Posted by Rick Denney on June 20, 2003 at 11:28:10:
In Reply to: Re: Is it me? posted by Elaboration? on June 20, 2003 at 10:44:16:
By "bluff" I certainly didn't mean anything negative. I meant it in the old British sense of being cheerful in all circumstances. Perhaps it comes from bluffing fate. "He laughed at wind-blown Everest and said, 'Here we go' in his characteristic bluff style." Fletcher seemed like he was having more fun and that he wasn't taking things too seriously. Lind seemed more particularly focused on beauty. Fletcher's approach seems more, well, British to me, and more characteristic for Vaughan Williams. It's just my emotional reaction to how they sounded.
As to the instruments, could be. I don't think the Besson compensating F is any smaller than at least some of the Barlow F's, some of which only have 12" bells and proportions to match. The F that was in Bevan's picture of Stuart Roebuck was much larger. But the Barlow F that he pictured in his first edition being played by George Wall in his youth was not noticeably larger than a big euphonium.
Rick "who has preferences but not judgments in this case" Denney