It is understandable why many tubists are attracted to play the horn concertos of Mozart and Strauss. It is good music and it is brass music; but this practice is questionable, mostly because of the octave transposition.
On the other hand, those who have heard Russian trumpeter Timofei Dokschitzer play the solo violin works of Fritz Kreisler know transcriptions can work beautifully. It is, however, the prerogative of the performer to make such choices; and as listeners one should remember that tastes differ.
Beware of the yes or no answer! One of the advantages instruments that are rich in nineteenth century repertoire have is the time process that has discarded a large portion of lesser works; thus leaving an impressive array of true masterpieces. Unfortunately, the tuba has not yet passed through this aging process; and it will be a good many years before we will know if any works from our present solo repertoire will survive that test of time.
At first impression one might very well see this situation as the unhappy, unkind truth of the tuba's status in the musical community; but there is an advantage. The tuba is the last traditional instrument accepted in the symphony orchestra; and since that time, mid-nineteenth century, it has methodically found acceptance in virtually every type of traditional music and finally as a solo instrument.
This newness is the very thing that makes the tuba an attractive medium for the contemporary composer. This neo-classical and serialistic period of the past twenty years, which has left us such a mass of solo literature, has served both tubists and composers in a beneficial way. It was our period of adolescence, a period in which both tubists and composers could test themselves to see what could be done, to see how high, low, fast, loud and soft the tubist could play, and for the composer to discover which compositional devices and instrumental settings served the tuba to its best advantage.
Of course, this growth process has not suddenly come to a stop and hopefully it never will. But hopefully, the accompanying awkwardness of adolescence will be passé. As luck would have it, this "coming of age" happens to coincide with a compositional period of great change.
More and more composers, seeking to expand their acoustical vocabulary, are departing from traditions. Consequently, tubists are being called upon to break through their traditional perimeters as well. If one was to list some of these nonconventional techniques in an article such as this, some would be considered conventional by the time of publication (multiphonics?). There would be others not yet thought of at the time of writing (tuba with computerized synthesizer — tuba played with a breath of helium instead of air?).
Strange? There was a time in the history of brass instruments when muting and fluttertonguing were considered strange.
This kind of music offers the tubist a genuine musical challenge in that, more than traditional music, it calls for the element of creative imagination. In one respect this music is quite traditional, that is in regards to dramatic and emotional impact. Keeping this in mind the performer can make these works "come alive".
Of course there is both good and bad music of this type and in order to discriminate one from the other the soloist must expose himself, both by playing and listening, and release himself from the confines of tradition.
It is inevitable that experimentally oriented composers will be turning more and more to electronic and computerized music. The great challenge they face with this kind of music, of course, is humanizing it; to go beyond just the development of these mechanical wonders of sound to the point where the electronic medium simply serves the composer as an instrument of expression for the wide spectrum of human dynamics, passions and emotions.
One of the ways this will come about will be the use of a traditional sound source such as the voice or an instrument which can be treated electronically in whatever way the composer envisions. The tuba is perhaps the richest of all instruments in the energy of its acoustical signal and therefore may be one of the more attractive human originated sound sources.
Music will continue to change and develop. Those who choose to move with these changes need not give up anything of the past, but only to grow with the future. The tuba, since it is relatively young in musical history, just may have a richer future than it does a past. We shall see.