not any sort of ephipany, but...

[bloke]

"All classical instrumentalists should view 'technical' and 'lyrical' studies as equally important."

Particularly, violinists, flautists, and a few other sections of symphony orchestras are constantly being assigned epic "workouts", but some of the rest of us (agreed?) rarely are.

The most technical passages that we are assigned to play at auditions (though "hard" for us) usually don't feature much velocity.

Which is more common?

- instrumentalists being told to phrase and articulate more like vocalists
- vocalists being told to phrase and articulate more like instrumentalists

I'm sorta thinking that it's probably best to spend just a bit more time (as far as we gigantic brass instrumentalists are concerned) on mastering the lyrical, and mastering delivering it smoothly and with (what is known as "organic") phrasing.

In the early part of the 20th century (OK, and present-day as throwbacks), brass soloists stood in front of bands and performed solos which demonstrated dazzling technique which rivaled that of violinists and flautists. Those were mostly theme-and-variations compositions categorized as "novelties". Marches (maybe...?? yes...??) were sort of the early 20th century version of (more recent) "rock and roll", whereby being able to execute fast technical passages in them was (arguably) the pre-war equivalent of "shredding".

As far as studying to become a classical musician (outside of being a bowed string player, flautist, or one of the other instrumentalists who are daily handed fistfuls of notes and endless "black" pages of music)...

technical exercises - really important
bel canto/lyrical exercises (some of which are really quite "technical" indeed) - absolutely essential

secondary schools mindset for choosing audition material for "honor" band eligibility/chairs.
"We're going to give 'em ONE 'technical' and ONE 'lyrical'."

...so how can the 'technical' one not be lyrical (if it's to be performed well), and how can the 'lyrical' one not be 'technical' (if it's to be performed well) ?

Feel free to interpret this as a musing, or as yet another troll.

bloke "absolutely NOTHING against Kopprasch, Schlossberg, Clarke, Arban, Reynolds (I double-dog-dare some of y'all to work through those 48 etudes), nor any of the others"

[Schlitzz]

It’s a daily challenge to get the big violin players into a routine of hygiene and matching socks. Instrumental performance standards depend on the availability of talent.

[bloke]

Do you ever walk up to the cello players, and say

You know, the violoncello is the "baritone horn of the orchestra".

??

[Three Valves]

I have only told them their socks don’t match and they need a bath!

[bloke]

I have only told them their socks don’t match and they need a bath!

In one of my freeway philharmonics, there's a savant in the 'cello section...
He can report the date, day of the week, and time of anything the orchestra has (and anything else that he's) ever done.
He posts nothing but 'cello stuff and "eating huge amounts of very-high-calorie-foods-at-restaurants" stuff on social media.

[Schlitzz]

Yup, they've got issues....

[bloke]

see...??
He didn't take care of that thing...If only he'd cared for that thing like I have cared for my old Florsheim dress shoes...


baritone horn players: They add vibrato to everything, and consider doing so to be enough to define whatever they're doing as "musical".