Another very busy week of audio recording and here is the result,

MASTERWORKS CONCERT V: Rite of Spring! - YouTube

The music starts at 15:20 and 1:33:00.

First up is Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Amit Peled. Music that only the cello can deliver.
Next is Stravinsky’s The Right of Spring. Starts with a single bassoon and ends with riots in the streets. Seems that this was very controversial in the early twentieth century.

It is a wonderful treat to be the recording engineer for such an amazing group of artists. j

Sounds lovely from the first note of the Elgar. How many tracks and mics in the end?

We made the mistake of setting Rite of Spring for a UK Music Technology exam years back - they got the score (or at least a section of the piece) and had to get it into their sequencer - logic and cubase back then in the main. Lots of people had limited musical piano keyboard skills so they put the notes in with a mouse. It was torture for them, but then the examiners cried too, because so much of the Rite of Spring sounds like a mistake even when it isn't, so it took forever to mark because you had to check all those horrible clashes to make sure the right clashing notes were present, and not the wrong clashing notes. With normal pieces, the odd wrong note leaps out and it's a quick check = here there are thousands of correct wrong notes if you get me!


Lovely recording.

Thanks Paul.

For the Elgar I used 13 mics. on the Stravinsky the count was 15. The setup worked pretty well. Percussion and tympani's are not specifically mic.

RIte of Spring must be quite a challenge to play. Crowd loved the performance.

Thanks again. J

I learned another UK/US difference too! We don't have 'concertmaster', just a 'leader'. You did a great job on the balance.

Another string to your bow John. The reason I got interested is because John uses all Australian Rode mics. I liked to listen to the concerts as they’re streamed live on uTube, but 7.30 Sat. night in Montana is actually the following day, Sunday aft. 12.30pm here in Sydney. And that’s grandkids time now.

Another thing, I believe the audio on uTube has improved, streaming live versus stored on line it’s hard to hear any difference now.

Cheers.

April 30th is Bizet's Carmen. 9 soloists, 60 chorale and the usual folks in the orchestra. It is going to be a monster of a job. Looking forward to it.

Paul, I told the concertmaster that I wanted a job like his. You know, one where everyone stands up and applauds when I walk in the room! The resulting look was priceless. j