Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Got the recording of the first ACS concert this year, good recording except for the lack of fade-in/outs on the tracks, instead it just abruptly starts and stops, with a couple of seconds of dead silence in between each track... Probably didn't pay to have it mixed any after recording, that's how most CD recorders record when you track it live. I'd rather have it faded in and out either at the board or later on a dub off the master, but this is small stuff really.
The choral sound is excellent, well balanced, and recorded well. The room records pretty well. There is one spot in the 5th movement of the Fauré that has the tenors singing a C and the sopranos take over, going into the next phrase on "lux" ("light") held out over a little more than a measure before going on into "aeterna..." and the rest of the choir joining in on the phrase under them on the same text. It's absolutely beautiful writing and I was actually rather disappointed with the way it was done on the Rutter recording I have. Ours was just as I hear it in my mind's ear. I went back and listened to just those three measures about five times after I heard it.
This was after I was thinking how horribly disappointed I was with our cut-offs on T and S... It's horrible. Consonants all over the place! Sometimes it sounds like a quarter of the choir gives their T cut-offs about half a beat before anyone else, and the Ss just meld into a mass of hiss. I know, this is one of the worst things for a choir to get... I would harp on it for hours if I was a director...
Fifth movement was also the one where the choir finally seemed to get the emphasis on the other consonants we needed for that room, and to keep the rhythm alive.
I'm sort of wondering about the Augusta Symphony... I need to see them in concert just on their on. Between this concert and the bicentennial celebration at my church this past Sunday... I don't know, the strings tend to be rather flat in some places it seems... I understand with the thing Sunday, it was a new piece that was still being edited in places, probably didn't have much rehearsal on it at all... I need to give the CD another listen and make sure I heard the flatness that I think I heard.
Ach, I'm a music snob.
Haven't finished listening to it, yet, this little review is from what I heard on the way home from rehearsal tonight. :) The three measure spot in the fifth movement of the Fauré makes the whole thing worth it to me, though!
Klasinc&Loncar Duo (Just trying to help it get picked up by Google spiders, I maintain it for them)