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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Vic Firth

Vic Firth, the legendary principal timpanist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and also a legendary manufacturer of drumsticks of all kinds, died the other day. Here are the obits I have seen:
For once, I think Fox, who is usually a genius, put her emphasis in the wrong place, with more about Firth-the-entrepreneur and less about Firth-the-genius timpanist.
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4 comments:

  1. greg bJuly 30, 2015 at 10:30:00 PM PDT

    Dear Lisa,
    It's me again....
    I'm glad that you paid notice to the death of one of the finest orchestral musicians of all time.
    Everett "Vic" Firth was part of "the Golden Age" of timpanists in the US in the 1960s-70s.
    Firth in Boston - Goodman in NY - Hinger in Philadelphia - Metzenger in Chicago - Duff in Cleveland - Kohloff in San Francisco.
    Vic was a master timpanist and a revered teacher.
    How wonderful it was to be a concert-goer in those days!
    Well, we still have the recordings, don't we?
    - best regards, Greg from SF


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  2. Henry HollandAugust 2, 2015 at 10:15:00 AM PDT

    I have a Vic Ferth drumstick that I use to prop up a window in my apartment. I had no idea he was a respected orchestral percussion player.

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  3. MichaelAugust 2, 2015 at 6:45:00 PM PDT

    Mr. Firth was the finest timpanist I've ever heard, and I suspect will ever hear. He had such elegance and beauty of tone color.

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  4. Lisa HirschAugust 8, 2015 at 7:37:00 PM PDT

    Thanks, Greg!

    Henry, I think he was legendary rather than respected.

    Thanks for that, Michael.

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