Posted by Frederick J. Young on November 30, 2002 at 11:44:25:
In Reply to: Vaughan Williams posted by Chris Horsch on November 20, 2002 at 11:11:42:
I performed the RVW Concerto in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Institute of Technology Music Department Recital in mid March 1957. That was one of the earliest performances of that work in the US. I played a very large 4 valve King BBb tuba and was accompanied on the piano by Phil Catelinet. The Carnegie Trustees were so impressed with Phil's piano playing (he was a professional pianist before the war) that they made him an assistant professor two weeks later! He and I performed the RVW Concerto many more times in the following twenty years including once in New York City. I had an F tuba that was the same as the one Phil used for the first performance of the RVW Concerto. Phil like the way I played it on the BBb tuba better, however. One might consider playing the first and third movements on the BBb or CC tuba and doing the second movement on the F or Eb tuba. RVW told Phil that the third movement was supposed to depict the dancing of a bunch of fat Germans and should not be fast. When Phil told me not to play it so fast I pointed out the metronome marking on the music. Phil said that RVW's metronome marking didn't convey the tempos he had in mind! Thus, I think the third movement should be played on a contrabass tuba to get a slightly ponderous sound.