Dear Mrs BBB, Thank you for telling me what was troubling you, and for your warm appreciation of the orchestra's part in the performance. We play the original orchestration of Firebird to match the production, so there are more than 80 players in the pit. It is very crowded, and we even have to open up the areas at either side under the stalls circle in order to accomodate all the players. The Trumpets and Trombones sit on my far right, and the Horns sit on my far left, as far apart as they could be in fact, and they play across the pit (In the concert Hall they would sit along the back wall and play facing toward the audience, but the pit is not deep enough to allow us to do that ) They cannot hear each other when they start to play, and if they are a fraction of a second out in passages where they double each other's themes ( as in The Infernal Dance) you get that sort of ricochet effect which I agree is very disturbing. We have tried different seating arrangements but all have their own drawbacks. I mention all this to try to explain why this happens from time to time. It is honestly absolutely not a question of anyone having an "off" day, and to be frank given the circumstances it is only the players expertise that stops this from happening far more often.