Quote:
Originally Posted by Hornblower
I'll second that. I have a lot of skill as a musician, and it enabled me to have a fine 32-year career with one of the world's premier military bands. Nevertheless I never was anywhere close to being qualified to give a solo recital in Carnegie Hall. There probably are hundreds of French horn players in New York alone who are at least as good as I am, and mostly significantly better, and few of them make it to that stage as soloists. I would consider breakthrough work in physics, of the sort worthy of a Nobel laureate, as being roughly analogous to making it to that stage as a musician.
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Actually,
I've played on that stage. For the 100th anniversary of the Hall, they did a series of youth orchestra concerts--I don't know if they still do--and my community orchestra played. I was
terrified. And I am assuredly not good enough for a solo recital, even if they ever had solo viola recitals. (I'm certainly not good enough on French horn, as I took one semester of it in high school from a teacher who didn't really know how to play it himself--followed up by a semester of bassoon, which he didn't know how to play at all!)
However, I seem to recall asking a direct question of
Jerry that hasn't been answered yet.