favorite intermissions January 5, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : contemporary, music, recordings, the orchestra world, 1 comment so farThis is just fascinating, and I’m ashamed that I’ve only just discovered this! “This” is a CD of composer and “sound artist” Christopher DeLaurenti which consists of surreptitiously recorded audio tracks from intermissions of orchestral concerts around the U.S. (more…)
DG opens web store December 15, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : music, recordings, add a commentSeveral music bloggers have already written about the recent unveiling of Deutsche Grammophone’s online store for high bit-rate (320kbs) mp3 files without DRM (digital rights management).
I decided to wait until I’d actually gone through the process of purchasing and listening to some of their product. Especially nice are the several hundred previously out-of-print titles that have been reissued as downloads (100 of these are exclusive to the DG web shop). Here’s a brief summary of my experience at the store. (more…)
new feature - OSO iMixes October 3, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : iMix, music, add a commentThis year I’ve decided to add a new feature to the blog for Oregon Symphony concertgoers: the iMix. An iMix is a published playlist of songs from iTunes gathered into a central location. For each Classical series concert, I’ll be publishing a iMix of the works on the program, all of which are recordings recommended by myself. Sounds good? Ok - here’s the first iMix. This one covers the upcoming Classical 2 concerts on October 13-15, 2007. The works featured are Luciano Berio’s Folksongs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (here heard in its chamber version for seven instruments), Haydn’s Symphony No. 93, and Falla’s Three Cornered Hat complete ballet score. Enjoy!
in the studio… January 18, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, add a commentYesterday afternoon I was in the studio with eight other string colleagues to play a backing track for one of the new songs on Pink Martini’s upcoming, highly anticipated third album. Recording is an interesting process. A friend who has done a lot of the really high-class movie work in the LA studios described recording as 90 percent crashing boredom and 10 percent outright terror. The boredom is that you spend quite a long time watching the engineer setting up the mics, running cable and checking levels. You run through the chart a couple of times, then you must do everything you normally do, but perfectly, and often many times in a row. It’s a nice change of pace from the orchestral rehearsal, where you have time to work out any passages that you didn’t fully shed at home during the rehearsals. At concerts, mistakes are at a minimum, but since we hear in a linear fashion, things that do happen recede into memory pretty quickly, and the overall impression of the interpretation is what is left in the mind of the listener.
The recording situation for this session was unique to my experience. Rather than recording to a hard drive, they were using what looked like 3 inch tape stock for the recording, and the machine probably was running at 24 feet per second, so there was a limited amount of material that could be kept for editing. An added wrinkle was that the vocalist, China Forbes, was doing the track live along with us in a vocal booth, with Thomas Lauderdale valiantly donning his conducting hat and trying to keep us with her and her with us. It took a while to get the hang of it, but I think we got a good result. Word is it might be the first track on the new album, but these things have a way of changing as the production gets further along.
record shelf November 7, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, comments closedRecent recordings that I’m fond of. Some of them encompass OSO repertoire, others reflect my other playing interests, such as solo and chamber music.
the william primrose legacy (cont’d) September 6, 2006
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, add a commentIf you’re into hearing state-of-the-art viola playing, look no further than the newly-released second solo album of William Primrose transcriptions played by Roberto Diaz and pianist Robert Koenig. Diaz’s first CD was a collection of works by Henri Vieuxtemps, also with pianist Robert Koenig. The Vieuxtemps CD was performed on his Camilli viola of 1739, which was a great instrument (purchased shortly after he was appointed to the principal viola chair of the Philadelphia Orchestra).
The Primrose CD has the added advantage of a new acquisition: the ex-Primrose Brothers Amati viola of 1595 which was owned by and performed on by William Primrose early on in his career, and upon which many of these works might have first been performed!
His [William Primrose's] father owned several fine instruments, including a c.1600 Brothers Amati viola which was kept locked in a cupboard. This must have been part of its attraction. Willie, as the family called him, described his naughty moments thus: ‘As a youngster, when he [father] wasn’t around, I found a way to open the latch on the cupboard where the Amati was kept and played it with considerable satisfaction. I preferred its sound to the sound of the violin. [1]
This instrument has a remarkable sound, all the more considering its small size of around 15.5 inches. I had the opportunity to play and listen to each of these instruments in Verizon Hall and was consistently amazed at the projection and power of the C-string on the Amati. You get what you pay for!
Diaz served as the Principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 10 years, succeeding his teacher at the Curtis Institute, Joseph dePasquale, who was a pupil of William Primrose. Diaz’s father, Manuel, was his first teacher, and he himself studied with Primrose at Indiana University, so the Primrose pedagogical bloodline runs deep through the Diaz family. After leaving the orchestra in the spring of 2006, Diaz succeeded Gary Graffman as the President of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
I’ve only done the most preliminary listening to this new CD (available at Amazon.com, the Naxos site, and the iTunes music store, among others), but it is exemplary in almost every conceivable fashion. The artistry is first-rate, with beautifully spun phrases, and the virtuosity is breathtaking. Add to this the wonderfully clear sonics of the Naxos recording, and the able accompaniment of ace pianist Robert Koenig, and you’ve got a great disc for anyone who’s interested in hearing what the viola at its fullest potential can do. Highly recommended.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I was a student of Roberto Diaz at the University of Maryland and the Peabody Conservatory of Music from 1991-1995.
[1] Claudine Bigelow “No time for snobbery” The Strad, August, 2004.
