Yours truly, Matt(hew) Marks got a nice review for my horn-playing in CityMusic Cleveland last week:
Franz Joseph Haydn was well-known for his musical hijinks. His Symphony No. 59 in A major or Fire may not have been intentionally difficult, but keeping up with the composer’s idea of ‘as fast as possible’ could certainly lead a less accomplished orchestra into worlds of trouble. No problem here, however, as CityMusic’s players are more than capable. The high horn parts in the third and fourth movements were superbly performed by Matthew Marks and Ken Wadenpfuhl.
-CoolCleveland.com
Yay! All the more rewarding since I stressed like crazy before every performance of that dad-blasted Haydn Symphony! Haydn is known for his casual writing of in-the-stratosphere horn-writing. This Symphony was no exception! High B’s held for 10 measures, trills on high A’s… Zoinks. It was fun, but I’m glad it is over!
Now I can return to playing comfortable microtonal loopy horn stuff!
P.S. Ken was a dream 2nd horn player, super nice guy and incredibly easy to play with.
Matt Marks Music 