I am the Acting Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic.

Today we'd like to talk a little bit about

Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

You know, there are a ton of great,

beautiful solos written for the solo horn in our repertoire.

There's Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, Bruckner 4,

"Till Eulenspiegel," "Ein Heldenleben,"

the list goes on and on.

But the one that contains the most emotional breadth,

for me, is Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

And especially in the third movement, which contains

what they call an obbligato horn part,

where the solo horn takes on a

sort of a more exaggerated solo role.

This solo in the third movement runs the gamut of emotional expression

from pathos, tenderness, comedy, aggression, everything in between.

It's such a big role for us that there has been

some debate in recent years as to where

the solo horn should be situated onstage.

Whether they should be in front of the orchestra,

where you would normally see a violin soloist,

or whether they should be back in their normal seat;

whether they should be standing or

whether they should be sitting.

In our performance here we opted for

the solo player, the obbligato player,

as Mahler says in his score,

to be situated in the normal seat in the back of the orchestra.

There is one other element that's really interesting,

where the horn player is asked,

and you guys have probably seen this a lot,

where the horn players are asked to

hold their bells up in the air,

the German “Schalltricher auf,” bells up.

So it gets a, in the mind of a composer, I think,

a more bright sound as well as

a more aggressive, sort of, loud sound

than when we hold the horn normally,

which is sort of into our bodies and facing back.

So, as I said, we opted to have the solo horn

in the back of the orchestra for this performance.

But I did do "bells up"

where indicated in the score in order to

just kind of expand the

possibilities of expression as we went through the movement.

So thanks for listening and

thanks for supporting the Philharmonic,

both now and in the past and in the future.

We can't wait to see you

when we go back to Geffen Hall and

can't wait to start performing again live.

Thanks again.