Fantasy on Verdi's Miserere - studio recording

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I can, and probably will, edit this a bit further - but this is the draft recording from a recent studio session. Ultimately this is intended for CD release as part of a collection of paraphrases. This is my composition; it began life as an improvisation and still has a little bit of that about it.

Thoughts welcome.

[emill]

B R A V O !!!  I particularly liked the way you handled the transitions.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Thanks emill - very encouraging!

I have a LOT of listening and editing work ahead of me, but hopefully a full CD should emerge this summer.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Video version - audio but also with photo montage, pictures of the hall I was recording in, score extracts etc. I feel this isn't far off the final audio version.

Comments appreciated!

[isaacmalitz]

Dear “Ronde”


Here are some comments that I hope will stimulate you as you advance to “the next level” with your Miserere Fantasy. Let me know if these comments turn out to be useful. [I am using specific technical method in constructing these comments, so very interested to find out if the result is useful to you]

A. Your composition is in the Thalberg/Liszt/Opera (“LTO”) tradition, a tradition whose best works I like a lot! Your composition strikes me as an excellent work in this tradition – dramatic, coherent, virtuosic, compelling, excellent sonics and more. Your specific performance (as I hear it an an mp3 download, which is admittedly imperfect, and of course your performance is still “under construction”) strikes me as perhaps 70% of the potential of your composition – see specifics below.

B.  Works in the LTO tradition – at least the best ones – are rich in sheer effect. Here is a checklist of some of the effects that seem to be germane to LTO works:

[1] Virtuosic (The listener gets the impression of great difficulty subjugated by a masterful performer. The captain steering the ship through a great storm)

[2] Glorious, gorgeous orchestral sound.

[3] Orchestral, architectonic sweep. Grand forward movement.

[4] An impressions of "seriousness" (sometimes in the form of "religiosity")

[5] Unrestrained pagan pleasure

[6] Suprising effects: Shocking, scary, charming, weird, ... – anything goes

[7] A sense of space

[8] Wide variation in dynamics and sonic qualities.

[9] Tight control of tempi and rhythms (there can be wide variations, but always under tight control of “the captain”)

[10] Tone color

[11] Freedom, adventure

[12] Pianistic acrobatics (piano as a blood sport)

[13] Drama and theatricality

[14] Sexuality

[15] “faux” profundity

[16] Big beginning. Big ending.

[17] Not too complicated.

[18] At least one good melody

[19] Excess and extravagance

C. Practical comments on your composition

   I think your composition does very well with most of [1] – [18]

   If you can add any additional effect re [6], [8], [12] etc. I would encourage this.
   With LTO works you can indulge in excess as long as the compositional work is
      well-executed

D. Practical comments on your performance (as I heard it)

   [2] Glorious, gorgeous orchestral sound

      Your success with this was hit and miss.
      The first 30 seconds were fantastic!
      Then the bass tremolos started sounding a little “dirty”
      Later in the performance, the rapid thirds were definitely uneven and “dirty”.
      I probably don’t need to go into more detail on this.
      Examples of pianists who excel with this are: Horowitz; Alicia de Larrocha
      Success with this parameter requires: Good technical equipment (which you have)
         and then very careful sonic analysis

   [9] Tight control of tempi and rhythms

      This requires much more attention.
      You definitely have the ears and the equipment to do a great job.
      But this is difficult for almost all musicians (certainly for me)


   [4] and [5]  Seriousness and unrestrained pagan pleasure

      You do a great job achieving these seeming incompatible effects at the same time!

   [19] Excess and Extravagance (“E&E”)

      If LTO is performed without E&E, this is a failure to do justice to the genre
      Lang Lang is outstanding in this regard.
                We can all take inspiration from him.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Interesting comments. I shall attempt to address them in depth.

Firstly, it's probably worth me providing a bit of context. As it's a studio recording, I've got about 50 mins of takes of this, one full runthrough and then multiple takes of individual sections, where anything which wasn't quite right is retaken until I feel it is. Editing then involves stitching everything together, paying specific attention to dynamic and tempo compatibility at the joins. This sometimes limits what can be used as consecutive takes, and there is one short segment here where I will need to manipulate the tempo in order to best maintain rhythmic integrity. (I, or more exactly the editing engineer, have tried to minimise the need for that - unwanted sonic artefacts can arise therefrom.) The implication of this is that I'm largely stuck with the takes I already have, and thus, short of rehiring the hall for emergency retakes - viz. those thirds :@ - I've got to do my best editwise with what exists.

Continuing -
Re D[2] I agree. I will check if there are more precise tremolandi within the takes: I've already been quite fussy, but there is certainly at least one which is impure. The thirds I definitely wasn't comfortable with (they aren't a technical forte of mine, tbh) and there is one scale which tails off one third early; that specific issue can be corrected ok.

D[9]: the thirds (again) are somewhat rhythmically nebulous, accompanimentally speaking. Excluding the segment I alluded to above they are my main gripe, unless I'm missing something.

D[19] What I would term 'abandon'. Probably the hardest, and most abstract, issue pertaining to recording. The practical aspect is that hiring good halls costs (a lot of) money, and you have only a limited time to spend on each piece. Trying to 'get it right' quickly, and simultaneously playing and self-assessing is completely antithetical to 'abandon'. Sometimes moments come along where things do just click, but I think it's easier to get such a feeling during live performance, where you're playing for the moment, not posterity, and the audience also has visual cues to potentially enhance the experience.

Thanks for taking the time to write such detailed comments.