In one hand and out of the other

This week started off badly, with my monthly pay packet £300 down on what it should be, thanks to having taken off two days of recording session, but as luck would have it, two tracks that I had been on for an Aled Jones cd a couple of years ago, have been bought out, so I got it all back!

This week we were recording two Bax pieces, a piano concerto for left hand (Ravel it was not), and some Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra, which were ok, but not great by any means. The soloist was a guy called Ashley Wass, who seemed pretty good, and the conductor was Janes Judd, who was alright. The producer, however, annoys everyone no end. Rather than just saying “That was too quiet”, we get a flim-flam of ” I wonder whether, perhaps, that note, umm, I wonder if we could maintain the integrity of that note ” etc etc etc. Ugh, it drives me mad.

Because of this inability to just say what needs to be said, the sessions took the form they always do with this guy, which is

• Spend ages doing the first few minutes of music
• Spend ages doing the next few minutes of music
• On the 3rd of 4 sessions, takes ages doing a few minutes of music
• With 3 hours to go, start panicking, and getting narky at the orchestra.
• Finish with a couple of minutes to spare

Anyway, all done for a week. I’m off to Spain now, and there are more recordings when I get back. Hooray.

Being ill is worse than work.

A nasty bout of tonsilitus which the nurse described as being vile, meant I missed the final rehearsal and concert of Mahler 10. One member of the section said it was excruciating, and another said it was quite enjoyable, which just goes to show you can’t trust anyone’s judgement but your own. I wasn’t looking forward to going back to work for a ‘Last night of the proms spectacular’, but bizzarely, I enjoyed it; except, inevitably, for the trumpets’ mistaken attempts at appeggiatic bravado, which uniformly ended in split notes and a mounting sense that ’something must be done’.

Next week brings a couple more days of recordings for Naxos. I can’t remember what it is we’re doing, and the schedule is in the kitchen, so I can’t see, but I’ve heard that the conductor is a reject from the Royal Ballet, which means he must be awful! Wednesday will reveal all, and I don’t mean that in an Addams family way.

Until then…