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  • Hi, my name is Richard Deane.

  • I am the Acting Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic.

  • Today we'd like to talk a little bit about

  • Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

  • You know, there are a ton of great,

  • beautiful solos written for the solo horn in our repertoire.

  • There's Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, Bruckner 4,

  • "Till Eulenspiegel," "Ein Heldenleben,"

  • the list goes on and on.

  • But the one that contains the most emotional breadth,

  • for me, is Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

  • And especially in the third movement, which contains

  • what they call an obbligato horn part,

  • where the solo horn takes on a

  • sort of a more exaggerated solo role.

  • This solo in the third movement runs the gamut of emotional expression

  • from pathos, tenderness, comedy, aggression, everything in between.

  • It's such a big role for us that there has been

  • some debate in recent years as to where

  • the solo horn should be situated onstage.

  • Whether they should be in front of the orchestra,

  • where you would normally see a violin soloist,

  • or whether they should be back in their normal seat;

  • whether they should be standing or

  • whether they should be sitting.

  • In our performance here we opted for

  • the solo player, the obbligato player,

  • as Mahler says in his score,

  • to be situated in the normal seat in the back of the orchestra.

  • There is one other element that's really interesting,

  • where the horn player is asked,

  • and you guys have probably seen this a lot,

  • where the horn players are asked to

  • hold their bells up in the air,

  • the GermanSchalltricher auf,” bells up.

  • So it gets a, in the mind of a composer, I think,

  • a more bright sound as well as

  • a more aggressive, sort of, loud sound

  • than when we hold the horn normally,

  • which is sort of into our bodies and facing back.

  • So, as I said, we opted to have the solo horn

  • in the back of the orchestra for this performance.

  • But I did do "bells up"

  • where indicated in the score in order to

  • just kind of expand the

  • possibilities of expression as we went through the movement.

  • So thanks for listening and

  • thanks for supporting the Philharmonic,

  • both now and in the past and in the future.

  • We can't wait to see you

  • when we go back to Geffen Hall and

  • can't wait to start performing again live.

  • Thanks again.

Hi, my name is Richard Deane.

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