What to Listen for While Editing

I received the first pass of my Quincy Porter Viola Works recording right before my departure for the Cleveland Orchestra European tour. A first pass, for those who don’t know, is similar to a first draft that one would have for writing a book. My producers act as editors putting the best tracks together of what they like, also considering the suggestions I gave them. Often several tracks can be accurate, but there might be a turn of phrase that is more compelling versus straight accuracy. When I recorded, I played large sections repeatedly, and for the shorter pieces I ran the whole thing. I like the idea of large sections because the musical goal stays intact. While recording the Porter Viola Concerto, we would have even longer takes of up to 11 minutes – the piece is 20 minutes long. I copied all 12 CD’s of all the tracks onto my laptop plus the CD of the first pass before leaving for Europe. I also brought the track notes from the producers, Victor and Marina Ledin. I must say, I was pleased listening to the first pass. It was such positive reinforcement to hear everything put together, to see that it all had a good flow and made musical sense. There are just a few small ensemble and intonation issues to clean up.

Here’s a sample of Speed Etude from the first pass.

My time in Salzburg has been spent listening to a lot of Quincy Porter, so no mountain climbing on this trip. The Cleveland Orchestra concerts were well received, and I’ve had fun practicing my German. Everywhere I go, people smile at my viola case. It looks like it came out of the Willy Wonka  Chocolate Factory, but it is light and travels well.