I remember in undergrad, when I shared a house with a bass trombone player, there was a lot of Romantic Germanic music on the CD player.\u00c2\u00a0 Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner, Wagner – these are the bread and butter of a low brass player, and I found myself enjoying many of these works as well.\u00c2\u00a0 As I began to study the repertoire for orchestra auditions, the Fourth Symphony of Bruckner became a favorite – not the least because it has a huge section solo in the Andante movement for the violas.\u00c2\u00a0 The Seventh also became a favorite, just for its sheer majesty and sonic splendor.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to the present.<\/p>\n
Now, I find myself in a bit of a quandry with Mr. Bruckner.\u00c2\u00a0 Is it the four-square phrases, the lack of interesting harmonic and melodic development, or the endless tremolo<\/em> that he inflicts the string sections with that has soured me on his works?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe.\u00c2\u00a0 But I also find, particularly in Saturday evening’s performance, that there is a particular power in his music, perhaps related to his intensity of religious devotion, that is personally affecting.\u00c2\u00a0 I am a sucker for good, massive brass writing, and Bruckner does provide that in spades in his Seventh Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 So, I am at a loss – I want both to hate and love Bruckner’s works, and am not sure which way the pendulum will swing.\u00c2\u00a0 I have two more performances to come to a decision.\u00c2\u00a0 We shall see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I remember in undergrad, when I shared a house with a bass trombone player, there was a lot of Romantic Germanic music on the CD player.\u00c2\u00a0 Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner, Wagner – these are the bread and butter of a low brass player, and I found myself enjoying many of these works as well.\u00c2\u00a0 As I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,115,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-Fa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2522,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/14\/and-now-for-something-completely-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":2552,"position":0},"title":"and now for something completely different","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Anton Bruckner This week's classical series concert (the final one of this season, alas) features another major Germanic symphony, but a very different sort of work than that written by last week's composer, Gustav Mahler.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, this week it's Anton Bruckner's turn in the spotlight with his massive Symphony No.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bruckner","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/bruckner.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12479,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/18\/un-complementary\/","url_meta":{"origin":2552,"position":1},"title":"un-complementary","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was initially happy to notice this line in a recent New York Times review of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at Carnegie Hall: To a large extent, the power behind these surges comes from the lower string section and the trombones, who in the Bruckner symphony, in particular, seemed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1284,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/16\/pesky-string-players\/","url_meta":{"origin":2552,"position":2},"title":"pesky string players","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bassist Michael Hovnanian, member of a Major Midwestern Orchestra With a Notably Loud Brass Section, wrote a hilarious description of guest conductor Jaap van Zweeden rehearsing Bruckner's Fifth Symphony: The Dutch violinist turned conductor spent more rehearsal time than normal dealing with the strings; in a work such as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":622,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/28\/audiences-pendulum-keeps-swinging\/","url_meta":{"origin":2552,"position":3},"title":"audiences pendulum keeps swinging","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"John Terauds, the classical music critic for the Toronto Star, writes in a recent column that younger audiences are turned off by crossover efforts, and just want the \"straight stuff\". If young people weren't interested in classical music, even $5 would not get them through the door. My epiphany of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4678,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/19\/insert-name-here-festival\/","url_meta":{"origin":2552,"position":4},"title":"insert-name-here festival?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"David Stabler has the ticket sales info for last week's Beethoven Festival, which was quite successful, with just over 71 percent capacity audiences.\u00a0 He suggests a few possibilities for future festivals, such as Gershwin, Bernstein, or Latin.\u00a0 That got me to thinking, too. Viennese Festival - works of Mozart, Beethoven,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7526,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/23\/on-blogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":2552,"position":5},"title":"on blogging","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 23, 2012","format":"aside","excerpt":"I'm going to be away from the computer for a couple days, but I just read a thoughtful post on the state of classical blogging over at Musical Assumptions, and it inspired a few observations of my own. I'm finding it difficult to find my blogging voice. There is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}