I was sure that the other guy had won the job it’s the same thing you just can hardly believe it anyway some of the highlights were playing the fourth Brookner with Herbert von Caron conducting in lince and the Brookner City in
Austria and then another highlight was playing the ninth merer with Leonard Bernstein uhhuh and then uh playing the second Broms with Carlos cver was definitely a highlight there have been so many highlights and some of the personal highlights for me uh in recent times was playing the uh concer stook with my colleagues uh rodic babara Stefan dor and
Sarah that was that was big highlight other highlights when I played first horn on EIN helden laen with Simon Rattle conducting I remember that and then I played first horn on till oen Spiegel with ton conducting and you played a lot of first horn I played many concerts on first horn and no problem for you well I enjoy uh playing first horn
I also and enjoy playing a third horn it’s usually a little bit less stressy but sometimes depending on the piece you know but I I like to play All Parts uh for me horn playing is is fun which is one important thing I’m really lucky to have a job where I still enjoy it I I’m glad to to uh go to the filon uh and play whatever you know with whether it’s first horn or if
I would play fourth horn I would be happy to do that too it’s just fun playing in this great Orchestra kendle gray asks and we skip around a little bit questions come in and out Kendall gray um who was a real horn out fan hi Kendall was it hard to adjust moving to a foreign country and starting a professional career at such a young age was that that’s not something we really think think about it at the young age is it well it didn’t seem that difficult at the time because in
Castle where I started uh there were many Americans in the orchestra we had an American brass Quint and uh the ballet Department uh was also American in English uh our conductor James lockart was from England so it was not so so much of a culture shock besides my mother is uh was born in Vienna and I could speak some
German when I came and the more beer I drank the better my German God strangely enough yeah that’s very strange uh is it still like that uh well now it doesn’t really help that much if you know up to a point then yeah ah I enjoy speaking German Le M said the concert STP was fabulous you watched it on the digital
Concert Hall I think you it’s out there on the digital Concert Hall it was a really special concert wasn’t it it really was um what was more interesting uh shorty and Tero shorty Tero ask what was more interesting I got it got sused it with the iPad now be pleased to get um what was more interesting playing first or third or fourth horn well
I think playing first horn was probably more uh challenging and more interesting the opportunities I’ve got fortunately I’ve had uh quite a number of opportunities to play first horn and it’s just a different preparation and you just have to live your day differently playing first horn and it’s great uh it’s great not to have that to be under the gun all the time but on occasions
I enjoy I enjoy doing it when I have the chance so um where were we in the history You’ got into the Berlin fil you’ve changed you went from a con 8D onto a mure yes um and then you went back to you got an Alexander then I I tried to play an Alexander the milk or was an interesting horn it’s like a like a brass 8D with a big
Bell very heavy very powerful horn and Garett Cipher and I used to make a lot of noise on these instruments uh we needed to back then because the there were 21st violins and doubled Woodwinds and we just had that’s true he doubled everything had that big it was like the Rolls-Royce 12 cylinder sound so is that where the tradition comes from
Berlin Phil horn section playing really loud CU well it’s also because they’re loud because of the hall we play in in the filoni in a normal classical concert hall there’s a wall to reflect the sound off okay in the filon we’re playing into an empty space and if we don’t play a little bit louder like usually one
Dynamic louder in the loud passages the horns send tend to to just get lost a little bit and you know we can’t have that we don’t want to we don’t want to be nothing worse than reticent horn playing so that’s Stefan’s wisdom nothing worse than reticent horn playing I totally agree now Stefan I have a question for you um what horns were you guys playing on in this
Stefan can you see this you closing up on this oh yeah that’s the that was the look at this you guys look at those three beauties that was on my melor yeah that was probably in the 80s sometimes oh think got it yes that was with my colleagues okay Norbert hman Manford clear is this is this is on
YouTube it’s V jaac serenade and um really H if you get this still shot St can you get that that’s Norbert Norbert Manford and and yourself all I can say to that is here today gone tomorrow that’s my saying I’m sorry I’m sorry I just had to use that one that it’s really quite what were you playing on what horns were you playing on on that uh
I think well Norbert always played in Alexander and uh Manfred was playing on a Yamaha Custom uh before that he played on an Alexander I really can’t tell from the picture what that is it’s either a Yamaha Custom or an Alexander it could be that he that was back in the Alexander Stefan I just have to say you look so much better now oh thank you you just look so much better now honestly really well and the two of them
Manfred bless his heart Manfred died two years ago um lbert is in Munich he’s a happy bunny in music um so you think those are the Alexander so how did it come that the whole section played on Alexander well we’re just trying out different horns for things we need to do uh the Alexander horn seems to be able to get the different colors the the the spectrum of dynamics that we need which from it ranges from very very very soft to uh very very very loud we need the extremes and and especially to uh to make different colors in the softer dynamics that
Alexander seemed to be an ideal choice and also it it just seemed that after a while you know everyone was using Alexander and I I tried to plan on Alexander I said wow I could make my life a lot easier if I played on one of these cuz the melor I could play louder than anyone else but no one was really thanking me for playing louder than anyone else
Stefan can you cool it a little bit and so okay you know I’m I’m a I’m a team player and I wanted to do my job uh and I figured it would be easier to do do it if I played also on an Alexander and but everybody the whole section changed onto Alexanders didn’t they except well monford was allowed he stayed to stay stuck to his
Yamaha until he retired and I didn’t know that and Garett cyford was playing also on a Yamaha 667 uh the one with a square um first B flat valve the I think 667 V or whatever he was playing that until he retired and after that everyone was playing um because now we all play Alexander and that’s actually a requirement um not to do the audition you can do an audition like you got an audition different horn but to fit in with the section it’s an inofficial requirement inofficial okay unofficial even unofficial yeah we’ve been in
Germany too long okay now we’ve got all these questions so what I’m going to do is just um shoot some questions at you from the from the viewers because really they’re having a nice chat there’s my mom is watching so hello Mom and uh Steve me is watching so hi Steve thanks for for watching and um you’ve got people all over the place
Hadley Reynolds Fergus is up is up on the chat Fergus is now a professional on the chat because he did the Berlin field chat fantastic so he knows how that works Pierre sasi which who I think you’re from Switzerland is that right hi Stefan could you explain the differences between German and other horns and mouthpieces it’s pretty obvious when it comes to vienes
Horns but I think he means um you know he says is it as marked as the difference between piston and rotary trumpets well the German horns basically all over the world people are playing German style horns the con ad the Holton uh these were copies of a of crus horns and then the Lewis horns and uh Ral and
Hill horns and uh Atkinson horns they’re all based on German designs the only real different horns are the French horns from France with the ascending third valve which not many people use these days so basically what people know call a horn or a French horn is a German horn or a copy of a German horn okay okay um and uh there’s there’s all sorts of what is your favorite beer jenica asks
I love those sort of questions those are really cool questions what is your favorite beer Stefan you’re not really a beer man are you well I I really like uh pills no or and I like R beo beer and um okay Le those are two you but those are your two ones but you’re actually red a red wine man
I usually drink red wine yeah yeah Stan likes his red wine um if you just want to see what sort of different questions here Lee and Main tell says your glasses are much better now than on the video okay so I hope for that then we have some more official nice a horn question horny question horny questions am
I allowed to say that um Pat says how do you prepare for your most challenging third horn solo now my question to that would be what is the most challenging third horn solo uh could be something like you know the bronze piano conos number one or or number three mhm uh I prepare it like I would prepare for any other um solo concerto or or well solo conto is a little bit different but if
I was playing first horn these pieces are as demanding as most pieces are on first horn so what I like to do is play for an hour in the morning you know just warm up carefully with the farcus warm up you you’re a big farcus warmup fan recently in the last two years I’ve I’ve gotten really into doing the farcus warm-up uh every day and
I i’ I’ve noticed the benefits I used to be a bit lazy about it farcus warm up and then scales just basic things like that I got to tell you guys um Stefan has his seat in the horn room so when you come into the horn room and Stefan’s there usually in our horn room you can um hear who’s warming up before you even get into the room you can you know who it is and if you you hear
Stefan you hear the far because you open the door and he’s right at the end of the horn room right next to the window that’s Stefan seat yeah that’s good Fang shoy you should be far from the door and facing the door you can see who comes in well you’re your your I must say your your wardrobe your locker certainly doesn’t look very fing shoy like yes well that’s the only reason they took a girl in the horn section was to tidy up the horn room that’s true
I’m just not very good at it that’s true you’re right um good U Mark in sir ask hi Stefan I don’t know if you’ve worked with kids but suppose you met an 11-year-old horn enthusiastic Enthusiast what would you do to support him I would make sure that he has fun playing horn that’s the main thing and then
I would make sure he would he uses the air properly and has an Ure which can function so it do too young with the tee do you think it depends on uh on the individual how big the 11year old is and if he’s needs if he has braces uh I think if one has braces that can be a problem but uh
I don’t think 11 years old is necessarily too young I started with the trumpet when I was 12 and so well actually the cornet and so I think it’s a it’s it’s an okay time to start okay okay well that’s good so you would okay you’ve had another beer recommendation I’m sorry to skip around like this um but someone’s recommended um beer from
Belgium oh yeah that has a lot of alcohol AFF beer from Belgium thanks Jack that was Jack that’s it’s good but it has a lot of alcohol have be careful with it now there’s a question that a few people have seconded would like me to ask this um from somebody called horn very original name on the chat thank you horn um have you ever suffered from an injury or have the
Berlin horns been through a serious in injury and how did you go about it now I ask you this because I know it’s not something you talk about that much but you woke up one morning with a really bad it wasn’t an injury it was a yeah well it was uh one morning in 1997 I woke up and
I was going to warm up play and I noticed I couldn’t get above the high register so I was a little bit concerned and so I put you mean you couldn’t get above the high register I was playing and I I I mean above the middle reg I couldn’t play any high notes sorry you I answered that wrong
I I still can’t get above the high register I would like to get above the high register I’m not quite sure I I couldn’t play Above you know above the middle register and I I’ve had bad chops but this is really not good so I put the horn away I went uh to the gym with my girlfriend did a a light workout and then
I came back and tried to practice again and it was even worse and so I was quite there are bad days aren’t there are bad days but this and I’ve had bad chops before before but this was something different so I went to the hospital and said you know something is uh wrong I can’t um play above the did you feel did you feel no
I didn’t really feel anything but I weren’t there and and then uh the guy looked at my tongue and put some salt and sugar on it some taste tests and I didn’t couldn’t really taste the difference and I the one side of my face was a bit uh you know I couldn’t get any attention there and he said oh well you have uh
Belle’s py and uh I said what is that will it uh is this going to go away oh yeah well yeah usually goes away how long is it going to last and he said uh well you know maybe two weeks maybe two months sometimes it never goes away and and I was like I was totally destroyed wow well you know
I’m a horn player what am I going to do and so he you know he gave me some some uh vitamin pills and that was that it wasn’t really very good uh probably I should have been on massive doses of cortisone right away it would have gone away a lot quicker but I didn’t so then I went to a a nerve doctor and you know he gave me some medicine and he prescribed a lymph drainage but no one can really understand as a horn player as a non-horn player what that actually means is oh you have bells pulls so this side of my face here
Was uh I had no strength I couldn’t uh I couldn’t press my lips together I had a difficult time even closing my uh eye my left eye how long did this all go on for this well I couldn’t play a note then for 3 months and uh so I went to I tried everything I lived very uh very clean uh must
B difficult it was difficult but I figured I had to try everything moderate sport this is the advantage of interviewing someone you know well no alcohol no other uh you know things you know um and so a little bit of sport but not overdoing it and making sure I didn’t get cold air on my face what about your your your mental state because it must have been terrifying
I yeah I was very very upset for it was before I was in York a few days this was 1997 yeah and I was very upset you know I was you know well you know what am I going to do will I become a a conductor you know I can always conduct someplace or am I going to be a teacher or something or will
I maybe go move to the Bahamas and become a tennis trainer um well that’s actually doesn’t sound too bad does it you know what what am I going to what am I going to do so what what did you do how did it get that I mean you lived healthily I lived healthy I just W I was hoping was getting better
I did uh Physical Therapy lymph drainage and then I went to acupuncture the acupuncture doctor after 3 months of no improvement he said try to play a note and I couldn’t have not been able to get a single note out of the horn it was like you take a beginner on the street and you give him a bugle or a horn tell him to buzz his lips a lot of people can get a note out of the horn
I couldn’t get one note my lip would get to oh no I couldn’t blow up a balloon and so he told me to try to play so I played a like a a pedal F Concert B flat the low note in the fourth horn solo of of the ninth bethoven and I could play that note after three months yeah that was the first note
I could play again and I could play it and it sounded really okay I looked in the mirror I’m playing horn again and then uh and then after that I knew it was going to come back I built up my register one note at a time then uh I was supposed to have a tour I couldn’t play in the orchestra
I was supposed to have a tour in the summer with an orchestra to Japan and I didn’t want to uh to play that tour uh and gradually things were getting better I remember that you went with Fergus didn’t you fun FG play first Fergus offered to play first horn I couldn’t get the high notes I the low register was by then was really okay it must have been good to have just got back into the first it was great
I really uh still appreciate Fergus supporting me there was one note I couldn’t get in the beginning of the tour a g I couldn’t play up to G the you know middle G you know the the in above the the staff the G that’s quite high it’s still high but I could get below that I could sort of barely get the
G well don’t worry we’ll rewrite it but it was really important psychologically for me to to get playing again and then the next season we started with Easy Pieces like uh Baro fantastic Symphony third horn my nerves were okay I could hold out a that’s the scary thing I find when I’m not feeling good and something thick lip or something that’s when get most nervous but you you must have in strong
I was uh I was just so happy to to play and then one time I had a dream that I was playing first horn in the Chicago Symphony and that I think that dream was an indication that I was going to get better I never had played first horn in the Chicago Symphony uh I played a concert in
Symphony Hall with uh a member of the Chicago Symphony in chamber music but that was maybe the closest uh but anyway it was a dream that I was back playing and uh so then I was so grateful that I could play again and now I can play and now I can play better than before because I mean so much more to me to be able to play again after not being able to play at all do you do you then um you recognize danger signs much quicker because
Hadley has just asked hi Hadley um he asked how do you guide yourself through the rough days where chops are not right do you do you still have days like that or do you are you just grateful to be back on no I’m I’m grateful to be back and uh it’s a matter of preparation go now but
I think it’s really Brave of you to talk about it it took it took uh about a year but till I got you know the strength came back it was enough you know I felt I wasn’t uh really playing as loud as I did before here before Oh My been so long in Germany beforehand uh we’ve been germanized we um are
English my mother says you speak English like a German I do not I speak like an American they speak like North Carolina North Carolina I do yeah but um well thanks um Monica ludkins from Melbourne hi Monica you should be in bed but thank you for watching um she said really inspiring stuff F so um I’m sure a lot of people out there felt like that thank you thank you for telling us about that the other thing about avoiding injury um uh
I’m sure you can all tell by the way Stefan looks but he’s actually total he’s the only one the horn section has never had back problems um because you keep yourself incredibly fit well I think it’s part of the game is staying fit it’s for the you know once the breathing goes then you’re old if you can’t really put the air in the horn then you put too much stress on the chops and things start to go then if you if things aren working well then that puts stress on the nerve so it’s like a chain reaction
I think it’s really important for all horn players to stay in shape as best shape as possible so it’s uh get out there Jing because it’s like it’s what are what are the best things to do the best things for you is the is all the really your back is never gone we’ve all been total invalids I think is is uh is weight training is important uh or resistance machine training plus some sort of cardio training yeah lifting up uh heavy beers no it’s important to keep the shoulders um strong and then it’s very important to do something which uh you know cardio keep the
Heart and lungs working don’t we do n of that during the day all right I’m not going to knock your horn off Stefan’s looking very nervously if I’m going to knock his horn off because last week or two weeks ago and we all went off for the interval and Stefan left his horn on the stage and he came and
Stefan door knocked it over didn’t he yeah and I had to play first horn on the recording of the prooff uh piano conero on my substitute horn which is a very good horn I just wasn’t used to it just adds a little bit of a a little bit of uh stress well I don’t have anything difficult to play for a while so it’s okay now would be a good time to knock it down
I’ll send it to CL I’ll see what I can do um sorry we were talking about uh weight training yeah weight training and cardio and I play my hobby is playing tennis yes which is where you’ve got to go oh we got a few more minutes okay yeah we have a few more minutes to go play um play a bit of tennis for the team
Stan’s being very modest he says a bit of tennis for the team you actually win the Berlin championships for well we haven’t had them for a while we used to have the Berlin um Orchestra tournament and and I won that a few times but I play on a team in a league in Berlin and we play against other clubs and it’s you know that’s a lot of fun
I didn’t know I have to play today but they said oh there’s a game today so can you please come and well I have an appointment at uh 3:00 so I’ll come after that okay so so many people are watching it’s really we’ve even just had someone from Puerto Rico writing in I’m just F trying to find what he asked
Samuel from Puerto Rico asked hi Stefan I’m a horn player and I’m studying architecture I’m interested to know what kind of space you like to play the horn in hi to Puerto Rico I like to play born in a room that sounds good and looks good usually a bigger room is nice but don’t always get the opportunity yeah and what’s what like the filon like the filon for examp what is your favorite
Concert Hall I would say uh I have several the filon is once I love sance Hall in Cleveland I love Carnegie Hall uh and Symphony Hall in Boston yeah there are also some new halls which are great well Disney we Disney Hall that was very nice and in Japan they have amazing con Sor Halls Japan has so many good so many good concerts
Halls anyone watching from Japan out there write in and tell us yeah maybe Midori is out there hello um how about another quick question we got to get to NOLA says she gets dry lips when she plays do you have any tips to keep the moist while playing drink plenty of water before you go on stage but then you’ve got to start drinking not not at 2 hours before but all day so that you have time time to uh empty the bladder before uh being on stage
I remember recently I was playing Mel’s ring without words and that lasts an hour and 20 minutes and after the first 10 minutes I noticed that my bladder was full but that’s the you that as the story that Baron Bo told us he said Baron Bo said that um he was conducting Rin gold and he realized at the eth horn solo now the eth horn solo comes bar 36 or something comes right at the beginning bar 36 he said he realized when the eighth horn started playing the
Sol that he had to go to the bathroom the problem with Ringold is it goes 2 hours 40 minutes and there’s no interval break so that was I think that was probably quite painful but that’s happened to all of us so drink in the morning plenty of water okay uh reduce the liquids about 2 hours before the concert but then you’ll be hydrated enough if the mouth gets dry it means that you’re dehydrated okay good now we they’re coming in fast everyone knows when the horn
Hangouts are almost finished and all they’re very quiet at the beginning and then they hit me with them all okay well let’s we’ll do these do these like this this Tim from Sydney says hi Stefan I’m playing third horn in Rosen Cavalier for the next concert any advice for the totis solos and overall preparation so give us a just prepare like for any other piece just uh mentally listen to the recording uh with the part so you really know it make sure you get the right transpositions and good luck have fun whiskers that’s a nice name how do you train yourself to play higher notes
Practice High practice high all the time huh no just U you have to practice those notes and play the notes with crescendos and just really keep a lot of tension in the lips mhm and don’t press too much on the upper lip Chelsea says I already have back and shoulder problems at age 17 how should I deal with this long term start with a sport maybe like swimming maybe do some yoga or something make sure you you don’t have too much tension and start with weight training and cardio training okay um this is a good one
Michael says how any tips from improving my tennis serve he’s from Soul yes um Soul Korea hi Soul Korea yeah make sure of the toss that you’re practicing tossing the ball up and make sure that you have contact with the ball when you hit it and and you want to use use your horn to show that no no no no and also make sure you follow through your serve and breathe out when you’re hitting the ball
Okay so okay that’s quite good good for the lungs to get everything in training okay Kendall gray has asked funniest conductor I know Kendall Betts was out there Kendall I know you two Kendall out there hi both kendles you know Kendall Betts K bet was watching but I forgot your question sorry Kendall I saw it miles away but you can ask it again
Kendall gry asked funniest conductor section moment during your time in the orchestra o oh oh getting a bit nervous oh I don’t know if I can remember that there’ve been so many been so the good thing about our section is we have so much fun we have yeah I one of one of one of our Great Moments was when you put on flippers and a mask to do a video about the
V but that wasn’t on stage what’s happened on stage oh I can’t think of anything in particular oh well there was one conductor who uh whose I won’t say any names but he he had put on maybe a bit of weight and he was conducting along one of his shoulders ripped out and so his his his Tails was hanging other shoulder ripped then the back ripped and oh dear that was quite funny oh yeah and he didn’t stop conducting no
The Show Must Go On what are you going to do lose your clothes okay guys you are really so so busy um uh just a quick question from Campbell from brisbon can you talk about your activity with the orchestra Academy because you’re one of the teachers for our Carion Academy sounds like an exciting program for so many it’s a great privilege to teach the talented young players from the the
Kion Academy and my uh I didn’t get in yeah but you’re in y okay okay my uh that’s another story biggest success is Andre zust yeah who’s now uh our new um horn player in the section yeah and he was my student for two years in the academy and other um students and top orchestras in Germany uh studied with me in the academy
I’m very proud of them of course they were good when they started but I uh got down on their case I’m strict teacher and don’t let anything go by so I make sure that they’re prepared for the auditions um and and Shel has asked Stefan tell us about your silver horn because as you can see you guys mine is a beautiful gold brass horn and
Stefan a beautiful silverplated brass horn this is a normal brass Alexander 103 hand hammered this part is hand hammered uh which is a question somebody asked sorry I forgot that why do we like playing on hand Hammer horns they have a little bit more sound they make a little bit more noise yeah make more noise yeah we like to play that we need to yeah so
Stefan why does your horn have to be silverplated and all the rest of us have gold plated the lacquer uh well the rest of them have lacquered horns with me the lacquer chips off in the bell and then the Bell gets pitted and so I don’t like lacquer and if I don’t put anything on the horn then my hands turn green and smell funny and
I don’t like that either you just like to look different on the TV right no I just I think for me it’s a logical Choice the silver doesn’t affect the playing quality your mouthpiece it matches my mouthpiece yeah it might match your hair but we don’t know uh no that’s that was really mean um but you know it just for me it’s a very nice uh surface for the horn and it lasts longer than lacquer so it’s not really more expensive uh and
I just sort of I used to have what’s your mouthpiece someone I have I have a very standard shield number 29 okay uh I’ve tried many mouthpieces this seems to be the one that I can do my job the best with gosh we we’ve had so many questions Stefan has been such a hero with answering so many questions in a in a short time really it’s it’s amazing we’ve had your your history
I’m I’m going to stop with the questions now you’re going to get to see the chat so you can see how many people are writing in do write in if you have any more messages for Stefan because he’ll be reading this later um what would you advise for a young player wanting to come to to Germany to study
I would say to come for at least 2 weeks and make sure you know that it’s possible to see some concerts preferably with the Berlin philonic but also if not possible then with another Orchestra best thing is to come to Berlin and and maybe take some lessons with someone from the orchestra and then uh prepare for an audition for a
Music Conservatory yeah that would be the of people ask that question and um and I wanted to ask what would you do if you didn’t play horn in the brilliant philarmonic What could you imagine doing with your life tennis well no I’m not good enough to no my eyes my eyes would have be better I don’t know back when
I was before I started playing horn I thought maybe I’d be like maybe a doctor or a scientist but then they said you have to be good at mathematics and I was terrible at mathematics so uh so I then I thought oh well horn they said well you have to be good at at at M but if you count you can count to four over and over again then then it’s mathematics for horn
I think so that’s why I’ve decided on music and what can you imagine for for the future what are your it sounds so corny but what are what are your goals for the future I mean you have a very young family so you got to stay yeah I want to uh have time for my family and I want to teach and and uh you know keep teaching play play as long as
I can and and uh then get more into teaching and doing master classes and uh I want to you know stay um in contact with the horn world when I not playing in the orchestra anymore we’re going to have you back on a horn hangout very soon to keep you in contact with the horn well guys I hope you’ve enjoyed uh listening to
Stefan as much as I have thank you so much for coming well thank you Sarah for having me on your H wonderful show show no we just we just love it it’s a great Community out there and uh I’m glad to had this opportunity to talk to the horn world out there and and um thank you all for listening please come back very soon yeah thanks for the film crew here and everybody who’s supporting this project and
I think it’s a great thing and I appreciate it thank you Sarah thank you Stefan see you soon he see you soon byebye bye bye bye guys see you byebye see you next time tomorrow we’ll see you tomorrow on the horn Hangouts tomorrow we have a very exciting horn hangout again we have um Denise trian and Dave
Griffin two of the most amazing L horn players in the world world and they will be live online differently not in the same room um but they will be on webcam tomorrow so start thinking up all your lowhorn questions for us and um yeah and send them in tomorrow same time see you then bye [Music]
Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.
