Over the last few days I’ve been watching bits and pieces of Gustavo Dudamel leading the Vienna Philharmonic in the closing concert of the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. This concert was streamed live, and is available to watch for free (!) for a limited time on Medici TV.  The program is listed below.

Rossini, Overture to La Gazza Ladra; Julian Orbon, Tres Versiones Sinfonicas; Bernstein, Divertimento for Orchestra; Ravel, Pavane for a Dead Princess, and Bolero

The performance, as expected, is amazing, with some great horn playing in every work.  I was of course very interested in Ravel’s Pavane, because of the ethereal horn solo at the beginning.  I’m not sure who the solo horn player is, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t Wolfgang Tomboeck.  Another thing which caught my eye was the equipment he was using.  In the screenshot, you can see that this is not the traditional Vienna horn, but rather a very interesting looking rotary valve horn.  I’m not entirely sure what key it’s in, but based on the fingerings I saw I would guess F.  It certainly doesn’t sound like a single high F horn, and the first valve slide looks too long for that as well, so possibly a single horn in High E-flat, even though the fingerings didn’t look right to me?  Anyone else out there have any guesses?  By the way, their horn section sounds great, regardless of the equipment!