Posted by js on May 29, 2003 at 21:56:27:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: B&S 4P posted by The... on May 29, 2003 at 21:35:01:
I doubt that the "general" pitch level used by the professional musicians in Prague is terribly high by our standards.
I have some friends, the Gilbert family, who used to run a music festival in Prague every summer. This is the family including Michael Gilbert and his wife (NYP violinists), Alan Gilbert (conductor of great renown), Jennifer Gilbert (their daughter, who serves as concertmaster in Lyons, Fr.), Bob Gilbert (horn - former principal in Japan Phil et al), and Joan Gilbert (concert pianist).
Bob and Joan (along with Bob's sons, a Chicago Civic violinist and a violist) were those primarily involved with the music festival in Prague.
I'm very familiar with Bob's playing. He is an amazing horn player. At the time they were doing the festival in Prague, he was playing an Elkhart 8D horn that (even after he had me cut it) "barely" played up to A=440. I asked him (out of curiosity - after their first summer of doing the festival) how he fared over there, pitchwise. He reported no pitch level problems whatsover.