by Hubertus Schmidt

In Germany we have more than 130 professional orchestras. That is an outstanding amount in the whole world of music and orchestras. Let’s have a closer look on the trombone sections and what kind of trombones and brands they play.

There are German orchestras with trombone sections who play German trombones all the time, and there are sections who play German horns only for particular repertoire. In this multiple world everything is available for everyone, so, players can choose individual equipment for everybody’s need and preferences.

There are very good modern German made trombones, which are more well handcrafted copies of famous American brands. This, is for example the equipment for the most famous german orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic. All other Berlin orchestras are just playing typical American brands, with little exceptions like some bass trombonists are playing Lätzsch or Thein.

East Germany had some orchestras with complete Romantic trombone sections, like the Gewandhaus Orchestra until the year 2000. After that, they started mixing the section with original Romantic trombones by Kruspe and modern Bach copies by Kromat. Are those matches working? That depends on the players and their ideas of sound.

The Staatskapelle Dresden trombonists are playing East German trombones, not from the Romantic period but from the 20th and 21st century, mostly modern Voigt trombones. They also play mixed sections with a Courtois on first trombone. The opera in Chemnitz maybe is a little more authentic with their section, only playing one or two different East German brands and taking care in their auditions to keep that tradition. Some small theater orchestras in the Saxonia aria are doing the same thing.

Some other orchestras, like the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, have one or two players with a Kruspe trombone but usually not a complete section. Indeed, there is one orchestra section playing a complete Kruspe group like a real Romantic trombone section for the classical and romantic repertoire: it’s the Staatskapelle Halle. Three of the five players use Kruspe, and the others play other German brands. So, a Brahms Symphony in Halle with this particular three players is on original trombones!

New Lätzsch trombones are played by sections in Cologne’s Opera the Gürzenich Orchestra, the Braunschweig symphony, the Weimar Staatskapelle and the theater symphony in Münster. Lätzsch bass trombones are much more in use in German orchestras than any German tenors. Those are a very good match with the regular American tenors, too.

But what is really original? Having a closer look in the period of the ending 18th and the beginning 19th century, valve trombones came on the table especially in the Bohemian world with Prague as its center of music studies and the Vienna Philharmonic as the most popular orchestra. Famous pieces like Brahms 2nd, Dvorak 8th, 9th and many others were premiered in the Vienna Musikverein on valve trombones.

From the technical virtuosity aspect, maybe it was fine — and the composers were motivated to write all those scales and arpeggios for the trombones for the first time. But what about the typical trombone sound ? The mellow open flowing and less resistant singing sound of the old romantic slide trombones, trombones in general ?

I am pretty sure the players missed the trombone sound that’s very close to the human voice, and that’s, for me, the slide trombone.

Back to the Vienna Philharmonic today: it’s an outstanding world class orchestra for sure, and since the 20th century, they took fantastic players with international open minded concepts. Also, because the biggest names of conductors come and create the best possible world-class sound. So, Carl Lenthe (Professor at Curtis) came from playing a Conn 8H, invented a nice German looking and sounding big bore trombone made by B & S in East Germany, and that’s what’s played now by some of the Vienna Philharmonic trombonists.

But the situation in West Germany after World War 2 was devastating to the German trombone sound concept; almost all orchestras took American trombones after WWII! Even in operas like Hamburg, Munich and Cologne, they played American “jazz” trombones like the Bach 36 or King 3B for everything in the period from 1950-1970! The American and British sectors after WWII were highly influential in West Germany, and especially the Americans were seen as their big liberators. Older German trombones were seen as trash and never used again.

Some exceptions, like the orchestras in Braunschweig, Hannover, and the Berlin Philharmonic kept on playing German trombones, but they are very close to the East German border, and did not have such a big American influence like Cologne and others. That could really have mostly geographical and only a little traditional reasons. Starting in the 70s, the West German orchestras switched from small bore horns to the large bore Bach 42 and Conn 88H.

But where are the real roots of all the trombones? In 1450, the first trombone (or sackbut) was invented in Burgund, France. The changes over the next 600 years were not as big as most people think.

From the Baroque to the Classical era, the trombone bells got a little bigger, and from the Classical to the Romantic era, the instruments got bigger again in all aspects: tubes, bells and slides. The standard Romantic trombone made by Sattler in Leipzig was copied then by a couple of other factories like Schopper, Penzel and Kruspe. That was the only trombone in the market for symphony orchestras for a while, because of the Bohemian world, where the valve trombone was so popular.

The Penzel model had almost the same standard wide shank as today’s standard — and no valve, of course! Robert Müller from the Gewandhaus Orchestra got the first Kruspe (Penzel-Model) with F attachment.
The real sound of three Penzel models together in one section would be a very interesting experience; maybe for a Bruckner Symphony? I will do that one day hopefully.

The Chicago Symphony sometimes use a kind of this idea for German Romantic repertoire. I had the pleasure to listen Richard Strauss’s “4 letzte Lieder” (Four Last Songs) with the CSO playing Romantic trombones (one original and 2 copies), and it was a wonderful sound! The color in the piano dynamic is incredibly rich and has such a resonant, singing, and vibrant sound! Wonderful! This is an example for so many sections who could do just a little bit in playing Romantic repertoire more authentically.

Small bore German trombones from the 1930s to the 50s have more focus and are mostly made for pit orchestra work. In the big halls of our times, they don’t have a sound that carries up to the last row of the concert hall. Maybe this is similar to jazz trombones, which are powered by mics in big halls.

Small bore German tenors also cannot produce this kind of colorful sound, so in some cases, the section should play old Elkhart Conns or Mount Vernon Bachs with thin bells to create almost a sound like the old Romantic German trombones.

But, the big difference with original German trombones is the dry sounding super thin bell with “Kranz”. If you hit it softly with your fingers, it has to sound almost like knocking on wood. All other differences, like some with dual bore slides or different materials, are not so relevant.

The quintessential point of this article should be a motivation to play Bruckner and other Romantic music on original romantic trombones, or well-made copies. The big surprise will not show up in fortissimo playing, but in a very rich and warm piano. It’s worth the effort!