Posted by Benjamin Schardt on October 10, 2001 at 13:02:52:
In Reply to: opinions on horns posted by R.W. on October 10, 2001 at 11:00:27:
I love spouting my opinions...
Unfortunately, I've NEVER tried a PT, much to my dismay. One of my short term goals is to at least try a nice PT.
My old teacher plays a Kalison DS 2000, amongst other horns and, while I never played it myself, he certainly held his own on it while playing in pieces requiring a big, full sound with a big, full orchestra such as Pictures, Saint Saëns Organ Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Fifth. As far as limberness, it seemed fine as a solo horn as well, as was demonstrated to me during lessons.
My primary horn is a MW 2145, and has been for about 8 months or so now. As it was my first CC, it took a little getting used to, no surprise there, but I've come to love the horn in all aspects of its playing. For solo stuff in the non-extreme high registers, it's top notch. It blends very well with the other instruments in quintet playing; although it is a full sized CC, it doesn't cover the rest of the group.
The biggest difficulty I had with it at first was getting a large enough sound for the full orchestra. The first piece I played in an orchestral setting with it was Festive Overture. There's some pretty serious, non-taxing brass stuff in there. When I first used the 2145 in rehearsal for that piece, I thought that I was going to have to whip out my old BBb to satisfy the dynamic requirements of the piece. But after just 2 weeks or so on the horn, I got it to project enough to play with the full orchestra, at least in the hall we were playing in.
Needless to say, I love the 2145. It's the slightly more recent big valve version, with the same valveset as the 2155 and 2165. Give it a thorough try. It has some characteristics to get used to, but once you get used to them, you can use them to your advantage.
-Fin