Picc'ers: (?) Do you have nightmares about it ?

Puhleeze...It's not THAT hard!

I can think of a handful of licks that make me a little weak in the knees... but the Tchaik ain't one of them.

OK, this leads to 2 ?'s:

T4: "tempo" (how relevant?)

and if you wouldn't mind too much: can you list
that handful?

Thanks!

FYI: I heard a "major" orch picc screw it up (the T4)

On the San Francisco Symphony's "Keeping Score" recording of Tchaikovsky's 4th, the picc player, Catherine Payne, mentioned how the solo was one of the toughest in the repertoire to pull off. I should mention that she was offered the picc position in Chicago but turned it down.

Is there any way you guyz and galz can play that lick softer? It's given me headaches over the years, thanks!

I would say it's a pretty darn tough excerpt. Maybe not so hard in the practice room once you've worked on it, but much tougher to execute in performance when that high A is the first thing you have to play after sitting tacet the first two movements. There is practically no margin for error.

Okay piccolo players. Get ready to feel really bad about yourselves:

http://www.flutesonline.com/shopping/tree.mpg

I feel so sorry for this bird!

quote:

Originally posted by Cygnus:
Is there any way you guyz and galz can play that lick softer? It's given me headaches over the years, thanks!

In a word: No.

No problem! Just take this bird with you to your next audition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FviwoDYHISI

i've seen that. notice how it takes the bird about 4x's to get it right, which is most likely imitating the owner. that # is probably pretty accurate for most piccolo players, if not more x's!

& no, we can't play it softer - or faster (& accurate)!!

See: Flute Talk, October 1994: pg. 36

It is an article on performing Tchaik 4 with a suggested alternate fingering. This fingering works very well for me, and enables the player to accomplish this solo in a soft dynamic.