Following this is a master class by Charles Kavalovski, but with my presentation coming up, I am consumed with thoughts about that and decide instead to hit the exhibit room and start blowing some horns. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Nothing outstanding presents itself, so I am not consumed with any passion to spend $5K on a fancy new horn. Good!
I finally wander down to the room where my presentation will be held to check it out. There's no overhead projector, so I wander off in search of Peter Kurau. I can't find him, and his students don't know his whereabouts, and I decide to go to lunch and hope for the best.
I head over at 12:45 to prepare for my 1:30 presentation. The projector is there, thankfully; without the overhead slides and examples, this would be a pretty useless seminar. After a short while one of the Eastman horn players comes in to set up a recording of the talk. I tell her that it will be a pretty useless recording without the slides, so she goes to check to make sure that they really want to record it. They do, so she gets to work. Along the way she asks me if there is to be any horn playing. I had considered bringing the horn and tooting a couple of bars, so I could say that "I played at an IHS presentation in Rochester." Thankfully, I discarded the silly idea earlier in the week. At about 1:15 the first people show and we engage in some trivial chit-chat for a while.
The time finally arrives, and there are probably 60-70 people in the room. Not bad, especially given the somewhat unusual topic and the totally out-of-the-way location we're in. As usual, I start out a bit stiffly, but things improve as I get into full presentation mode and people start asking questions. The class is fairly well divided between internet-aware and non-aware folks. Only one guy falls asleep; heck, he's a college kid and was probably up until 4am the previous night, so I don't do anything mean to wake him up. He does come to for part of the discussion that reviews some of the available web sites, however.
The hour allotted whips by much faster than I expect and I have to hurry a couple of the slides to fit within the hour. At the end there is a smattering of applause and a small crowd gathers to ask questions. All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the way it went, and people will stop me in the halls several times during the day to make favourable comments.
Well, now that THAT is over, I can get to the business of seriously enjoying the conference, and the next "artist's recital" offers two regional artists. Rebecca Root is the principal horn of the local symphony; she starts with a straightforward arrangment (by Tyzik) of "Amazing Grace", following this with the much more difficult Hindemith Sonata (1939). It's not a stirring performance, but the job gets done. John Zirbel, solo horn of the Montreal Symphony, follows with several works by Canadian composers. The "Sonata" by Oskar Morawetz is the one that appeals most to me. Rebecca Root returns with several of her colleagues from the RSO to perform Mozart's "Musical Joke", K. 522. It's a very enjoyable performance as the players (also including RSO second hornist Jennifer Burch) has a good time ribbing each other throughout the performance.
I skip the massed horn rehearsal - I won't be there Saturday for the performance - and take an early dinner (more chicken! I'm going to start clucking soon). After this, it's downstairs to get out Sunday's and Monday's notes typeset and sent. I seem to have the one fast machine in the room, so I quietly type as fast as I can. Someone blew my secret by announcing during my presentation that there was a computer room - grr! ;-) I also steal (borrow, really) a power cord from some unused mainframe terminal and use it to recharge the laptop. I get Sunday's issue finished, stick it on the web page and post it, and start on Monday's before the 8pm recital calls.
Tonight we are in for a real treat - performances by William VerMuelen, principal horn for the Houston Symphony, and Gerd Seifert, principal solo hornist with the Berlin Philharmonic. These two fine artists will treat us to what is, to date, the finest performance of the conference.
VerMuelen starts the program with a performance - from memory, no less - if his own transcription of the "Cavatini - 'Una voce poco fa'," from the "Barber of Seville." To say his effort was virtuoustic would be to damn it with faint praise. He followed this up with the premier of a new work he commissioned from composer Paul English, "Her Name Shall Remain Unspoken." This work is very much in a jazz mode and represents a significant addition to the small existing repertoire in this area.
Seifert follows with two much less showy works, but ones that are familiar to many hornists: Saint-Saens' "Romance, opus 36", and Franz Strauss' "Nocturno, opus 7." His understated, extremely smooth playing style is an extreme contrast to VerMuelen's, but the two complement each other extremely well. It seems from where I sit that Seifert's valves are moving pretty slowly, but this goes away later in the performance.
VerMuelen closes the first half with Edith Borroff's "Sonata," a wonderful work in four movements that I had never heard before. The second movement (Scherzo) brings yet another version of our friend, the hunting call, and the fourth (Estampie) seems to have a bit of Scotland in it. Whatever, the piece works quite well, and again VerMuelen's performance is spot on.
Hindemith's "Alto Horn Sonata in E-flat" [Hindemith? Alto Horn? wow ..] starts the second half; Seifert is the player, and does a fine job. VerMuelen then returns to play Franz Strauss' "Fantasie, opus 2" and then, from memory, Paul Halley's jazzy "Winter's Dream," transcribed by the performer. Seifert closes out his effort for the evening with the very accessible "Intermezzo and Nocturne" by Gliere. The final word is VerMuelen's, and he brings the house down with his performance of Paganini's "Caprice No, 17 in E-flat Major, opus 1." This brings the house to a standing ovation for the first time in the conference; on the third bow, VerMeulen brings Seifert back on stage, to a rousing chorus of "bravo!"
No rest for the weary - back to the computer lab to finish up Monday's notes. Tonight about 20 people descend on the lab - not to use the systems, but rather to use the room as a practice hall! I rush out Monday's notes and then drag the horn out - *this* time I came prepared! I end up sharing a stand with three other players - two fine Japanese players and another 'merican. After a while the 'merican leaves, taking the stand, so I set up my case and we read the music out of that. Whoever is passing out music is sending out stuff that the Austin Horn Ensemble has played in the past, so I have a fine time actually playing music while everyone else is sight- reading. Later, something with high 'D's in it gets passed out, but there's a young stud in the room who loves a challenge and is wailing away on them before you can say "Shostakovich." We play for a couple of hours and break at 12:30. The group of 'players' upstairs from the previous night is still talking - one saying it would be a sacrilege to play after hearing what we did - and I show a couple of them how to send e-mail downstairs. No charge for the service .. but I may accept one of their beers the next time they offer ;-)
It's back up to the room to shower and enter the notes. Wednesday is a "slack" day - with optional excursions and a picnic, music to be supplied by the West Point Military Academy Band.
Respectfully Submitted,
Your Roving Reporter, Ron