Dave Runnion wrote:

>This year I heard a performance of piano trios with the excellent
>musicians Barry Sargent (a neighbor here in Mallorca) and his wife Rumiko
>and I forget the cellist, anyway, the cellist played an instrument with the
>original setup: gut strings, shortened fingerboard and no endpin.  No
>endpin.  Silliest thing I ever saw.  Thing is, they played a BRAHMS trio
>like this!  Now I would call this HUP..historically uninformed!

I am not an expert on the history of the cello.  I was wondering if you
could tell me whether or not cellos in the late 1800's were still using
the original setup with gut strings, shortened fingerboard and no endpin.
If not then I would agree about the Brahms trio performance.  I have heard
original instrument performances of the Schumann symphonies and they
weren't bad.  they weren't terribly different than the sound of modern
symphony performance.  I can't imagine a Brahms original instrument
symphony sounding much different than we're used to.  The closer you get
to present day, the closer you get to present day sound.  The instruments
of 300 years ago definitely sound different than those of today.  I think
it would be ridiculous to play Brahms on instruments that were considered
outdated even in his own day.  That truly is historically uninformed.
Not sure what the piano trio had in mind when performing with those
instruments.  Maybe the cellist was using a cello which accurately
represented cellos of Brahms' day.  Then again, maybe not

--Wes Crone