Carnegie Hall Bassoon Master Class: Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4

Berlin Philharmonic principal bassoonist Stefan Schweigert coaches Samuel Banks on Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. carnegiehall.org/workshops
Select members of the Berlin Philharmonic woodwind and brass sections led two days of master classes focusing on orchestral repertoire and audition preparation. Participating young artists attended panel discussions with the master class leaders and heard the Berlin Philharmonic in performance, led by Sir Simon Rattle, at Carnegie Hall.
Bassoon Master Class Participants
Samuel Banks
Catherine Chen
Brent Foster
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[@stoya2s]

Let all of us, who have been in a similar situation take something in to a consideration. When you are going to participate a master class you play your ass off and prepare yourself extremely well in order to give the best impression you possibly can to the person giving the master class. You are well warmed up and have been practicing the same excerpts over and over again. On the other hand if you are the person giving the master class, usually you are tired, not really at 100 percent, and clearly can not prepare the entire material of all the people that are going to take your master class. So what happens, is that many times you can not play with your best sound, technique or articulation, however you can always communicate your musical ideas, and at that level this is all that matters. Any advanced player knows what to do in order to improve his or hers technique, articulation, etc. but we can all benefit from new and unique musical ideas that the best players in our profession can demonstrate to us. Clearly both bassoonists in this video are excellent players and as it happens many times a teacher can always learn something from a very talented student.

[@Smood47]

+Noemis Smith Nah I don't appreciate that. If the master is playing more poorly than the student and hes not super old and disabled then something is seriously wrong.

[@stoya2s]

+Smood47 I would agree with you if the instructor was playing a lot worse than the student. Well maybe one day if you are in that kind of situation you'd understand, untill then everyone is in title of their opinion.

[@coreyporter87]

Smood47 teaching is more about knowledge and knowing how to communicate that. It's not about being the better player.

[@Smood47]

true but its still discouraging if the teacher is playing worse

[@nicholasz2510]

I'm completely convinced Schweigert was just having a bad reed day, which is kind of the bane of a wind player's existence

[@jadewolf3094]

such a calm relaxed teacher :)

[@Invisiblewinds]

Lol listen to him talking is like getting an ASMR session

[@1kinut800]

I've seen this instrument at the symphony but never knew what it was or how it sounds. It's beautiful. Thank you.

[@kallitv680]

thankmyou for this video. Stefan schweigert is so calm and sympathic. He was some of the players that inspired me to start playing the bassoon.This video motivates me to practice everyday

[@antoniovicazzi]

Very inspiring! Please upload more of Schweigert!!!

[@toddles9]

Sometimes, students are better players than their teachers. But it's not relevant. Teachers have experience that younger players can't yet, and that is what teaching is mostly about. Knowing the best way to achieve something is the real goal - it doesn't matter who's better at it. Look at sports. Do you think NBA basketball coaches could physically compete with their own teams? Could swim coaches beat their own swim team? Teaching is not about who's better. It's about who knows more.

[@gcg8187]

Yeah I think it is looks differently sometimes for people. Cuz like when it comes to athletic sports do you have a limited amount of time until your body starts to break down, often the other coach can't go show you how to do a spinning slam dunk. But with like classical music it's sort of required that you're better than the student, or what I mean is 99% of the time the teacher plays way better than student

[@fritzbee5789]

You said the opposite of what better than the teacher means

[@Peter-gr8fj]

Do you mean by that that the student plays more beautiful or better than Stefan Schweigert?

[@doublereedboy8455]

@@Peter-gr8fj yeah i agree, playing with a more beautiful sound doesn't mean playing better

[@Lai791109]

Thank you!!

[@joeheid4757]

I don't even play bassoon and I knew this was gonna be the excerpt played.

[@mikeoxbig1049]

Stefan has a really interesting vibrato, sounds like a human singing, amazing!

[@duggydugg3937]

nice sounding .. great range.. wonder how it would do with new Orleans jazz n blues

[@MrDragonOfIce]

I hope I can sound like this one day!

[@brsobrso9193]

What you say when you play single tongue?

[@WoodwindRevolution]

Doesn't Samuel Banks play for the Toronto Symphony?

[@DLxFC]

WoodwindRevolution yeah, but as I'm writing this I think he is resigning as they listed a position

[@dgh17]

DELXAC TVV Nope, he's still there playing 2nd. The position is for Associate Principal, recently vacated by Catherine Chen who is now playing Principal in Milwaukee.

[@user-ue4ho7sy5z]

What is that noise called when the instrument like I'm hums or something I can't get the right word

[@dylantharp87]

What do you mean? Vibrato?

[@adahy1510]

Vibrato. It's a vibration of the sound slightly out of tune and back to the original pitch. If you watch a string player, you can visually see the vibrato from them vibrating the string. Wind players typically use their diaphragm to create vibrato.

[@Zdrange03]

Vibrato in the bassoon is usually amplitude / pulsation vibrato, quick alternances of quiet and louder sounds. Unlike the violin and the saxophone which use pitch vibrato.

[@WHITECK9]

Such a bsn thing; I've known hundreds-the good ones are just like these 2.

[@ghosttoast2073]

I wonder what brand his bassoon is?

[@hakunaseitata2880]

Probably a Heckel...

[@User-xn8cx]

Either a heckle or a Fox

[@ethanyang6223]

Heckel and Mor Biron's is a Heckel also

[@TurboBinch]

Miles Maner that is definitely 100% Sam Banks.

[@fasteddie4145]

it's official.......everything is click-bait to me.....I thought this was a fishing video.....

[@laikancrawford2617]

fasteddie4145 the heck???

[@josephsmith3961]

Wait what?

[@exioss5996]

lmao

[@broccolifireminecraft6367]

I have the same Reed case he does

[@giseloconnor5081]

+Baron Young wow!

[@cyndie26]

Out of curiosity, why didn't the conversation go both ways? The left bassoonist sounds a little bit breathy and sharp (at least by American tuning standards, but he may be in tune for those of other countries).

[@kadengreenwood8863]

cyndie26 he is just teaching the younger man. So he is not emphasising his tone but his point, this is showen by his numerous appereces in wind symphonies. There is a new post that showed this very well in the comment section, it was at the top at the time of me posting this. Hope this helps

[@fernie51296]

I actually preferred his sound. It is more like a human singing at a whisper volume. But I’m a clarinetist so what do I know? Idk if it’s the same with bassoon, but with clarinet the fuzzy stuff is what really projects. My teacher, Michele Zukovsky (former principal of the LA Phil) taught me this. Her sound was small and pretty up close but absolutely luscious and beautiful in the Walt Disney Concert hall.

[@adahy1510]

The performer was on the right, and the instructor was on the left. It's a masterclass, so a student will play an excerpt of something in front of a live audience, and then the teacher will give immediate feedback to help the student grow. So it's all for the benefit of the student/audience receiving the wisdom of the instructor. So, for a performance based event, the performer (one on right) naturally would be warmed up, while the instructor wouldn't really be warmed up at all. In fact you see him take his reed out and pretty much go straight into playing the excerpt cold. Also, his sound was maybe "weaker" sounding to you, but his tone was better. It was "tighter" and the sound wasn't dispersing as much as the students. Also, the instructor sounded better in tune with himself than the student to me. You can really hear the pitch drop at the end of the first portion of the excerpt the first time he plays it, and when he descends from the C-F which is one of the first giant leaps, the f goes flat. Also keep in mind the dynamic of the excerpt is piano, so naturally people would undersupport the sound, but you need to push more air to make the pitch stay closer to in tune. A sharp pitch will sound much better psychoacoustically than a flat pitch.

[@ericli3887]

Stefan Schweigert (the instructor) plays in Berlin phil, which tunes higher than American standards. As for tone, it’s really a personal thing. I find that despite his “breathiness” his tone sings through the instrument while the student has more of a textbook bassoon sound. Both are fantastic players on their own right.

[@gcg8187]

@@fernie51296 can you say that again? You said it's the fuzzy stuff that projects, I was expecting you to say that your teacher is fuzzy up close, but very beautiful in the concert hall. You said the sound of small and pretty up close One time I was in front of a really Distinguished Principal flute player, and their sound was Fuzzy up close. Most flute players I know in my college are just trying to get a sound that's very pretty up close

[@classicalperformances8777]

very nice. but he's slowing down at the end of each mini-phrase

[@user-gb7yo5td5m]

Мужик классно играет, не нужно ничего ему навязывать.

[@milesmaner]

That is not Sam Banks.

[@leviradford707]

Miles Maner - Yes it is.

[@giancarlopiligp]

Very beautifull, but his bassoon (Stefan Schweigart) is wonderfull, but sound end the expression they are unreachable

[@marianascimento-os4nx]

uahua

[@ottopark]

Bestätigt die alte Regel: gute Instrumentalisten sind noch lange keine guten Pädagogen. Und vice versa...

[@pamwong5706]

Kide. Videose

[@JorgeSilva-oi7jj]

O ALUNO ESTUDA, ESTUDA E ... ESTUDA, E NUNCA AGRADA AO PROFESSOR!!!! ESTÁ SEMPRE FALTANDO ALGUMA COISA!!!

[@ottopark]

Ei was isch dann doo bassierd? Isch glaab, da Stefan hadd sei Rohr-Etui vergess unn eefach e Schrodd-Rohr geholl? Dass sei English so poor isch, makes than also nothing more...

[@sotirisgeorgiou]

I hate this guy, " its fantastic, its fantastic BUT..." say what you wanna say

[@fagocista1980]

a lot of out of tune sounds :/

[@ton1998]

You should be teaching those masterclass. You have such a beautiful sound.

[@zengier9191]

It's a class about interpretation and expression. That's not the point.