Friday, June 9, 2006

The Art of Editing


Recently we spent a day with our amazing recording engineer, Adam Abeshouse, editing our new cd. We had recorded both of Shostakovich's trios and Arensky's trio in D Minor during three long days of sessions last December in the recital hall at SUNY Purchase.

It was Adam's job to go through the hours of tape (which is of course a misnomer - nobody actually uses tape anymore - everything is recorded digitally straight to a hard drive...but "hours of hard drive space" just doesn't have the same ring to it) and splice together the best takes into a "first edit", like a writer's first draft. Then each of us spent some quality time listening through this "first edit" to make sure that all of our ideas came through clearly. We also noted down any spots which we weren't crazy about or where we had wanted something different.

Then we all met at Adam's house up in Pelham and with the help of his furry, white assistant, Bianca(!), we went through the recording, tweaking it until everyone was totally satisfied. Adam has some amazing computer tools at his disposal that can blend, enhance, or even change the sounds that we originally recorded. But the tools would be useless without his amazing ear, musical sensitivity, and artistry.

For Adam, the goal is not merely a clean recording (with no mistakes), but a recording that captures the spirit and trajectory of what we would do in a live performance. It can be hard to simulate the excitement of a concert in a recording session, when everyone is under a lot of stress. But Adam always knows how to draw us into our best playing. We could not have made this disc (or our last one of the Mendelssohn trios) without him. Thanks Charlie ;-)

"Claremont Goes Russian" - Adam's pet name for our disc - should be released sometime next fall...we'll keep you posted!

5 Comments:

At 8:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just hacked into Adam's hard drive and purloined a copy of "Claremont Goes Russian". It is amazingly gorgeous--both the performance and the recording! I think you will have a huge hit on your hands!!!
Aloysius
P.S. Is Julie writing the liner notes again this time. That was a terrific feature of the Mendelssohn CD!

 
At 2:17 PM, Blogger julie said...

I'm in the middle of a big Shostakovich biography right now - I'm starting with Laurel Fay's book which tries to take a pretty balanced view from the primary sources available. These days in Shostakovich scholarship there's a huge divide between those who believe Solomon Volkov's edited memoirs of Shostakovich (Testimony) to be true and those who think the book is more Volkov's retelling than a true memoir (then again, most memoirs are written with tinted glasses to some extent). It's fascinating to see the man and the life behind all the music.

Did you know Shostakovich loved poker and would sometimes stay up all night playing? He was apparently a risk taker and was known to lose large sums, even when he couldn't afford to. Also, he loved soccer and would travel home from vacations just to see a match.

 
At 3:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Julie,

Do you have the large book of Shostakovich essays that was published and sold at the Bard Shostakovich festival you played at a couple summers ago? If not, I can lend you a copy.

Algernon

 
At 8:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

When the new CD is released, please tell us how we can purchase a copy; can it be picked up on a retail level and/or will it sold at your live venues.
-J. Cee
Not to cause any alarm, but it may appear that Bianca doesn't seem content with that lampshade she's wearing. Just tell her it looks fashionable for summer-wear.
-Arrrf :)

 
At 9:24 AM, Blogger Donna said...

J. Cee,

We'll definitely keep everyone posted on the new CD!

Bianca isn't happy but the "lampshade" is for her own good -- to prevent her from getting at her itchy legs. :( I'll pass on the summer-wear message, though!

:)

 

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