Milena viotti biography sample

by Johannes Dengler

I recently had the great pleasure of presenting the instrument of my famous predecessor, Franz Strauss, with my colleague Milena Viotti. The Bavarian State Orchestra is celebrating its 500th anniversary this year, and for this occasion a number of short videos relating to the history of our orchestra have been produced. For 30 years now, I have been able to play as a solo horn player in the same chair in the Bavarian State Opera, and so for me, my first encounter with this original instrument triggered a memorable and impressive journey into the past, and I want to tell you about it.

Much has been handed down, researched, and published about the personality of Franz Strauss and his position and importance in music history; I can't contribute anything new in terms of content. But if you approach the instrument purely phenomenologically in the present, there is still a lot to say.

On the one hand, the craftsmanship is striking. Every screw, every small part does not come from perfect industrial mass production, as it does today, but from small editions that were mostly made by hand and which had a much greater spread in quality. I can only imagine that the raw materials market, e.g. for brass, was completely different in 1867 than it is today. The special form of the instrument, with a long cylindrical portion and a very conical bell, can also be ascribed with high probability to a collaboration between the master builder Ottensteiner and Franz Strauss. The underlying artistry of everyone involved, to achieve the best result on all levels with few attempts and little experience, seems remarkable to me. Certainly it was not possible to simply provide many identically constructed horns in tried-and-tested versions from which to choose, as is the case today.

In many respects, this horn is a starting point, and the repertoire premiered with it (e.g. Rheingold in 1869, Walküre in 1870, and Meistersinger in 1868), was not even known at the

A Conversation with Bedřich Tylšar

by Zdeněk Divoký

We are sitting in a cozy cafe in Prague having a chat with Bedřich Tylšar (b. 1939), Czech horn player and pedagogue. Between the years 1965 and 2000, he and his brother Zdeněk (1945-2006) performed as a horn duo in famous concert halls around the world.

The list of concertos for two horns that they recorded (LPs and CDs) still remains exclusive and unique. Thanks to the two brothers, Czech classical horn pieces by Rosetti, Fiala, Rejcha, and Pokorny, together with those of world-renowned composers (Telemann, Vivaldi, L. Mozart, J. Haydn), became widely known.

I can remember listening to the first recording of the Vivaldi, Telemann, and Haydn double concertos by the Tylšar brothers (published on the Supraphon label), around 1973. I was a conservatory student, and the recording bewitched me on the spot; the easy subtlety of first horn by Zdeněk Tylšar, together with the agile distinctness of second horn by Bedřich, connected into a horn harmony of phenomenal delicacy.

At that time, I made my personal decision: I wanted to reach this ideal, to achieve the interpretations (by then members of the Czech Philharmonic), and above all, to master the horn.

Today we are talking together, and I ask:

ZD: You were two brothers, playing the same instrument and studying with the same teacher, Prof. František Šolc at the Janáček Music Academy in Brno, and later you both became members of the Czech Philharmonic orchestra. The connection is obvious; nevertheless, how did you begin performing double concertos?

BT: Sometime around 1962, I visited a music shop in Brussels, Belgium. Apart from sheet music, they also offered the possibility of listening to recordings. Suddenly, I heard two horns—I believe it was Haydn. I do not remember who was playing, but it was beautiful. I realized that these instruments blend together perfectly thanks to the abundance of harmonic overtones, and I decided to pursue this idea. I began t

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