New principal trumpet at Concertgebouw
mainThere are three new players in the elite Amsterdam orchestra, all announced very discreetly.
Miroslav Petkov, the new principal trumpet, is 27 and Bulgarian.
Kyeong Ham, 2nd oboe, is South Korean and 23.
José Luís Sogorb Jover, 37, was principal horn at the Orquestra Sinfónica de Galicia in La Coruña.
Now only one out of five oboists there is Dutch. The Dutch school of oboe playing is fading away quickly, at this orchestra at least, which is unfortunate.
There are no national schools of anything. Schools were always related to regions or certain musical centers around certain orchestras, or even only individual teacher personalities, not to political nations.
From a previous thread, regarding a post lamenting the disappearance of the Dutch school of oboe playing….
The reason why non-Dutch players have succeeded over native Dutch players/players exclusively trained in the Netherlands in gaining positions in the orchestra, particularly in the woodwind and brass sections, is addressed by members of the orchestra in a NPO/AVROTROS series titled “Bloed, zweet en concerten”; in English, “Blood, sweat and concerts” (http://web.avrotros.nl/bloedzweet/overzicht/concerten#facet_category:uitzendingen|view:cellsByRow – only in Dutch, sorry).
To paraphrase what the players said, considering only Dutch/Dutch-trained musicians for given vacancies would compromise the quality of the ensemble, as, for some time now, foreign-trained musicians have frequently trumped the primarily Dutch trained competition in “skill, ability and qualifications”.
There is indeed a distinctive Dutch school of oboe playing, distinguished by the use of oboes with full-automatic octaves, a different reed design (a wider shape, amount other things), a shorter staple (42mm vs 47mm) as well as a rather loose embouchure. I am sure Dutch oboists can provide a better description than I do here.
Funny, the factor-Dutch has almost entirely disappeared in the whole organization of the RCO: there is a Italian chief-conductor, a Belgian general-director, an American artistic manager and over 70% foreigners in the orchestra.
Only the main location (‘Concertgebouw’ in Amsterdam) and the financial structure of the orchestra (heavyly subsidised by the State) is purely Dutch.
Conclusion: EU and Unesco should in fact be the better partners within the financial structure of the RCO. Work on this boys.
Does it still sound like the Concertgebouw?
The oboe section certainly doesn’t (just an observation, not a criticism).
They’re coming to Carnegie this season for the first time in 4-5 years. I doubt that I’ll hear much of a difference since their unique ensemble playing (much like Philly’s) is a tradition and ingrained.
It’s an orchestra *for* the people in Amsterdam (and beyond) primarily, no? Not necessarily *from* them. With that kind of tribalist stone age thinking of yours our ancestors would not have traveled the silk road or other trade routes I guess.
The numbers you mention are simply false. 50% of the orchestra is still Dutch. I think we can thank the Dutch government for killing the piramidr under the RCO, starting from local music school all the way up to the symphony orchestras. In the last 10 years,in which the half of the orchestra changed, only 15 musicians from Dutch orchestra’s joined the RCO from which 9 non-Dutch players. And as said musicians only get selected on quality. The RCO for me is representing the city and country all over the world and I don’t care how big is the percentage of Dutch players. Same for football teams.