Posted by Klaus on September 20, 2002 at 17:25:56:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Kjell Roikjer Concerto posted by Ron on September 20, 2002 at 16:31:04:
Kjell Roikjer, born 1901, was countryman of mine. I can not find his death year documented, but I seem to remember to have read his obituary in a paper some 10 or 15 years ago.
KR played 3rd bassoon and contrabassoon in our royal chapel, which is a brilliant, or rather very warm sounding, symph orchestra, even if most of its duties are carried out in the opera and ballet pits of our royal theatre.
I first heard of KR from my teacher, Svend Rasmussen, who formally was one of the 2 second trombones in the same orchestra, but who in real life played anything from 1st trombone over bassbone to F cimbasso. The alto bone was the only bone he never touched. He played bass bone on the Bernstein 1965 recording of Carl Nielsen's Espansiva. On a Bach 34, which was a very small instrument, even if it had an F valve. Let's just say that his sound was outstanding there. As a contrast: Small bones went out of fashion here around 1970, so the theatre gave Svend a huge Bach 50-something bassbone with 2 dependend valves. The day it arrived, Svend was assigned to play the 1st bone part in a ballet. He wanted to test the Bach 50, so he brought it to play that rather high 1st bone part. Which lead several of the strings to ask him, how he could play with a better horn sound, that could any of the members of the horn section.
Anecdotes aside: There is some sort of generation relay from KR over Svend to me with a distance of age of a bit over 20 years between each of us. I never have played anything by KR, but I have read some of his scores many years ago.
I can not find his tuba concerto documented, but the page linked to below tells of some Solo Pieces for tuba (ES 638), of Inventions opus 57 for 3 tubas (ES 596), and of Inventions opus 64 for 4 tubas (ES 595).
I find the website of the editor Engstrøm & Sødring less than elegant. They do not provide a mail address, only an ordering option at
http://www.steeplechase.dk/esmusic/bestilling.html
Hope this helps
Klaus