GOODE IS GREATE

Friday night, at the 14,608th concert of the New York Philharmonic (Sir Colin Davis conducting), I heard Richard Goode perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58. It was one of the most impressive classical piano performances I've heard, mainly due to Goode's delicate and precise touch. His runs sounded like harp strumming; his trills were uncannily crisp and even. No doubt his piano had something to do with this; it seemed to be a superb specimen, very well-tuned.

Typically, the most prized seats for a piano concert are those that afford a view of the keyboard, so audience members can watch the hands on the keyboard. I often get such seats, but at this concert I sat in the first tier, in the first box on the side of the stage by the cellos and basses (and brass). So I could see Goode's face but not his hands, while I heard sound that came from the curve in the case where vocal soloists often stand. I think I'll be more open-minded about sitting in similar locations at future piano concerts.

Also on the program was Beethoven's "Leonore" Overture No. 2, Op. 72a, featuring (for me) the use of an alto trombone, which is considerably smaller than the more common tenor and bass trombones. I looked it up here.

The modern alto trombone is pitched a perfect fourth higher than the tenor trombone. It has very limited use, compared with the tenor and bass trombone, but it is used in the orchestra, where many composers, particularly Beethoven and his contemporaries, created the first trombone parts to be played on the alto trombone. The alto trombone also has a role in the Moravian trombone choir (where its traditional pitch is F more often than E-flat) and in the modern trombone choir. In addition, there is a large solo repertoire for alto trombone. To help alto trombone players cope with the solo literature (and cover both alto and tenor trombone parts without having to carry a second instrument), some makers offer an alto trombone with a valve section in which pressing the valve lowers the pitch a perfect fourth.

The alto trombone mouthpiece shank is the same as that of the tenor trombone. Players who double on alto and tenor trombones (which is virtually 100% of all alto trombone players) often choose alto and tenor trombone mouthpieces with matching rims but differing cups and backbores.

Rounding out the program was Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 4 in F minor. Vaughan Williams is closely identified with popular, conventionally harmonized orchestral works inspired by British folk music, but this symphony caused a stir with its convulsive, discordant, more "modernistic" bombast. By coincidence, I had just seen Atonement on DVD, so I was in a position to contemplate the unease expressed in this Vaughan Williams work, which premiered in the early 1930s, with the circumstances that move the characters of Atonement out of their almost Edenic state during the oncoming years.

ALSO If I heard the Atonement commentary correctly, director Joe Wright (self-mockingly) calls himself a "cunt" as the credits roll! I was intrigued by Atonement's use of the word, with its D. H. Lawrence (and even Henry Miller) overtones.

Here is a YouTuber trying out an alto trombone. You can click on Source to read comments about intonation issues.



Source (1:03)