The Music Critic of the Dallas Morning News had an interesting column this morning comparing the New York Phil with the Vienna Phil. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/columnists/scantrell/stories/DN-orchestras_1018gd.ART.State.Edition1.3337837.html
The intro begins, (not sure about copyright implications of posting the whole thing). Orchestras in different countries, even cities, used to sound as different as languages and accents. French orchestras had their nasal winds, while those in Eastern Europe<http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Eastern_Europe>tended to sound mellow and woody. Horns in French and Russian orchestras used to play with prominent vibrato. The blaze of Russian strings and brasses at full tilt was life-threatening. Some of those characteristics remain, though observers of the international orchestral scene have lamented growing homogenization. That's probably inevitable in an age of globe-trotting maestros, with expectations increasingly set by recordings and musicians more and more internationally trained. Growing interest in historically informed performance practices is a factor, too. Increasingly, conductors – and critics and audiences – expect orchestras to have not one sound, but several, to perform 18th-century music with lighter, airier texture than in late 19th- and 20th-century repertory. Hearing the Vienna and New York philharmonics in New York two weeks ago, though, I could have identified them blindfolded. [. . .] _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
