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I love the sound of the horn, and Tuckwell's was absolutely what I want to hear. I can almost always identify him as the soloist when I hear something on radio, such a distinctive yet characteristic sound. I was saddened with his passing a while back. The great Mason Jones played right here in Philadelphia and I also loved his playing but they were quite different animals. Jones was a masterful technician, but possessed a thinner sound than Tuckwell. Kind of the difference between Pavarotti and Jussi Bjorling.

I heard Tuckwell at an Oakland Symphony concert in the late 1960's. He played one of the Mozart concertos. Beautiful sound, perfect intonation, no clams, hair-raising cadenza with fantastic range. I noticed that not once did he empty his horn of moisture. How did he manage that? Every horn I have ever owned filled up with gurgles in the third valve tubing on the Bb side of the horn. I usually had a water key installed there.

Ace

I strongly suspect that Mr. Tuckwell’s view of why people come to concerts was similar to mine, and that turning large shiny things all around and making hissing noises with them are distractions to most patrons. He had a system of strings and water keys that he could operate while standing quietly in repose and only moving some fingers.

Ace wrote: ↑Fri Nov 20, 2020 9:21 pm I heard Tuckwell at an Oakland Symphony concert in the late 1960's. He played one of the Mozart concertos. Beautiful sound, perfect intonation, no clams, hair-raising cadenza with fantastic range. I noticed that not once did he empty his horn of moisture. How did he manage that? Every horn I have ever owned filled up with gurgles in the third valve tubing on the Bb side of the horn. I usually had a water key installed there.

Ace

I was at a horn workshop in New Hampshire which was being hosted jointly by Kendall Betts and Barry Tuckwell. Both of them drank a LOT. Later on they had a big fight and started hosting separate workshops. Both gone now.