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!