Posted by Barry Guerrero on April 06, 2003 at 12:56:44:
In Reply to: San Francisco Symphony Tubist? posted by Ross on April 05, 2003 at 23:47:08:
You've asked for commentary on the part - I've played it twice. It's simply the best orchestral tuba part I've ever encountered. The tuba really gets to play the "prophet of doom" (John Fletcher) role to the hilt. Mahler keeps you real busy in three of the four movements. In the slow movement (andante moderato), the tuba doesn't play a lot, but you do get a couple of tasty melodic lines in it. Mahler always gives the tuba plenty to do, save the 4th symphony - no trombones or tuba. I've also played one, two, three, seven, nine, and ten. Seven has a particularly good part as well. I've played the fifth, but only as a utility percussionist. I played all of these on an old, prototype Miraphone 188 that I once owned. Given my druthers, I could have used an even bigger horn for most of these. I've also played percussion in a number of them as well. Most of these performances were with the Redwood Symphony, a non-paying community orchestra on the S.F. peninsula.
Anyway, it's a great part. There's one spot in the finale where you climb up to the C# above staff, but you get to do it loud. As you might imagine, there's a lot of grumbling in the lowest register of the horn. John Fletcher sounds fabulous on both of his recordings of the piece: James Levine/LSO (RCA), and Harold Farberman/LSO (Vox Box).
Barry Guerrero