Recording Rickelton's Fanfare

[furtwaengler]

This is more or less about the recording process. Here the story goes...I asked Michael Rickelton to write a piece for a concert I was playing on the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, and he happily agreed even as he was extremely busy. He completed the piece on February 5, 2010, and I premiered it on the March 1, 2010 Chopin celebration in which the program was:

Chopin Polonaise-Fantasie op. 61

Two tributes:
Finney: Mazurka (1996)
Rickelton: Fanfare for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Chopin

Chopin: Scherzi (op. 20, op. 31, op. 39, op. 54)

It was prepared and setup in advance by my prodding and inquiry that this recital would be recorded, and low and behold it was so set up and everything carried out, save a switch on to the audio plug-in...I received a DVD with no sound! And there was nothing that could be done about it (I did for fun watch some of the silent video which was comical for seeing me speak before some number...who knows what I was saying, and goodness how longwinded I was!).

Well it came about as Mr. Rickelton was expecting a recording to be used to present the piece at a seminar, with the premiere being lost, I was left on my own to come up with a recording. While it was in my fingers, I had made a few trial runs with my own equipment (cassette, voice recorder, video camera), but knowing these would not suffice, I scheduled a couple meetings and was, by chance, able to come up with two sessions with different people. The first was at the Steinway Gallery on their D in the concert hall, with a man who records for the Country Music Association. This was cut short due to a family crisis on his end, but with what we accomplished I never was able to communicate what I want - he was able to somehow make the loud, percussive, modern piece sound like soft, easy listening; I never knew a recording could so well misrepresent the intent of a performer! So the other session happened early in the morning in the hall where I had presented the recital (a smaller Yamaha C) with the people who had neglected to get the audio for the premier. I have respect for pianists who are able to take a difficult piece of music and in the midst  heavy schedules  on all sides, run out and get a great result in a couple takes...I could not function in this environment - it is much like preaching a sermon to a bunch of chairs. It amazes me the difference when the aspect of communication of thought is stripped away (having a present recipient of the message).  

Well I have a few thoughts...I was not able to get a good recording of Rickelton's Fanfare. This is a piece of deceptive difficulty. On paper it looks like it should set well, right in the hands, but in reality it is extremely difficult to pull off cleanly while communicating the point. It proved to be a big show at the concert...really the biggest ovation a night which had all Chopin's Scherzi (which went quite well for my part!).  Also, most of the recordings were done on the Yamaha, yet it sounds like so many different instruments. The recordings I present here are all of the same piano...but the first is the voice recorder placed, actually behind the piano with the sound going out into the hall (very well played; overall the best performance). The second is from a video camera which was out in the hall (A very exciting performance to me, but too fast), and the third is the one using the schools expensive equipment (very sloppy performance - of two early morning takes, this was the better one)...I think it was one mic out in the room, and two or three almost touching the strings - I had no part in setting this up. I hate the close miking...it enhances mistakes and gives a very biased picture of the actual sound picture - but they know about recording and I don't!. Whatever it was that recorded Rickelton's Nocturne in this same hall and instrument gave the truest picture of the piano and the hall in the concert experience (I think he used an mp3 player of some kind):

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=35637.0

Playing and performance wins the battle. Mr. Rickelton chose to use the voice recorder over any of the others, because it was the best performance and put the piece in the best light concerning his intentions...what do you know about that?

(Well I hope you've enjoyed this discourse!)  

Original Wavs here (Voice and professional equipment):

https://www.mediafire.com/?o7du7l30qk7pwy6

[emill]

WHOAAA !!!!!  the explosive ENERGY of the piece startled me which reminded me of that piece you played when you were 16!!   And I was expecting a Chopin-like piece as a tribute, but it seemed more contemporary than anything else.  The energy is infectious, I can almost see you "perspiring and breathing heavily".   I guess you have transmitted very well to the audience what Rickelton wanted. 

The 1st clip seemed to have a lot of audio clipping; the second, well it sounded like a video cam but the recording levels were set properly; the 3rd clip sounded much better and thanks for describing the set-up ... that gives me an idea on Enzo's next recording.

 

[rachfan]

Hi Dave,

First, I just listened to your best preferred recording and found it electrifying.  The Fanfare is obviously of great difficulty, and it would be difficult to master any such piece, but to think that this was new music had to make it even harder.  You produced a superb rendition, even if the recorded sound is not tip-top.

I'm still smiling (OK, I admit it, laughing  ) about your recording travails, except of course the actual event where they forgot to flip the switch at the premier which was awful!!!

You're right about close-in mic-ing.  It's absolutely unacceptable for serious piano music. The sound is not fully refined and blended using that mic-ing.  OK for jazz and pops, but not classical.

Some of us have shared similar frustrating experiences.  Years ago, just before CD burners were on the mass market, the early ones started to appear in recording studios.  I had a ton of cassette tape recordings, which were all well organized and had sufficient separation between numbers.  Tape deteriorates over time, so I wanted the benefit of archival CDs.  So I met with a sound engineer at the local recording studio--"No problem!" he said.  Well, I got the CDs back and was shocked.  First they were totally muffled in Dolby filtering.  Worse, the pieces were broken apart, which baffled me.  So back to the studio I went as an unhappy camper.  

The manager assured me they would get it right and asked me to sit with the engineer during the process.  On the fragmenting of the pieces, he told me that he knows little of classical music.  So apparently whenever in a recording I paused for a nuance, rests, fermata, or whatever, he thought the piece had ended!!!  I was beside myself.  Anyway, we restarted the project, turned off the Dolby, and I sat there like a conductor spacing all the numbers properly.  This experience was on right on par with your country music man making your fanfare dolce.    

All's well that ends well, and you were able to share a very good recording with us today.  Super!

David

[furtwaengler]

WHOAAA !!!!!  the explosive ENERGY of the piece startled me which reminded me of that piece you played when you were 16!!   And I was expecting a Chopin-like piece as a tribute, but it seemed more contemporary than anything else.  The energy is infectious, I can almost see you "perspiring and breathing heavily".   I guess you have transmitted very well to the audience what Rickelton wanted. 

The 1st clip seemed to have a lot of audio clipping; the second, well it sounded like a video cam but the recording levels were set properly; the 3rd clip sounded much better and thanks for describing the set-up ... that gives me an idea on Enzo's next recording.

Ha, your "WHOAAA!!!!!" thrills me. It is very much the effect the piece produced on stage, probably in part because of the same expectation of Chopin style bel canto. This was to preview the Scherzi as well, in which my depictions were meant to be serious and fierce - jokes that are dead serious, or as if Chopin is saying something tragic and dead serious with a covering smirk on his face. Michael Rickelton's Fanfare was very particular to this program. It is kind of like concentrated "Chopin Scherzo extract" - the Scherzi's turbulence with Rickelton's trademark choral lyricism dominating the middle section.  It was a very difficult piece to present on stage for the first time, but a thrilling privilege at the same time. I was holding my breath in step by step concentration, and though I didn't quite nail the transition to the recapitulation (quite like hitting the RH octaves in the right intervals, but a note too low!) getting to the end without my memory taking the wrong path caused me to raise my fist in victory! 

I'm glad if explaining the process of stamping out a recording helps you with Enzo, but I would pay attention to Rachfan's words on close mic-ing, and my frustration with it. I think also a reason the voice recorder and video camera came out with better results is that they were made at my leisure, in my own comfort. The other sessions were confined and pressed by other people and our schedules...get it done NOW! It was a painful process, and though you need to be prepared for it, it would be awfully nice to have a good recorder on hand to be able to make your decisions at your own pace! Just my thoughts on the matter.

[pianowolfi]

I say WHOAAA too 

Much respect for nailing down such a difficult new piece in so short time and with such a brilliant result!

I think also that the performance you recorded with your voice recorder was the best one.

Hmmm I'd love to hear that mazurka....

[furtwaengler]

Hi Dave,

First, I just listened to your best preferred recording and found it electrifying.  The Fanfare is obviously of great difficulty, and it would be difficult to master any such piece, but to think that this was new music had to make it even harder.  You produced a superb rendition, even if the recorded sound is not tip-top.

I'm still smiling (OK, I admit it, laughing  ) about your recording travails, except of course the actual event where they forgot to flip the switch at the premier which was awful!!!

You're right about closing mic-ing.  It's absolutely unacceptable for serious piano music.  The sound is not fully refined and blended using that mic-ing.  OK for jazz and pops, but not classical.

Some of us have shared similar frustrating experiences.  Years ago, just before CD burners were on the mass market, the early ones started to appear in recording studios.  I had a ton of cassette tape recordings, which were all well organized and had sufficient separation between numbers.  Tape deteriorates over time, so I wanted the benefit of archival CDs.  So I met with a sound engineer at the local recording studio--"No problem!" he said.  Well, I got the CDs back and was shocked.  First they were totally muffled in Dolby filtering.  Worse, the pieces were broken apart, which baffled me.  So back to the studio I went as an unhappy camper. 

The manager assured me they would get it right and asked me to sit with the engineer during the process.  On the fragmenting of the pieces, he told me that he knows little of classical music.  So apparently whenever in a recording I paused for a nuance, rests, fermata, or whatever, he thought the piece had ended!!!  I was beside myself.  Anyway, we restarted the project, turned off the Dolby, and I sat there like a conductor spacing all the numbers properly.  This experience was on right on par with your country music man making your fanfare dolce.    

All's well that ends well, and you were able to share a very good recording with us today.  Super!

David

Thanks David. Reading your experience is kind of like therapy . I've decided not to be too angry at the people who were to have recorded it, because the supervisor was out of town, and it was left in the hands of a beginning student...but it has not cured my disappointment. It still hurts I don't have it.

You know...my needs for recording are very simple. Just get me what  is heard out in the hall! There seems to be so many variables, and methods to mic-ing and mixing...it's some comic relief to me that of the Steinway session and Yamaha session (close mic-ed) which both used thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and trained technicians, Michael ended up choosing the results picked up by a $60 Olympus voice recorder to present the piece in a seminar at John Hopkins University! Well yes,  it sounds not quite like a piano, there are some strange noises, and there is no avoidance of the effects of peaking...but the dynamic contrasts? The explosive crescendi on the LH scales? I'm pretty sure I tried to display that with every performance...but they're almost none existent in the professional recordings! All the knob turning, it turns me off! The close mic-ing...I tell you the truth, in all my experience with that piano it has never sounded like that recording (I think the piano was out of tune, but the mics on the strings and the mic in the room actually picked up different pitches, it seems, and then it was all mixed together).

I think I actually lean towards the video recording as my personal favorite, even though the voice recorder is the most true to the piece. The outer sections are in a furious 6/8 with two strong accented impulses, marked at dotted quarter = 176. I was pretty faithful to this marking for the premier, and for that first recording. Later on, preparing to record,  as an exercise of increasing my 176 security net (how do I say it), I was experimenting up to dotted half = 96 and 100, and was blown away by the effect. It changes the character of the piece from a jagged toccata to a more wistful, ghostly windstorm (Finale to Chopin's 2nd Sonata on steroids - and  remember my fascination with tornadoes!). So it is an experiment and an indulgence I quite enjoy (call it a cheap thrill), the video recording...but that first recording is dually explosive, and better represents his intentions.

Well, David, I would love to hear some of your older recordings in the archive, or know what all you've played in times past! 

Dave

[furtwaengler]

I say WHOAAA too 

Much respect for nailing down such a difficult new piece in so short time and with such a brilliant result!

I think also that the performance you recorded with your voice recorder was the best one.

Hmmm I'd love to hear that mazurka....

Thank you, Wolfi! I'll give the mazurka some thought...I'd have to record it, as older concerts are at the moment inaccessible (if I even have them). 

[rachfan]

Hi Dave,

Yes, if one is in NY, Boston, LA, etc., there are undoubtedly first class recording studios as far as pianos, recording engineers, and results are concerned.  But in smaller cities, I think one is more often than not at the evils or mercies of the Fates.

I'm going to check out your video performance, if not tonight then tomorrow.  I've been really pressed for time all day.  Now that I'm retired, I don't know how I ever found time to work.

I agree with you that tempo alterations can significantly change the character of a piece. Interesting in the" Fanfare" how it transformed it into "The Wind over the Graves" of the Chopin sonata.  Goes to show you!  If the composer has not yet heard that effect, you should bring it to his attention, as he might want to rethink his tempo marking.  Composers really don't know the potentials of their piano works until artists start playing them.  And although this may sound like heresy, in many cases artists come to know a work far better than the composer ever knew it.  How does that happen?  Because the artist might spend far more time with it, even over years, while the composer, by contrast, sent it off to the publisher and then immediately went on to six more projects.  One time a musician friend of Scriabin commented to him about his Fantasy, Op. 28.  Scriabin drew a blank and replied, "What, I wrote a fantasy?!?"

David  

P.S.  If you really want to hear my old recordings from the 1980s, you'd have to go way out and start around page 33 (yes, I've been here for years) and then work your way back here. If you should take a fit, get mugged, or become lost out there, send a distress signal giving the page number, and we can organize volunteers to search for you.  Or, of course you can always click on the Index to Audition Room here on the front page, where the composers are arranged in alphabetical order with the contributors underneath. Good luck on that!  

[furtwaengler]

I agree with you that tempo alterations can significantly change the character of a piece.  Interesting in the" Fanfare" how it transformed it into "The Wind over the Graves" of the Chopin sonata.  Goes to show you!  If the composer has not yet heard that effect, you should bring it to his attention, as he might want to rethink his tempo marking.  Composers really don't know the potentials of their piano works until artists start playing them.  And although this may sound like heresy, in many cases artists come to know a work far better than the composer ever knew it.  How does that happen?  Because the artist might spend far more time with it, ever over years, while the composer, by contrast, sent it off to the publisher and then immediately went on to six more projects.  One time a musician friend of Scriabin commented to him about his Fantasy, Op. 28.  Scriabin drew a blank and replied, "What, I wrote a fantasy?!?

What you said reminded me of this interview with Jorge Bolet:

It depends very much on the composer and their relationship to their composition...I think Bolet's thoughts do not apply particularly well to Wolfi's relationship to his compositions, for example. That's taking note of a composer-pianist-performer situation, but I think it can apply further to people like Michael Rickelton, who although he's not a pianist, is just as precise in what he wants to communicate. He does not play piano, but there are lots of instruments he writes music for which he is does not play...but he understands the possibilities of each instrument, and on the deepest level, knows what he wants to say. I think the greatest performers are in a sense expounding on the same moment of inspiration which leads a composer to conceive and compose lasting art...they're tuned in to something beyond the limitations of the score. It's an interesting thing working with a living composer, because my own perceptions of what I think this inspiration to be is often misguided and needs correction...more often then not, the correction comes from something that's actually readily apparent in observing the score! Ah well...

[rachfan]

Hi Dave,

I'm so glad you embedded the video of Bolet, one of my favorite artists.  I wish he could have lived even longer.  He played the soundtrack of a movie about Liszt, I believe, in the 1950s.  I saw it as a kid at the opulent Paramount Theatre in Salem, MA.  Bolet was clearly a man of great intellect and a highly developed sense of aesthetics.  Despite being an extraordinary pianist, he was overlooked and under appreciated for decades.  I don't think he really gained full recognition in his career until he was around 60.  His Liszt recordings are in a class of their own.  

I agree with his thinking on the composer and interpreter.  For example, when I was playing Catoire, through his music I believe I came to know his mind in some ways, at least, as well as he knew it.  For that reason I believe he and I were a good match of musical creation and performance.  I recall once hearing on radio a recording of Dohnanyi, a great virtuoso and composer (and who figures prominently in my teaching heritage, so I need to be diplomatic!), playing one of his own character pieces, the "Preludium" I believe.  I came away very disappointed, feeling that he did not grasp the powerful potential of his music.  I would have played it differently.  So, this topic of composer's intents versus artist's insights while respecting the score is fascinating indeed.

Concerning Bolet's demeanor, notice that whenever he plays in any video or performance, if someone was lucky enough to attend a recital, he was all about the serious business of creating beautiful music.  Never did he poetically stare up at the rafters, make anguished grimaces at poignant moments, toss his hands off the keyboard, or anything at all similar. His eyes were invariably glued to the keyboard as he wove his spell and cast it over the audience.  There are some wonderful videos of him conducting master classes too.  If only we could have him back!  

Thanks for sharing your experiences working with modern, living composers.  It's most interesting, especially for those of us who have never had that opportunity.

David

[furtwaengler]

I recall once hearing on radio a recording of Dohnanyi, a great virtuoso and composer (and who figures prominently in my teaching heritage, so I need to be diplomatic!), playing one of his own character pieces, the "Preludium" I believe.  I came away very disappointed, feeling that he did not grasp the powerful potential of his music.  I would have played it differently.  So, this topic of composer's intents versus artist's insights while respecting the score is fascinating indeed.

I think there is another element here, too. We often have a hard time viewing ourselves objectively, and this would extend to the composer and his work. Sometimes by necessity all the treasures in a piece cannot be expounded by the composer but needs that other set of ears and hands and mind. Thanks for bringing up the Dohnanyi story - on this note, check you pm box!

Otherwise, Jorge Bolet...yes. I've had a lifetime with his recordings...oh the Carnegie Hall concert with the Bach-Busoni Chaconne (never, ever, ever, ever could this be played better!) the Liszt Tannhaeuser transcription, Chopin preludes, etc. I need to dig this up and listen to it through again. I did take the time to hear Liszt's 1st Concerto and Hungarian Fantasy programmed together by Bolet, Julius Rudel and the orchestra of St. Lukes at Carnegie hall, January 8, 1987...there is hardly a better performance of the 1st concerto.

I know a lady who was at a presentation he gave at a university. She said Bolet talked for awhile, then sat down and played the 12 Transcendental etudes and B minor Sonata of Liszt in one breath, and that she remembers the entire room shaking at the octaves of the Sonata. However embellished, if so, I do love these stories.

Dave