wohnideen wohnzimmer barock
sarah willis: hi, i'm sarahwillis and i'm standing on the stage of the big hall inthe philharmonie in berlin. and i've been asked to do amini, mini master class for the horn players who are applyingto be part of the youtube symphony orchestra. it's got to be a mini, minimaster class i'm afraid, but i'm hoping that some of thethings i can say might be of some help while preparingfor the audition. the excerpt i chose is thefourth horn solo from
beethoven's ninth symphonybecause it looks on paper maybe to be the most uninterestingof all the solos. but it in addition, it's quitehard to play because you stand on stage or you're sitting athome in your living room and you have to convince theaudience or the jury that it's not just a bunch of long notesbut that you hear that there are woodwinds playing with you,and you make some sort of music out of this long, long passage. standing here i just rememberedthe last time i stood on this
stage and played this excerptwas in my own audition for this orchestra. so yeah, it's bringingback a lot of memories. so let's start. you all have the music. i have the musicin front of me. and i was thinking about atempo, there are all sorts of different tempos for thispiece-- it says adagio, i thought maybe the average tempotaken from the few conductors
that i've played it with wouldbe about quarter note equals 52. so that might be some sortof a basis for you to practice with a metronome. the other thing is to makesure you know the score and now what's going on. this whole pot is a dialoguebetween the two clarinets, the bassoon, and the horn. the horn is sometimes inaccompaniment, the horn is
sometimes a solo instrument,and you need to show that you know that in the audition part. so with a dry mouth, havingspoken to much, i'll try and play a bit of it for you. [horn being played] here comes the baryou're all waiting for. this next bar i have a littletip that has always helped me, maybe it will help you. to play the low notes-- theyhave to sound just as easy as
all the other notes and for alot of us they're quite a struggle. my tip would be to open upthe hand for the low notes, otherwise they sounda little bit muffled. like this-- also the f have to be sharpenough, it's often very flat. so the more you open up thehand, the sharper it'll get. after the f there comes thejump up to the f above and the c sharp.
a good conductor should waitfor you to get up there, but he won't wait all day. so in the audition you needto take a tiny bit of time, but still get up there. so-- that whole passage as youknow is mainly horn solo. you have the clarinets and aflute comes and weaves around, but that whole passage canbe played out a little bit more and the crescendos,diminuendos very expressive.
then you have the long f tohold before the biggest solo of the excerpt. this long f is time tojust sort of gather your thoughts, stop yourbeating heart, whatever. but still, keep the tripletsof the violins going while you hold out this note. they're going dah, dah, dah,dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. it helps.
i just find it helps tokeep the concentration. and then comes the onebar that says solo. it's maybe the biggestfourth horn solo in the whole repertoire. and you can do thishow you want. some people play it witha little slur in it. some people play it tongued. some people do a hugeritardando, rubato, however you feel.
but whatever it is it'sgot to be convincing. how i like to playit is like this: the last two bars obviouslyaren't solo anymore, but the crescendo is there and you'llimpress a jury if you show them you know that's leadingin to the next passage. ok, now for somethingcompletely different, and even though i'm a low horn player,and maybe i shouldn't be giving tips about till eulenspiegel. i sit next to a lotof solo horns who've
played this in my time. and maybe a couple of tips, youof course, can hear this solo on thousands of recordings andthere are different ways to play it. a couple of tips for me wouldbe to really make sure that you do what strauss wanted. for example, the beginningof till eulenspiegel it says gemachlich. that means leisurely in englishor sort of taking your time.
and what strauss meant was tilleulenspiegel was a really-- he was a real scoundrel. he was a very naughty guy andhe caused a lot of trouble. and this was his firstappearance in the piece. when this theme appearsit's always representing till eulenspiegel. this is his first appearanceand he's not quite sure-- he's sort of sticking his head outand seeing if the coast is clear.
it would be nice to play it alittle bit like that because when it comes to the secondtime he's more self assured and he's showing what he can do. so really take it seriouslywhat strauss says and play the beginning a little bitleisurely, a little bit sort of looking out to see ifthe coast is clear. and gradually, getting morelively and getting more confidence as it goes on. i'm going to try andplay it even though
i'm a low horn player. when else do i have theopportunity to play this? a tip would be, also like isaid in the beethoven ninth for the last two notes-- the g andthe c-- is to open the hand a little bit more because it justmakes the low notes a lot clearer and just becareful they're not too sharp of course. but it really does helpin the low range to play a bit more open.
so that was till. those were my ideas for tilland i wish you all the best, and looking forward to hearingall the different versions.