- My Piece of Plastic
- Clarinettist’s Thumb, Anyone?
I collected the session 1 mastered CD from Pete Ware just 3 days after the recording took place. I have to hand to the guy – he works fast! I would be lying if I said I calmly drove home, put the disc in my player and wept with the joy of such a sensitive and virtuosic performance. Unfortunately, as real life often doesn’t mirror a movie script, the reality was somewhat different.
In actuality, I hurtled back down the mountain road into the valley where I live with my stomach churning and my brain throwing up random thoughts at 100 miles an hour. It wasn’t sure whether to offer postive expectation phrases or doom and gloom paragraphs. On arrival, in-house photographer was working on her upcoming inspirational coffee table book, sat in exactly the same position at the computer as when I had left the house an hour earlier. The cats had carried on sleeping; the dogs wearily lifted their heads and then let them slump down again. Depositing the coveted CD in my in-tray, I wandered out to the kitchen to tackle a pile of washing up. I sighed. ”I’ll listen to it later when I can concentrate properly”.
Halfway through attacking the plates, I vaguely heard some clarinet music warbling away in the background. Certain that I had recognised the Saint-Saens Sonata, the scouring came to an abrupt halt as I strained my ears to listen a bit more intently. Quickly realising in a flash what was going on, I grabbed a tea-towel to dry my hands and rushed into the office. The dogs were up out of their baskets and the cats had woken up and walked out - their usual response when I start to practice! The volume of the computer was up full blast and in quadrophonic sound, my clarinet playing was reverberating around the room. I felt as if I was witnessing an event that I didn’t want to see but some unseen force had me temporarily rooted to the spot. In-house photographer continued to noodle. I just wasn’t ready for this - not now, anyway; and I went back to my washing up.
I listened to the CD on my portable player after dinner one night a few days later. This time, the music had my full attention but as a listener not the wost of damning critics. As I sat on my patio looking up the stars spread out on the canopy of a clear night sky, I mused. You’ve come a long way in 18 months, Harrington – the second movement of the Poulenc had made me cry. A certain sentiment had permeated through the music and forced me to remember yet again the mental pain I had fairly recently experienced and drew on during the preparation period for the session. The Debussy bought me back down to earth with a hard thud – it lacked the smooth technical fluency that I was used to hearing on other recordings and this detracted from my enjoyment of the piece. I wallowed in a couple of movements of the Saint-Saens but started beating myself up in the last so I turned it off and went to bed.
It wasn’t until yesterday that I could find the psychological strength within myself to sit down with the scores and conduct a full objective analysis. Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised and pleased with the result but it’s not perfect. Putting that statement in context, the question on which I have to make a decision is whether or not I’m convinced that it’s good enough unleash on the general public. Most of it – yes – but as always there is room for improvement. I will most definitely re-record a couple of movements which went down at the end of session. I was tired at the time and I can hear fatigue in the performance which is simply not acceptable to me. What I want to avoid at all costs is nit-picking my way through every piece and repeating odd phrases here and there just for the sake of being note perfect. There is always the danger that the spirit of the music will be lost and I most certainly do not want my playing to dissolve into just being about reproducing the notes in the right order!
Session 2 is scheduled to take place at the end of November. It’s a much lighter programme: the Messager Solo de Concours, Pierné’s Canzonetta and the Milhaud Duo Concertant. I’m not sure at this stage whether to tag the repeats from session 1 to the end of session 2 or wait to hear the mastering of session 2 before diarising a session 3 just for re-records. I’ll think on it.
In the meantime, along with the practical preparation for session 2, there are CD programme notes to write and the design for the insert to complete. I have also appointed a “Secret Gang of Four Reviewers” who have agreed, lured by the thought of free copy of the final product, to give their constructive criticism before I give the order for mass production. I’ll certainly be kept out of mischief over the next few weeks!








