Wagner and the Met Brass

Another great youtube find! This video from 2011 shows members of the Metropolitan Opera Brass section explaining and demonstrating Wagner's use of leitmotifs throughout his Ring Cycle. 

I've listed the personnel below.

You might recognize UIowa alumnus Denson Paul Pollard at 1:53 on the bass trumpet.

Another notable aspect of this video is the beautiful playing of the notoriously terrible Wagner tuben. I have never played a more difficult-to-tune instrument than the tuben, so any accurate and beautiful playing on them is certainly worthy of praise.

But wouldn't we expect that from the Met? These guys (and gals) are the best of the best and as much as symphony players know their colleagues, this group spends more time performing in close quarters than almost any other group, and it certainly shows in their sound.


David Krauss, Billy Hunter, Ray Riccomini, Peter Bond -trumpets
Joe Anderer, Erik Ralkse, Scott Brubaker, Michelle Baker, Javier Gandara, Brad Gemeinhardt, Anne Scharer, Barbara Currie, Julia Pilant, Tony Cecere- Horns 
David Langlitz, Demian Austin, Weston Sprott, Stephen Norrell, Pat Herb- trombones
Paul Pollard- bass trumpet
Chris Hall - tuba