Too many groups that used historical instruments felt like that was all they needed, and put our recordings when they got things together, not when they were really ready for performance. I feel that way about a lot of the Academy of Ancient Music stuff with Hogwood at the helm, though I have a bit of it. I enjoy groups that seek to do more than merely overcome the challenges of the period instruments, and actually push into new realms of musicality. As Norrington put it, we play original instruments using the original markings to make old music sound new again.
But I like listening to them MUCH better than attempting to play them. Fortunately, my instrument, the tuba, was invented late in the game--in the 1830's--following the invention of workable valves. (Prior to valves, the tuba role was filled by "serpents" and "English bass horns"--both of which tuned notes using tone holes. Good intonation required chops of steel, an iron will, and perfect pitch. Good tone was a whole other thing.) For some years I played in a group that re-enacted civil war and other historical musical events. We resisted using period instruments, because our audiences were listening with modern ears and modern standards of performance. I have played an over-the-shoulder bass saxhorn from the 1860's, and simply could not make music on it. The competing instrument of that era was the ophicleide, like a bass saxophone but with a cup-shaped mouthpiece instead of a reed. Berlioz famously wrote Symphonie Fantastique for two ophicleides, one pitched in C and one in Bb, so that their intonation anomalies would offset each other. Norrington's group played that work on original instruments including a pair of ophicleides. No, thanks. Berlioz himself had rescored the work for valved tubas after he was exposed to them in the 1840's.
I heard David Bragunier (RIP, who was recently retired from the National Symphony at the time) play a Strauss horn concerto on a Kruspe Eb tuba that had been made in the 1890's. He played beautifully but one could tell it was a battle. Things really improved about that time to a standard not far from the best modern instruments, so nothing in the last 120 years or so could really be called a "period" tuba.
But I love listening to good musicians play Baroque and Renaissance music on period instruments, particularly if they can include a period organ. Nothing makes a picardy third sound like it should like a natural horn, for example.
Rick "rambling" Denney
. One can ask if all this hassle is needed ? I think it is always good to have broader perspective, another interesting view, variety. Early music movement gave us big amount of new sounds, new joy and thrill.
