So I tried the Via Coro out on Saturday night on a “Venus” curved soprano that belonged to one of the guys. First off, the intonation was relatively spot on, which pleasantly surprised me. I had some difficulty getting out the high register, namely the D through F. Possibly the Chinese-manufactured horn, or more likely me getting used to playing soprano after an almost 20 year hiatus.Anyways, everything else went well. I don’t think the Hemke darkened the tone as much as I wanted it to, but I have to tell you the first words in my head after playing a few minutes were Hot and Smooth. I loved it. It sounded less vintage and more contemporary. The more I played, the more the sound grew on me. This was a very free-blowing piece. And the control. Oh man, the control on the piece was super. It almost seemed to read my mind on what I wanted for dynamics.
