OT [sort of]: rotary valves VS pistons?

Every year my wife & I enjoy the TV New Years concert by the Vienna
Philharmonic, which concerts, by long-standing tradition, always encore with
the rousing "Radetski [sp?] March" and of course "On the Beautiful Blue
Danube" as only Vienna Phil can do it.

But I've noticed their trumpet players using rotary valve trumpets [like on
french horns] instead of with piston valves. Are such trumpets more of a
European thing or what? Is there any difference in playability or noticeable
sound?


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