Horn Matters | A French Horn and Brass Site and Resource | John Ericson and Bruce Hembd

Bruce Richards recently wrote in his site Living the Dream of “Four Summers That Changed My Life.” I was particularly interested to read this as I was there for one of them! That summer was 1983 and we were both students of David Wakefield at the Aspen Music Festival. The previous summer I had also went to Aspen and that summer started a major embouchure change.

Richards is Co-Principal horn with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and performs with the Ictus Ensemble Brussels as well as the Liège Horn Quartet. For clarity I will put my part of our conversation in italics.

JE: For me 1983 was the summer between my junior and senior years of college and was my first chance to really experience a higher level of orchestral playing. I remember two sections we played in together pretty specifically, one concert with the Chamber Orchestra that had Leonore 3 on it–you third/me fourth, and also a repertoire reading session of Till (full wind/brass section) with you on third and me on maybe first? Let’s talk about the Leonore first. I have always been an equipment person and I remember you came to Aspen playing a descant horn and using a Neill Sanders mouthpiece and left playing a Reynolds double and a more typical mouthpiece. My memory says you played Leonore on the descant.

BR: Aspen 1983 fell between my sophomore and junior years in college. After having participated in a Master Class with David Wakefield, he and my teacher Johnny Pherigo proposed going to Aspen. I think that I came with both horns to Aspen. I was so proud to have them both. I had been using the descant horn, a Paxman 40L, for about a year and it was a lot of fun, but because I had been through two teacher changes in the previous two years I wasn’t being smart about using it. I insisted on using it for everything. I went to Aspen with no particular goal except to expose myself to as much great music making as possible. I ended up changing mouthpieces and within a year I had almost stopped using the descant horn. In my first lesson with David Wakefield he proposed changing mouthpieces. I was concerned that the change would ruin my summer, but I was wrong. I went from a Neill Sanders 17D to a Schilke 30 mouthpiece and still play something similar today. For the Leonore 3 concert I remember a couple of things: First, that I was terrified. Second, the joy of playing in such an ensemble, and third is the memory of a piece of advice, that David Wakefield gave me, that I use on a daily basis as a professional horn player. Now, the exact wording of this may not be accurate, but the underlying meaning is the same:

“Before your first solo entrance look the conductor in the eye. This will give him confidence that you know what you are doing and are ready for your entrance. Do your best to make that first solo entrance as good as you can make it because that will make the conductor feel confident in you, and as a consequence this may make him leave you alone for the rest of the week. Conductors are always nervous about the horn section, so by making him feel confident from the first note you are going to make your life a lot easier.”

Now this quote came from a New York free-lancer of impeccable pedigree, and he was right. I have taken his advice to heart so well that sometimes my first rehearsal is better than the concert, but that is another issue.

JE: I can easily imagine him saying that and feel sure he must have said something similar to me, words to live by. I also recall that on one of the Leonore rehearsals it was really cold on stage! I could not get up to pitch. Moving on to Till I also remember that descant. At some point after it we were talking with Wakefield and he said they assigned you third on that to see what you would do with it on descant with the low A in the third solo and you mentioned that you played that on the high F side. Till must have also been early in the summer.

BR: I had been practicing Till, and other excerpts, on my descant horn since my parents bought me the horn. I hadn’t spent too much time playing the third horn licks, but I knew that it worked. Now without discussing the sound of those notes on the high-F side, which left a lot to be desired, I have to say that there is some logic to it and obvious benefits for the rest of the piece. A lot less effort is required to pop out low C’s and A’s on a high-F horn. They speak easily, yet crudely, and are secure or at least it seemed that way to me at the time. Now, having said that, I would never play Till on a descant horn again. A triple horn maybe, but not a descant. (Descant meaning B-flat/High-F)

JE: Later in the summer it seems to me your mom shipped out to you your Reynolds horn. I remember it was a big change for you.

BR: Now John, I think your memory is much better than mine, but as I said before I think I came to Aspen with both horns. But that isn’t really important. What is important is that I learned what it means to have more than one horn very early in my education. Even today those experiences impact my decisions. I have been preparing an all Ravel concert that I have early this season. I intend to use my Paxman triple horn for the “Concerto en Sol”, but the overture is the Pavane. Normally I would use my Rauch for the Pavane, but the thought of changing horns between two such delicate pieces made me decide to use the Paxman for the Pavane as well and change horns after the intermission for the Mother Goose Suite and the Left-Hand Concerto.

JE: For sure for me I would also make the changes between horns depending on works being performed, that is part of being a smart professional. Moving back to the summer of 1983, my personal big highlight/memory of the summer was playing assistant first horn to Wakefield on the Mendelssohn Fingal’s Cave Overture in the Chamber Orchestra. The group sounded great and when I was on first I had to take the ball and play first! I still love that work and look back on that performance as a musical highlight of my life. At least part of it was I could see how far I had come in a year of hard work on my embouchure but also I had a clear vision of what the next level was. In relation to that, as much as possible I had every advanced student at Brevard play assistant for at least one concert as that concert had been such a strong memory for me. What was your musical highlight?

BR: Oddly, the biggest highlight didn’t involve my horn, or any horn for that matter. I went to hear the Cleveland String Quartet and Emanuel Ax perform a chamber concert. They finished the concert with Schumann’s Piano Quintet. I was mesmerized. I fell in love with that piece and it remains, to this day, my favorite chamber music piece. The second highlight was hearing the Festival Orchestra play Wagner’s “Seigfried’s Rhine Journey” and John Cerminaro play the off-stage solo. (the short call) It was the first time that I had heard playing at that level, and in an iconic solo. In regards to playing assistant, I love it. I always have and I don’t know why. You kind of feel like a hired gun, and it is fun to try and match every detail of the first horn’s playing. It’s like playing second but without all the stress.

JE: I also remember meeting your mom at the end of the summer—she brought out a shirt to give one of your friends and you gave it to me. I wore it for years. Something like “Where in Kalamazoo is Kalamazoo?” Do you remember that?

BR: Yes, my mom flew to Aspen to hear a couple of concerts. After the Festival she drove back to Michigan with me. The t-shirt she brought with her was “Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo!” The joke being that many people only know the Sinatra song “I’ve got a gal in Kalamazoo” and don’t realize that it is a real town. Since, I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan she thought that the t-shirt would be a nice gift. It is great that you kept it so long.

JE: Any other memories or highlights to share?

BR: Midori and Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg performances on violin. Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” staged as a Western. Aspen was the start of a series of events which changed my life and led me to the Liège Philharmonic Orchestra in Belgium. My roommate at Aspen was a student from Florida State University and because of that connection, amongst other reasons, I went to graduate school at Florida State. I didn’t finish my degree there, but my journey towards Belgium had been launched. Another memory, which is totally unrelated to music, is that I remember vividly playing soccer in Aspen. I also remember how difficult it was to adapt to the altitude the first few days. Playing soccer helped. I would still like to go to Aspen with my wife one summer. Great scenery and great music it would be a perfect second honeymoon.

JE: Bruce Hembd and I both love your current site and your previous blog. Could you speak about your sites past and present?

BR: Blogs can be a delicate balancing act, and artistic blogs even more so. When I started my first blog it was as an exercise in self-analysis. I had been going through the toughest time of my professional life and needed an outlet. Since I didn’t feel that I could talk about these problems with people that were close to me and since I couldn’t do that kind of thing in french, I started writing. I love to write, but at first I wasn’t very discriminating about what I put in my blog. In some cases I poured out my soul into what I wrote. This bothered a lot of people. Let me explain by saying that working in an orchestra is a very close knit, family oriented affair. People don’t appreciate hanging out the dirty laundry in public even if it isn’t theirs. I hadn’t learned that and so I took down the blog. After a month or two, during which I continued to write (like a diary), I decided to start again and have blog which had more restraint. After all this, I don’t regret my first blog. It was an excellent source of therapy for me, and hence a learning experience I will not forget. I don’t pour my soul into the new blog, but sometimes it seeps in.

JE: Thank you for taking the time to share these memories and again we at Horn Matters recommend Living the Dream as regular reading.

BR: John, it has been fantastic to be invited to participate in this interview. I am still amazed that after all this time we were able to reconnect. The horn world is smaller and smaller thanks to the internet, and thanks to you and Bruce Hembd and your amazing work on HornMatters.com.

Photo credit here–The Maroon Bells.