Stefan Dohr on Sarah´s live Horn Hangouts

Premieres, Practice & Pets Stefan Dohr, principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, needs no introduction. He is know as the GOAT of the horn and here in his very first Horn Hangout live from Berlin he talks to Sarah Willis about his upcoming premiere of Hans Abrahamsen´s horn concerto and how he prepares for such world premieres. He shares some invaluable practice tips and Sarah surprises him at the end with a very special guest….

Transcript

Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.

[Music] Bravo hello step still practicing hi everybody out there in Horan hangout land thank you so much for joining us as always my guest today needs absolutely no introduction Stefan welcome finally finally it did took us a while but we have it did took us a while at this being true it did take us a while my mother who’s watching would tell me off for bad english

I’m sorry I know maybe my English teacher would be watching to him your English is better than mine these days we have lots to talk about there’s a lot of people online you guys you’re amazing that you are watching from all over the place in South Africa from Melbourne handsome Timmy’s in Melbourne health and helping us out

Greensboro North Carolina Arizona Efron Patrick Dante in Bogota Taiwan Osaka Japan it goes on and on and on it’s amazing do write us in and tell us where you’re watching from and also tell us what you’re drinking we actually where’s Artie to please tea please pardon me Paula Thank You Paula Paula is our Academy’s gone wait wave it wave it some way there thank you how do you say and you’re from

Estonia you say keep it like in like in Finnish no what do you say roast teatime after no no I’ve also got two of your favorite things that are very wicked they would go really well with modern horn concerto s probably actually don’t don’t fire them and put them into the horn that would be nice maybe one of her gummy bears gummy bears yes it take a while to get out we are talking about modern air horn concertos today because

Stefan is premiering hands Abrahamson x’ concerto concerto from cello has it got a fancy name no no no and that what you played at the beginning we just rehearse for the very first time literally about half an hour ago yes and it’s quite demanding not only for me but actually very demanding for the August for the conductor

I drove a character yes it has a lot of like relations that are not easy to catch and really really really hard for for the string players also it’s hard to count as well for us because every bar is a different meter yeah it is like yeah the second movement especially because it is all like the triplets are the eighth notes after us and then it changes the measures it looks like he’s writing triplets but actually then they’re only eighth notes it

I was writing to prism but then they’re changed to be the sixth eighth and then they’re changed to be in the four four of eighth notes it sounds like and I’m back to triplets so it’s not so easy but if I look at your part and this is like you’ve had quite a few commissioned commissions over the years or you’ve done premiers there’s a whole lot we want to talk about any questions that you guys might have about you know how you prepare how what what’s important for the modern-day horn playing you know do get them in

I’ll do as much as I can I have so many questions for you too yeah there’s an awful lot going on here are you afraid you will get to see them all after the Hangout you can see who joined in its long I have to know not all of them not all of them will do our best now um tell us a little bit the history about this concerto because you’re premiering it this week at the

Berlin Film and live on the digital concert hall yes and actually the planning of this concert was more or less five years ago because Hans had the premiere of his famous piece let me tell you of what he wrote for Barbra Hannigan as a soprano and our Orchestra and I knew that he was a home player today so and

I I thought you know actually this piece actually that he’d composed like the tiger is a very very nice very beautiful piece that did win the two most yet the two biggest modern composing Awards the Carver my award and the Sony Music Prize and I asked him if he if he would be interested in writing a home run chatter and actually he already had a commission in 1970 something and that was the time when he he didn’t compose for a long time he he couldn’t compose and he didn’t compose and it wasn’t he said like that at that time that the time wasn’t right but

Then he was like finding that this like request wasn’t coming at the right moment perfect timing and to be conducted by parvo your friend parvo perfect he was funny he had his head in the score today and is like whoohoo is like a like a wild ride how would you describe this piece um the thing is it’s very hard to tell after one rehearsal how it is because it is very hard to for me it’s

I’m not a conductor part time it is like it is that yeah but it’s very hard to to hear to hear the piece from the from the score it’s a very very short first movement that is only like two minutes and it’s mostly long notes but on different fingerings there’s same notes but a lot of different yeah characters in the sound then the second one is is a rhythmical or yes it says fasten your seat belts for the orchestra not so much for me

I have to say I’m very lucky and play along it goes from quiet piano but agitated to into a big storm it is it is a very colorful piece it has a lot of different colors it it won’t get boring listening to it it’s only 18 minutes 17 18 minutes dedicated to you dedicated to me yes I’m very happy that we found because when

I the process from finding someone to compose a contract concerto is of course finding someone to finance it and how does that work yeah okay let’s talk about that maybe there will be questions questions get your questions in everybody I stopped talking and maybe let’s it’s a good question already from mum I think it’s probably my mom she says

Stefan does your doggy like the new piece this is very topical because your dog lucky I think is the most famous dog in the horn world I think my dog likes contemporary music because he never actually complains except of stop notes but that could be varnished hours or whatever stock notes comes he starts like looking at me and one second later or anybody that doesn’t know what we’re talking about we have a short clip to show you now oh okay so we saw like he playing the horn yes he’s very lucky also he yells like crazy when you play stop stop nerds yeah and if

It’s more than two or three horns they’re not only going higher then he after while it goes like complains of it so what did he think what does he think about when you’re practicing this sort of stuff at home the thing is I’m not practicing this too much at home yeah the neighbors I believe my neighbors would prefer lots of installs but

I do bid some bits of it but he never complains it yeah he’s nice that sweet there’s a lot of people um everyone’s just saying hello at the moment they’ll get onto the questions usually the best questions come come like right at the very end of the Hangout when it’s time to go perfect but right now everyone’s just saying hello this

I mean it’s really Singapore Quebec Hamilton Hamilton Truman Truman’s burg New York Middle East Muscat at the Konstantinos who made our mutes is in Greece hello to Greece really quite incredible lucky is a star everybody like that lucky really is a star but actually you know someone called you a goat did you know that me yes yesterday on

Facebook when we publicize it said Stefan is a goat is that a compliment I didn’t know Jagannatha I didn’t I didn’t know I thought Oh someone’s being very rude so I looked it up apparently it means the greatest of all time ah so you you’re a goat you are the goat apparently I just thought gosh there they are referring to that series of videos you know when a meet all those you know in the middle of pieces yeah that one yeah you

I do one of them men in their fight yes you did yes we did what was that donkey shot in the digital concert hall we have some great clips of your your recent pieces in fact the very first one you did here was the rostral was the hosel cow orders that we have a nice picture of it and and

Jakob when you’re ready you could just play a tiny clip of that we have a tiny mini that [Music] you see this is one of the pieces that has been co commissioned with two other partners Amsterdam and London so it was good to you know get people to pay for this concerts because usually one orchestra for monarchist says it’d be too too much and

I’m very glad that for example for honza Mohammedans concerto we have again Amsterdam they start attacks martini we have Seattle we have Auckland not with us no we uh applause and we have Japan NHK it’s really nice to have people that that come back in commissioning pieces for example Toshi owes was the first one I’ve played in

Amsterdam as a coal Commission and they asked me if I would have something else coming up in the Internet okay I don’t have at the moment but what do you think in it what came and I said I said that the next came Wolfgang Reema their Co Commission of love kind of aim together love turn yeah so it was really nice to have here in the chamber music

I’m David the mala Jay Marcus I’d be glad to say about that one should have fun I was in the concert I was in absolute awe of it but I could never play it we both got vodka unconscious yes yeah the thing is when I when I told him about the Concetta he was very enthusiastic and he started writing and then he doesn’t have he doesn’t want no computer he hand rides everything and it’s in

C so he writes scores including the horn part so at one point I received a fax fax him still and all the machine came like ninety bars of score and I looked at it and from bar number eight to bar number 99 there was not one brain so I I called him said well that’s very nice you’re in the flow to write things bad please and

I I just like marked little bits where I needed a little break for my lips but still it’s quite demanding that’s the thing we these nuclear concertos are coming and we want them to be passed on to next generations forever it’s like you know Mozart and Strauss so you want people to play them but that really is a really hard one yes but believe it or not the second

Hoggins had a finished house wasn’t performed for another twenty years because it was too hard it is really too and it was at that time to half of the most of the players say they said no one really really took it up again wow this is the only thing that worries me about modern-day Commission’s is that sometimes it’s so so hard for the soloist that young people won’t won’t touch a hawk and harden

Berger told me the same thing in his hangout he said he he’s commissioned all these amazing concertos but the students won’t play them oh but I’m here to see for example Ligety Conchata what is hard to play it’s played more and more often now and I’m sure the other the other pieces will be too how do you do rehearse because that

I’m sure doesn’t have a piano reduction it does not but it will get one because we had a piano rehearsal yesterday with Holger Kaushal and he actually played the piece from the score yeah yeah from the score is this huge creepy thing behind us as a I can show it is like yeah if you want to side with this he didn’t

IRA do he got he got a couple of days before but it is very hard to read see this is very small yeah just take another chapter so it’s like yeah it’s it’s not so easy to read so but he prepared it and he really did that a couple of days and played it with me yes it’s amazing and he’s but he’s also the one for example who played with the

Barbara Hannigan the piece yeah hands composed for her but Becky it’s ruining our decoration here so we so but he he knows what to play yeah that’s how to reduce them you know he finds out what rhythm is necessary for you to get through someone’s just asked Anika asked what is your favorite modern horn concerto because they’re all very very different and then

I think that is the quality yeah if you have a lot of different things it’s like fantastic if you I’m always looking forward to play Liga to go each other even if it ruins you to see horns aren’t it should be Ohio BR the fortuity horns are weekend horns and really on open if any of you don’t know that the

Tootie horns in the orchestra for the Ligety concerto oh my goodness every one is in a different key on natural horns and it’s I’m not corrected not correct the audience basically thinks that we’re bad because we’re playing out-of-tune yeah but if it is a very very natural feeling even if they solve like what are turns and things it’s it sounds really natural

Vicky’s asked what is the most important thing for Stefan to prepare for playing a new modern piece to prepare for it you don’t have a recording you can listen to no I think I think first of all of course you have to you have to practice their technical material that is that’s very important then you have to put it in context with a

Tempe or does sometimes very difficult because you have on your on your metronome yeah it does like it’s subdivided what was it yeah yeah I only found out a couple of days ago that my my metronome app actually has a polyrhythmic function so I can put seven over four okay that’s really helpful if even if you don’t know someone’s about now god if you have like seven over four you will find out that oh but that’s actually really useful for these crazy it’s very useful yes so that yo you you know about how to put your layer of notes on the normal beat

Hugo’s watching he brought us the Eminem’s thank you Oh yup thank you all right my name’s Thank You Hugo very nice don’t you um Jacob Dean says how often do the composer and the performer meet before the piece gets performed I love these questions because they’re really it’s really interesting also for me too because these I see these scores hanging around in though in the horn room and

I just think you don’t even know where to begin know basically what you usually have if you meet a composer and say audio and the writer honk until he says no I know he says yes so the next meeting will be whenever he wants to start to write the concerto because he has interest in knowing and learning about the horn even

Huns who even was a homeless at there let’s meet and then I have more ideas and you know just sitting as well Wolfgang yeah also with caution it is very important to meet them first and then they have questions about the instrument what to do what can you do how does this sound to sound yourself and then you meet again after a while and then but actually with hands

I only met him then after most of it was already done say here’s a horn player I guess but also the same with Wolfgang Wolfgang wrote the whole concerto like in a yeah in a flow yeah but but when I wanna came it it looked like yeah it’s all playable yeah well it is that’s the thing I mean you’re very modest but if a composer comes to you and says can you do that you say yes but the us normal mortals the other thing that’s really impressive is that for me is a low horn player all your concertos have really low notes in them yes

Sure yeah yeah for example there heem Concetta has these very slow soft cadenza what comes from high C to the very lowest D I’m very small I was so proud and it’s so soft and you’re very alone all feeds yeah after most of the pieces done yeah I tell all my students I use you as an example all my master classes that the best principal horns always warm up in the low range as well are you practise the lower age every day and your brain plays low range

I mean they they they you all do because it’s important yeah I think yeah it makes your sound a little better amen low horn tricks um F horn Patrick who’s great support of the horn hangout Thank You Patrick he wanted to know do you think younger students should be investing more time into learning modern pieces absolutely yes

I’m glad you know why yes I know the thing is when I was I was quite early in my studies I I became a member of the young widow Jeff alimony the German the German student a student of Youth Orchestra we have two the ones that are the pupils up to 18 19 and then yoga doctor phenomena is over 19 or when you study

I was 17 and then they they had the ensemble Madonna at that time was like only two or three years old or four years old and they asked me to play a gig for them and like a couple of concerts and I was really we I’m not playing a picture of you doing the Frank Zappa gig about a hundred years ago when was that last 30 years 30 years ago really really cute picture of you next to

Worf going the bass clarinet playing a saxophone and you look so sweet and the bat it was about that age right that was that was later that was like really that was right before I entered here okay but I played like from from that time for 17 even if I was in Frankfurt opera very early with 19

I played because the Osamu down was Frankfurt based or still Frankfurt based I played the Opera and it played a lot of concerts with the ensemble and rehearsing contemporary chamber music is something you can learn a lot yeah there’s nothing nothing compared to an eight-hour rehearsal day with your solid conductor yeah your brain goes mental and they take it so seriously and that’s when you realize involvement the genius of era you know other way in

Orchestra sometimes everyone is sort of little I yeah yeah yeah and it’s not quite a fifth fifth against a seventh or whatever but they do it exactly yeah and it’s it’s more difficult in a bigger group of course Orchestra contemporary music rehearsing where the orchestra is difficult because the attention spam with everybody having really really really difficult parts is different than the norm of maximum 13 14 maybe 20 players but if you have five or six players or seven or even two or three and as yeah that this really gives you a lot of information a lot of ability it’s good for that

I always found after a week with on someone more down it would be is good for my ears and it was also good for the chops it somehow gives you good endurance and someone someone just asked who just ask their coing soo so quickly someone said what kind of techniques d grundy said what kind of techniques would you practice when working on modern pieces especially when you’re working on endurance it’s had a little bit of horn nerdiness now we’re loud we’re all endurance yes for example for

Ligety late is not that hard and endurance but it’s very high goes to to e-flat a couple of times and also in piano and loud yes you need you need to extend sometimes your range and of course you won’t do it for all the reason but you have to pick up a couple of weeks before you have to pick the peas and go for and then see where are the difficulties and then if you have you know high note endurance problems then you should really be aware a couple of weeks before to to do so what’s your favorite high endurance practice arm there’s a couple

Actually I mean I can probably sing them by heart but yeah but also socially so you won this of course if you if you go up slowly [Music] [Applause] I can hear everybody in front of the camera going ah but it’s really true you showed me that one also for my recording when I was trying to build up strength that you don’t build up in the orchestra when you’re playing the horn that one is a really good one and then the other one another one that comes from higher

Chester’s crin dunno by the time I get to about an eighth that’s the problem yeah yeah but your attire well you get to the a for the first week and then the secondly the B and then third week that would be the CEO so it’s you have to build up slowly the thing is it’s a bit like in sport if you want to run 10 kilometers in 45 minutes you shouldn’t start with ten kilometres at 45 minutes you start with like running a kilometer fast and then walking in bed running commute a faster walking that’s the same thing speaking of running we have a little

Ironic be running we have a little clip thanks to the digital who have let us use the clip of Tasha’s piece and and of your famous non concerto we have a long shadow non certo it was by Richard eros eros wasn’t quite trying to pronounce it and for me that’s the craziest thing I’ve seen you do apart from not when you’re not playing the horn but hang out we have we have a little clip of that and

I would like to show it to all if you haven’t seen it it’s on the digital concert hall you have to see this whole concerto this is what we’re talking about [Music] [Applause] but this needs a different preparation after day that’s not only high notes it’s also mountain running it was incredible everything yeah did you meet him did you talk about this yeah yeah he’s yeah he’s living in

Amsterdam and he’s divided it was quite a very big piece though you know when you came out of that door door came out of the door get it oh sorry you came out of the door everyone laughed and then you play this yeah it’s very nice everybody plays lovely politely and you open the door like a jack-in-the-box

Jack over the box object in the box it opens it it was great but then you had to do difference for the preparation because you literally had you have to quite fit because otherwise you would have been out of breath I couldn’t run up and down you were like running up around yeah that’s two runs like a meet or something has to be like eight meter to eight to ten meters in between so you really run a lot yeah as you play your own echo you play open on one side then you run to play you’re on the echo on the other side and it

Gets fast and fast and the time in between gets shorter and shorter and at some point he just doesn’t write the echo and you he writes that your own so you end there just look at the connector you don’t play so you don’t back play the occur where you play the real thing yeah it’s really like crazy if you haven’t seen you have to watch out that’s on the digital concert hall in non non non chat oh not secure is it happened that you’ve gotten a score or something you’ve had to play a new thing in a thought up this dream moment

I love Wolfgang said well first piece is very tall of like a tunnel written there was a another con cherubi by Lopez and that wasn’t mostly graphic and but graphic with like half stop to stop to open in different registers so it sounded like wow really really exciting piece really excited piece but the piece was for 47 minutes and

I only perform once the first movement it’s two movements because we didn’t have the time to properly so I know I wouldn’t have had the lib to play the whole thing well then we’ve got the Lanterman weed there weren’t practically no notes in there at all was that we have a nice picture of us performing the lack of man 8 horn concerto but it wasn’t much horn playing in there they are it was at the beginning and then it turned into the lock among moments into his melodies yeah we have these six different vocal you were very good

I must say to be perfectly honest we got the music we were like oh yeah okay we go you set us down the rehearsal said no you’re going you’re going you’re great it was really and then when we did that yeah then it worked yeah well yeah no it only vertical all the things only working for you if you prepare them properly and this

Luke sighs I said does anyone compose modern horn pieces for young students similar to those from the Paris Conservatoire years ago that would be something we need if anyone’s watching I don’t know I don’t know if they’d still do it a perfect conservatory I don’t think so it would be really good to have like a piece every year from different composer for people that yeah like in this dagger is constituted by seven oh yeah she can play now we need those sort of pieces of the

Vernon Reynolds Studies posters the D but yeah yeah you have to study yeah you should you should prepare they’re not really performing the pieces yeah it’s a good question Mozart isn’t it mid-sized birthday today is it is it sometime around now yes anyway yeah no it’s the 27th and it’s 29th anyway whatever is it myself birthday today tell us somebody can tell us

I think it’s somewhere it’s let me have a look I can yeah I know just showing things um while I do I’m gonna ask you ask you question Mozart dummy it is today actually yes happy birthday mate sighs I only know it because it’s Amano post-birth that’s right happy birthday Amanda well if you’re watching I wonder what

Mozart would have thought of all this what do you think he would have he would have loved the modern day Oh actually there’s a little quote in that piece I have to say very end in the Abrahamson you know what I missed it you miss it you miss Dan I don’t know oh you missed the end I was trying to

I was probably lost uh-huh thank good the thought I thought that I thought that was again and I didn’t actually yeah I did I missed that one but I’m very happy we did that on Mozart’s birthday today yes okay actually I’ve got something very very nice for you all I’m Stefan and I have a present for you the digital concert hall has given us a free pass for the concert on it’s going to be

Friday night for the live performance at 8 o’clock Friday night 8 p.m. we have a voucher code that if you’re watching the archive it won’t be valid anymore it’s only valid on Friday it’s valid for 48 hours and Tim Hanson Tim in Melbourne is going to put the code in it’s basically Stefan 22 in all in big letters and if you if you log into the digital console with that you can watch his concert for free and you can hear the

Mozart quote at the end isn’t that nice very nice yeah thank you digit that’s actually more chords of different organs in there where I want to no no I can’t I could play a bit yeah yeah you put some things to say this is these are all natural harmonics [Music] ah anybody know what that anybody know what that was told ya

I didn’t yeah unfortunately when we were you’re standing you’re playing out into the audience so yeah today in the hazard also if you can’t know it and have to play your console video and you can’t really listen to me yes but I promise hands that I would play yes there was a there was one bit where the clarinets that the section started howling like lucky there growing whoo-oop oh is not a car that’s not not quite

Oh Caroline’s saying impatient to see you in Mulhouse Carl says greetings from the Philippines the orchestra of the Filipino youth that’s so nice Aki says hello from Helsinki he wants to know what your favorite horn solo is and please come as a soloist so what’s your favorite singer oh god the next one the neck it’s always the next one no oh it’s just playbook no phone

I think that’s one of my favorite symphonies but favorite haunts or no not a pencil what you’re sort of yeah bronze three to lunch be good yeah Ali said the speaking of young horn players a shout out to all the air horn players who can’t watch because they’re at school yes so watch the archive Strauss - well done

Simon Strauss - that’s right it was Strauss - if you’re watching on on the website you can send us your questions here I will see them if you’re watching live on Facebook write in and tell us where you’re watching from but the questions we only see here so get over to the website and get your questions in from fresh stuff on

Anais is watching Guapo’s you look great Oh Oh Lana Ethan ace used to be our economist we’ve had some great academies there is a question from Japan Stefan do you like Japanese composers pieces and what do you like about it well holes of carven well definitely I do like Tasha Tasha was a Commerce piece and I’ve performed it quite a lot of times

I have to say yeah I don’t know if they’re if you can really define a national composing style in contemporary music of course there’s directions in in like Hunter Watson’s piece and I wouldn’t I wouldn’t say it’s a Dennis or it’s a Japanese piece but of course it has to do like Tasha’s piece is the this blossoming of the lots of flower and it has a very calm beginning and it goes to to the storm over the pond and

I love that piece I must say we it’s very very common you’re not very much we are up the back you know I think they just saw it in the clip as well it ended with a picture of the offstage horns up in the back and as these knives knives wind chimes that sort of like if this little that’s very

Japanese that’s right yeah that’s gorgeous how do you engage an audience when you perform modern pieces as audiences tend to leads leading toward pieces from a later era I mean that’s it depends on what your audience is you’re playing for yes the thing is of course if you take the piece very serious than you and you perform it very serious and the audience will will try to listen because you you you have to yeah you have to show that you this is important this is important for you and of course it’s important for the composer definitely and and then it gets important for the people

Listening it is it is something you have to work with a lot of tension body tension tension in appearance if you like pull it try to just side with it and play like you mean you mean very active sort of you know yeah man you know yeah yeah I must say in the latter one I did know

I was said you and I were right on the ends and I did notice quite a lot of sub giggling going on at stages in the audience because they they weren’t quite sure they come to hear a concerto Freight horns and we were basically for a lot of it just down our and they that’s hard for people to sort of garage yes and it was very long it’s a forty forty minute piece and

I have to say Simon Simon and the Oster took it so serious and we of course did that the giggling was quite at the beginning when we started all these noises without with all the horn just a mouthpiece in an air and then but then of course there there are some some things you may you were allowed to giggle to so he really composed like funny bits into yeah no he really did so this

I was passed out at that bit yeah yeah it’s really hard we’ve got some really good stuff on a digital concert hall absolute really good stuff to watch the Schumann conception as well which seems terribly old-fashioned Dobby from the Guildhall hello David he wants to know how you managed to balance the solo an orchestral career with practice and teaching if you don’t he’s asks what do you do what do you do in your free time you don’t have much free time and if you are you have to walk lucky

I think that’s a bit right yes it feels like like yes good morning oh that’s a dog walk me and then come off the first rehearsal home and run home and go out with him again yes yes I need some holidays yeah join the club should we just February I have a Regan Clement me too that’s probably the same week we all have that week off so yeah

Tom affair I for the last but it is quite hard to balance that because like you and I both when we’re not doing our stuff we’re here and when we’re free from here we we are then doing our our other things so everything is always based on what’s coming next and it’s there’s no so it doesn’t seem to be much time to just go ah because the horn players already always thinking about chops and

I’ve had my practice enough for this no not chops well you just always have chops yes now somewhere yeah somewhere Lauren asked Stefan do you incorporate vibrato into your playing interesting question yeah tell us when and where not so much in the orchestra but I heard it today for example today the very first bid is like only like 12 bars

I guess it is the 12 partners attenders like a general Pollak and our deposit and then there’s another 40 Basques and our Father so it’s like it’s three blocks the first movement the first the first bids shouldn’t be with the bottle and the second bid should be with more vibrato the third party stop Morris and yes yeah

I’m yeah having the nervous right no no it is it is meant to be there I guess at least I do play was about it but it is not permanent no I just use it when I really wanted and would you use it in another concerto in a sort of romantic and shelter or you would when you wouldn’t use it in the orchestra so much would you or would you ah

JA Tchaikovsky five has to live you put into coughs ki five I haven’t a Tchaikovsky five for you a long time haha listen for that no some people play with Rutter all the time the people that they came for sort of the old the former East Eastern Bloc they were brought up with that yeah my old more than real it starts off where they played all with they brought and they could do amazing circular breathing yeah

I can do that on a couple of notes but most of the notes don’t work with me um chiaki is it isn’t just is it possible to have a modern concert for natural horn is any composer interested in natural tone anymore this was I was gonna ask a question similar it’s like haven’t we had enough of all this natural

Horan stuff it because every composer seems to put natural harmonics into the into the piece which we understand what the audience often doesn’t I think they’re either on the horn natural harmonics an ideal thing to put in because they give a different color yeah they are out of tune out of our listening like yeah used to but they sound so natural that they they don’t yeah they sound different but it’s so natural

I mean Ligety Ligety in Ligety concerto you have two movements on the natural home and then you have this solo piece between the third and fourth movement it’s like yes and it uses all the natural harmonics but on different keys I think the biggest problem if you use in the natural Hanyu are always only having one tonality and then you have to change the both was not invented for to play modern music or new but the modern composers seem to really enjoy like here you have in the if you just joined us oh yeah yeah we are looking at stuff on this premier for this

Week the hands Abrahamson concerto for horn it’s an absolute premiere and we’re getting a sneak peek at it lucky us if you can if you listen yeah [Music] doesn’t want them to be corrected he runs exactly which finger use for which which are we yeah the parts - and that gives that gives the torrent the tones the natural tones always lead to - somewhere to use of this and nothing is very beautiful yeah

I mean especially as he stole it from Strauss me yeah he’s just transformed straws into our it’s it um nice question from Matthew hi Matthew Haislip and he says which living composers would you like to see a concerto from Bret Dean yes yes a couple of others I would love are you working on it yeah of course

I’m working on it I would like Don Williams to write another concerto for lo and I told him that already we’ll see we’ll see if he obliges I’m not quite sure no I’m very happy that I do have a couple of new things coming up so can you tell us yeah easy to a civilian from Serbia’s writing a concerto in two years time

Wow and she’s she’s I think she’s a very good composer she did write an octet for our architect like Schubert octet oh it’s an eight-minute piece very very difficult like it has a bit of folk music scene it already oh no that was the octave the honkers was not composed good amicable Judah Perry yeah Tuzla score nice presents there we go yes thank you from

Volta high from Bolivia and she would like to know Anita how many hours in a row is it good to practice Oh practicing yeah the thing is if you practiced like especially contemporary music it is very hard to say oh I need to practice eight hours is it I mean it’s like 80 hours of horn practice sure

I mean but you have to yeah you have to have a system of practicing things you have to for example if you practice so I know for some of the runs that the big that I played at the beginning they’re quite late in the piece [Music] you hear that they are not really diatonic or they are not really regular yeah otherwise this two 2 three 3 four 4 by 5 but they are not they are not written be clearly written on this rhythmically it is so you have to first break that down to 2 smaller parts smaller bits so if you just practice them backwards

From the back like the last 5 one after the other 5 you process them all the way to the beginning that takes quite a lot that takes quite a while and that’s not tilde money you don’t have to be real of all the practicing you do is always like I up first of all I have to figure out the into the intervals and to play them right and the rhythm make at the beginning to do it all in a quite comfortable dynamic so that you don’t really mmm focus on what he writes like big things in forties or more later careful yeah

Cubs can be loud mr. note there yeah I missed actually - but I’m not warmed up yeah if you see this like fall like go for have a pay ya for paid yeah then of course you practice to get it so but you would like do your basic stuff first or would you just like no no no you have your routine

I know your routine by heart we all know each other’s routines week we we come to the horn room we know already who’s in there before me we can identify hotel room owners exactly I know my practice it’s not only a whole clarinet oboe you know exactly who does what and you walk through a chorus again say oh this is him

I didn’t know he was next to me yeah yeah yeah but by the violas I know sometimes don’t get it but but with the wind players yes but um how long is your would be your routine be before you started working on a modern like this it would be an hour but I would also come back in between practicing this like for two or three hours

I will always come back to little exercises that that reform my undershirt that was gonna be my next question oh it’s how do you protect it’s like really correcting everything you’ve blasted away yeah yeah so so you sometimes yeah just to sometimes some scales to octave scales and then and this little one you know the one we like to do yeah yeah some really like like fine control in the mouthpiece exercises that are with all the water pressure [Applause]

I can hear the communal sigh of oh wow that means you’re in shape for me if I can do that means you’ve got yeah you go you got good chops otherwise it’s ya know good stops right now that’s good because you’ve got a big big premiere coming up this week if you’ve just joined us for the big big premiere on

Friday night the digital concert hall has given us all a voucher especially for the horn hangout viewers so that you can watch for free on Friday night eight o’clock and the voucher Tim handsome Tim in Melbourne will be putting the voucher code in here so it’s only only valid for Friday night so if you’re watching it in the archives unfortunate you can’t what up

Tim there he’s put it in already Stefan H asks if you have plans to do some modern concerto recordings um I’m falling behind with recordings and yeah I know you’ve got too many pieces and you know things I haven’t even recorders cars can jettison and I haven’t recorded I only recorded Tasha Jose Carlos piece yeah that is that is there on the market but the vodka room isn’t recorded said about this yeah but the biggest problem nowadays is that you can’t record any

CDs anymore especially for contemporary music it’s not very easy to find a strong conductor and yeah Greg Russa is watching in LA good morning Greg and he asked me what I say yeah very early but Greg is great and he always gets up early because he’s got two dogs two harpies amazing dogs and he’s asked me what my favorite bundt cake is

Greg I’m coming back very soon and I will let you know so that you can buy me one I just saw someone else it’s our France why’s watching hello Francois and Stefanie I must just say a couple of words quite a few people have written in about berry tuck well who died last week and of course the whole horn scene mourns him he was read about talent and a couple of people

Richard and Heidi have asked if you have any if you have any stories about him did you ever meet him I’ve actually met him just having a go I’m no stranger he came to the concert I was doing with it and I’m the Australian Academy and I was very happy to see him however he was there he was walking a mistake but he was very yeah he’s enjoying the concert except off the contemporary piece don’t month you didn’t like that one

I don’t know yeah we play the the the Bret Dean for eight horns well I think he didn’t like that he should have it’s Australian yes and he does a lot I mean he influenced a lot of composers - right right uncle jealous a and that’s this is of course it’s a big loss yeah a really big loss but he what he left behind was just a boy my favorite store

I never met him I tried to get him to do a horn hangout and he was always oh well we’ll see and then you could only been in Australia sadly it didn’t happen my favorite store more one of my favorite stories about him he was very funny guy and he it’s very last concert I think was in

Baltimore and he played Mozart three it’s very last concert as a soloist and some friends of his they drove miles and they got there and he said Barry we are here to hear your very last note we’re so excited and so he didn’t play the very last note he left it out he didn’t want to play as long only didn’t want it to be as las they just left it out there as good it’s a lovely story isn’t it it’s such a lovely story gosh people are really gustavo from buenos aires wants to know about breathing high ranges everyone wants to know everything we’re gonna

Have to do another another we do oh no horn hang about technique would be really really really really helpful we’ve been going i know you have to you guys have got meetings with parvo and hansen and you can’t go all that long today but you can have some more M&Ms no I take the I take them and take them with you they are for you are the gummy bears

I like these I think these are better so Friday night well Wednesday Thursday Friday excuse me what how do you feel before you go out there before a big piece like this um this is one that I’d be a bit nervous because the the beginning is very delicate it’s very slow it’s very yeah it’s a lot of life listen you know what on the horn of the horn hang out audience there are thousands of horn players watching around the world on

Facebook if you can play it now for us you won’t be nervous on Wednesday night for the premiere well there’s no ice player without anyone I love gummy bears gummy bears a minor [Music] you [Music] so this was just the first 12 bars and then it comes back again Raja let’s go see Roy I know you’re my colleague and you’re my friend but

I really do admire you quite a lot and I know I don’t tell you often enough because we always just talk about other stuff but I really admire you an awful lot and that is that was just bloomin incredible that was I can’t swear because my mother’s watching but that was really quite amazing your control is phenomenal it’s really for what

I what we always tell our students we have this thing about never smiling when you play ever ever ever and that for me was a pure example of why you need the strength but everything is forward huh everything is focused here isn’t it yeah how would you describe that that noise that comes if you don’t have it that’s like buzzing sounds like

Eminem through the wall speech nori and Rudy and Mike in Michael are watching in the brass academy Akali column you see hello Yuki says hi Sarah and Stefan Jack Manickam says my daughter Julia says hello everyone’s going on and on about that the attack of the note gives Stefan goosebumps the others another Stefan Laura loriann says you’re one of the best horn players as well you’re a good let’s take about attack

Oh attack just saying because people tend to have a lot of problems with these I’ve played six months in this Orchestra without attacking one single note with a tongue can you just explain that I had a problem I’m sorry can you just repeat that I didn’t quite understand I couldn’t do you have a problem oh yeah I had a lot of fraud

I was here at that now you were not here that time that was before that but no one realized no no they’re good that was the good thing I thing is not many people know a big secret they play old book no for without one tonguing example of the fast one yeah you’ve already here in there yeah yeah so

I was working half a year without with that without anybody that’s scary as heck yeah was very scary and it took me a while to get back to normal tonguing yeah so you literally play I mean of course yeah yeah that doesn’t work you play for six months without a tongue and in the Berlin Philharmonic first horn okay so what helps getting it back television large television a metronome okay so buzzer at the same time both of the same time so thank you so that you weren’t listening really you don’t listen to yourself and you just do stupid exercises like counting yourself in one two

And what actually did help more was the thinking of before breathing in breathing out so that you have a real like tah-tah if you do with all the television you get mad you can do really crazy insane but it’s it is it took me a while yeah it took me like a couple of months and there was only one of the problems

I had another problem and the other problem was like the other problem was like I I didn’t have any hydrogen anymore after tour with Marla - and bronze one because problems one is quite low sorry I am listening [Laughter] I don’t know if the camera can even get you this is lucky can you think it’s hello horn hang up show rise that horn hang or chat

I don’t have one oh of course you’re gonna get when we have them now packed and really nice you get a horn out hang it hang out sure look what lucky gets I’m not sure if that is what you will see you will see maybe I need a tweaks well then Lucky’s got it on right now okay lucky oh okay if you see this yeah he was he will

I hope it doesn’t get all the gummy bears okay oh he’s gonna eat all the gummy bears now sorry half a bananas enough okay you know the half was for Sarah because bananas are very good for you but the other half for me he doesn’t get any more oh he’s gonna have a half of an hour otherwise that his poo was good oh thank you that’s right never got lucky how can

I give me a bit up in like um a little bit of banana a little bit it’s fine you can sit good boy yeah third if your boy I love what I love about Lucky’s when he wags his tail well I guess now the whole horn hangout shirt is that’s hilarious the whole horn hangout t-shirt is wagging you’re such a good boy yes he is

I’m sorry everybody we we we wanted to surprise Stephane and and also you you all know lucky he’s the most famous dog in in Hoorn history woody woody thing for us I’ll see like I said like he said you put your shirt here [Music] but he’s wagging his tail the whole time he likes it exactly if he’s hovering together it’s the best thing

Oh Stefan thank you so much it’s been an amazing there’s been so many people writing in yeah someone to spread there are never two horn hangouts the same this is very true um thank you to mosey Alexander your brother Buddha Alexander because they they sport Thank You Philip Thank You Philip they sponsored the horn hangouts and thank you to my team here

Chris Jakob George thank you thank you to Paola for the tea thank you for Tabitha for bringing lucky thank you to Hansen Tim in Melbourne for the stream thank you so much and yeah everybody’s writing in the most incredible hangout I’m going to teach my dog to play the trumpet right and I absolutely so much I’m it’s such an honor that you came onto the my pleasure every time having before but now you’ve played live on the hangouts for the digital concert would be no problem no let’s see that’s don’t forget to tune in on

Friday night 8:00 p.m. with your your voucher code which means you can watch for 48 hours you can watch free and you can watch stuff on premiere the concerto I won’t be able to answer questions at that point now at that point you’ll be a little bit busy if anyone money what this noise is it’s Lucky’s tale hitting the it’s part of the chair bye thank you so much everybody for joining us thank you

Stefan fear dying it’s my pleasure have an Eminem [Music]

Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.