A few months ago I reviewed a CD of Finzi's music with James Gilchrist as the tenor soloist. Gilchrist's voice sounded alarmingly stressed at the top, so much so that I did wonder about his vocal health. But shortly afterwards we heard him live and he sounded his usual mellifluous self. Gilchrist was the soloist on Sunday on the Radio 3 programme about RVW's On Wenlock Edge. Again Gilchrist's voice sounded stressed. I can only put this down to a tendency for recording engineers to place the microphones too close, so that his voice does not have time to settle.
This is a problem which can occur most frequently with big voices. Many years ago Jane Eaglen, in interview, said that at that time she was happy with only one of her recordings, the Chandos Tosca. She explained how big voices were difficult to record and this was born out by her Chandos Aida and Turandot, where the Turandot was superb but the Aida gave her a significant beat in her voice.
We have recently acquired the new Halle Dream of Gerontius, here is its Bryn Terfel's voice which causes concern. Though he is admirably firm of tone and with superb diction, the recording captures an exceptional beat in the voice. I suspect that if you heard him live, this would not be a problem as the voice would have had time to settle in the distance between him and you in the concert hall. Obviously the decision taken on the recording was that immediacy was more important than avoiding the beat in Terfel's voice.
Perhaps it is me, perhaps I'm a little to allergic to excessive beat in voices. But I am becoming increasingly aware that our recorded experience can entirely fail to reflect the reality.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
What about blowing the box to pieces: composer Eímear Noone on writing for video games, films and TVEímear Noone (Photo: Andy Paradise) Dublin and LA-based composer Eímear Noone is known for her scores for video games, films and TV. She re...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
Rebecca Meltzer, Bertie Baigent & Guy Verrall-Withers with the Waterperry Opera Festival team in 2024 The arts administration world is r...
-
The Berlin Singakademie building, designed by Carl Theodor Ottmer, 1825-1827, now Maxim Gorki Theater painting by Eduard Gaertner, 1843 Bach...
-
Mozart: The Magic Flute - Matthew Kellett - Charles Court Opera (Photo: Bill Knight) Mozart: The Magic Flute; Matthew Kellett, Alison Lang...
-
St Nicholas Church, Leipzig Where Bach's St John Passion first performed Bach: St John Passion (1725); Solomon's Knot; Wigmore Hal...
-
Ada Witczyk performing music from the 2023 Růžičková Composition Competition Violinist Ada Witczyk 's new album, New Baroque - Sonatas ...
-
Britten: War Requiem - Stéphane Denève, Ian Bostridge, Roderick Williams, New World Symphony - Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami Britten: War R...
-
Harry Christophers & The Sixteen in rehearsal - 2024 (Photo: Johnny Millar) Harry Christophers and The Sixteen embark on their 25th Ch...
-
Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes - Iván Fischer & Budapest Festival Orchestra - Southbank Centre (Photo: Pete Woodhead for the Sout...
I have the CD...Dream of Gerontius... I am not sure what you mean by "the recording captures an exceptional beat in the voice."
ReplyDeletePhyllis :-)
By beat I mean a wide, rather slow moving vibrato. Heard from a distance, in the concert hall, this can sound effective in Terfel's voice, but heard close to on the recording you are a little too aware of the pitch variation.
ReplyDelete