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Re: Body and Soul, or Baermann?

Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2012-12-30 15:28

Ed,

I'm no expert on Harold Wright's embouchure--all of my info on his "switch" is anecdotal. For what it's worth, the story goes that he switched from a single lip embouchure to double lip during his tenure in DC, and that by the time he moved to Boston, his double lip was set.

This was "common knowledge" among many folks I've known over the years...but it doesn't mean it's true! Maybe a Wright student reading this can help us out by confirming or disproving this one?

Anyhow, I've always accepted it uncritically, as the difference in tone quality of his Brahms Sonatas from the time he was supposedly a "single lip" player to the later recordings is, to my ear, drastically different, though obviously from the same musician (caveat: it's been may years since I listened to Wright's first recording of Opus 120).

Having said that, Leister's recordings of the Brahms Sonatas are also drastically different in tone quality, and I've never heard that he made a big embouchure change in between. Who knows? Sometimes a mouthpiece change or just aging makes the bigger difference.

Eric

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