Why we came: the rehearsal/recording
It’s not as if we really needed a reason to come to Germany at all. It’s somewhere that we’d choose to visit for not other reason than we love it here! But this time, we had a date in our diaries for quite some time and my Hero had been making arrangements with friends and colleagues about a “Fairytale Opera” by Joachim Raff. Raff is my Hero’s “pet composer”, whose works he researches and promotes. The SWR website announces the revival of the work with the title Sleeping Beauty is awakened with a kiss describing how “this Sleeping Beauty lay dormant for 170 years” Here we were then, for the reawakening.
Regular readers may recall how, a couple of years ago we were privileged to be there for a similar event, when another of Raff’s operas was recorded in Mariánské Lázně, prompting a series of blog posts here. The rehearsals and recording all took place in a grand Bohemian spa - quite a contrast to the location this week, which was in a purpose built recording studio on the outskirts of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.
We had an address of course, and found our way thanks to our satnav. Further reassurance came on the signpost, for this didn’t really seem like the right location for some reason.
Our friend and music publisher Volker had texted to say he’d parked his car “in the meadow”, which described the location well!
On this particular morning, even the Philharmonic lorry was parked in the meadow too. (Yes, we were in the right place)
The recording schedule is based around the orchestra musicians’ contract: two three hour sessions per day with a break half way through each. So, ten till one, then six till nine. The studio was rather different from the Czech spa venue too: not so much coming and going and restrictions on photos, video and sound recording (for obvious reasons).
As a result, we two church mice (having had some practice in that role recently!) sat and listened, taking care not to photograph players nor make a sound during the recording sessions. I was glad I’d brought my knitting!
Once the whole orchestra was in place and conductor Jörg-Hannes in control, the music flowed, until…that disembodied voice of the sound engineer was heard from somewhere - where? The answer was the mobile recording studio parked in the lane outside.
At times, the sound guy would request numerous retakes, particularly on one occasion with the first violins who had a tricky section to get right. His voice came through along the lines of “not pah-pah-pah-PAH but pah-pah-PAH-pah”. Since those four notes were to be played at breakneck speed and were so high as to be almost off the fingerboard, not to mention repeated a couple of dozen times, this was far from easy. I really felt for the players here, for time and again, something just needed a bit more precision.
Then of course, there were the soloists. Six soloists, each of whom was called to sing their particular section - not necessarily in the order in which the work would be performed. We’d met four of them at the previous recording and it was great to see and hear them again. All young, with impressive discipline and remarkable voices.
Finally, a choir. The Bachchor Stuttgart came to join in the fun and wow, when everyone was in full voice and the orchestra playing fortissimo, the sound in that relatively small space was incredible!
The strange thing was, as a result of recording the sections out of order, none of us had heard the piece from start to finish yet. For that, we’d have to wait for the performance…tomorrow!
