That Special German Sound

Interesting comments by conductor Daniel Barenboim on "german-ness" in this NY Times article:

"When the strings attack a note, they play with less attack than one hears often today from other orchestras, and sustain it much more," he said. "It's the difference between someone punching you in the nose and someone putting his fist on your nose and applying pressure to it. This kind of impact has very much to do with German sound."

The reason for this, he says, is partly mechanical. "If you compare German instruments with non-German instruments — a German clarinet as opposed to a French clarinet; a German Steinway from Hamburg as opposed to an American Steinway — the instruments themselves have much more resistance," he said. "They resist the player trying to play them: in the flow of air, or the weight of the key, you feel a kind of resistance of the instrument, which makes the sound less harsh and less direct. It's a little bit like the sound of the German language; you go through the whole process of the consonants, and the weight of the consonants, until you get to the bloody vowel.

"Schwer," he added, the German word for heavy, emphasizing the opening consonants, to demonstrate.