New video: A bassoon quavers before her first Paris Rite of Spring
mainThe Philharmonia has upped the orchestral blog ante by filming tour comments from its players instead of just printing them. The one that caught our eye in this vlog is from principal bassoon, Amy Harman, at 00:50.
Philharmonia on Tour: Paris & The Rite of Spring (2013) from Philharmonia Orchestra on Vimeo.
I love the idea of these video snips from behind the scenes. I’d like to see much more coverage of these type of things. Like all the background on practice and performance that they do for the TV shows like Dancing with the stars. I think the background on these is fascinating.
Outch, intonation….
You mean “ouch” but I have to agree with you. The latent ferocity is missing.
Really interesting to hear Amy Harman’s reflections! And she plays the solo SO beautifully! captivating!
The first bassoonist to ever play that famous solo evidently gave Stravinsky a lot of grief because it was so difficult and so high. Ms. Harman makes it sound easy! She sings it effortlessly like a great mezzo soprano!
I’d say she raised the bar pretty high on Rite’s famous opening. The ghosts of bassoonists past in the hall were silently shuffling for her, I’m sure!