I’ve recently discovered that there are some muscles just beneath the lips called “depressor” muscles. This is fascinating – I sometimes feel a little depressed, for no obvious reason, and have figured that the cause of it must be these little muscles. I’m sure I’ll smile more without them, and I don’t think I use [...]
According to Engelbert Schmid, my horn is the most complicated horn he has ever built. Here’s part of a letter he wrote to me which arrived with the new instrument. It’s a wonderful horn, in every way, and a marvel of design and engineering excellence. It’s the only horn I’ve ever seen with eight valves. [...]
This horn is quite heavy, and it’s going to take some time to get used to it – by which I mean many hours of practise. And this means stiff neck, shoulders, back-ache …PAIN. I’m not all that keen on pain. I believe in “No pain = GAIN”. So I asked Andrew Taylor, of Taylor [...]
The Philharmonia work very hard on tour. I found this poignant scene backstage in the Graf-Zeppelin-Haus, Friedrichshafen, in the short break between the rehearsal and the concert.
Here area a couple of photos of Byron – principal trombonist in The Philharmonia Orchestra. The first is backstage just before a concert in Munich. I managed to capture him practising his devastating stealth-attack. It is so powerful it can blast open the doors of a lift. The second photo is another of Byron which [...]
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