You will have seen that image (taken by Ben Eealovega) in the last post.<\/a><\/p>\nNo sooner was that decision made than it was straight on to getting the inside of the booklet put together. We decided to base the liner notes on essays I wrote about the two symphonies for the blog when we performed them in December. Slimming those down to fit in a normal booklet, hammering them into a slightly more formal and less quirky style, and cleaning them of any and all typos was no small job. \u00a0There was also the matter of translating my own patois into standard UK spelling (apologies to my friends back home in America for all the “favour”s and “theatre”s- it is a UK record company). It took significantly longer than writing them in the first place., and required the sharp eyes of a number of friends and family members.<\/p>\n
It really hit me recently that in almost all meda, we are evolving to a less edited world. In the age of electronic publishing, we see a lot more typos in the great newspapers. This morning, the Independent reviewed Yuja Wang\u2019s new CD, but spelled her name wrong (as Yuka).\u00a0 It\u2019s the way the world is going. Does it matter? Just as I think there ought to be plenty of room in life for the live, the raw and the un-edited, I also appreciate reading and hearing stuff that has been properly polished.<\/p>\n
If book publishing and hard copies of newspapers are dying, \u00a0future generations will rarely see writing that has been vetted, massaged, considered and cleaned to within an inch of its life.\u00a0 I try hard (always failing) to make everything I put up here read as well as possible, but if I had to invest the kind of time that it takes to edit something to the level of a book, there would only be about 3 posts a year.\u00a0 Of course, the one thing that is infinitely easier about writing for the blog is that there are no space limitations.<\/p>\n
Once all the prose for one disc was done, it was time to start listening to the first edit of our Mahler disc \u00a0(Das Lied von der Erde and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) for Somm Recordings, coming out in May. Listening carefully to edits is a very important part of the conductor’s job. I remember the scandal many years ago when the incoming music director of the Minnesota Orchestra didn’t listen to the final edit of his new recording of Firebird. In the end, there was a bar missing from the Berceuse. Oops…<\/p>\n
Listening to a CD edit can be emotionally draining. At first, one can\u2019t help but be a little excited at how good it all sounds, even when it hasn\u2019t been mastered yet. Great singers and a great orchestra! I usually listen once without following the score or taking notes, and generally just enjoy it. Then, it’s on with the headphones to listen, with the score, to each track 2 or 3 times in a row, literally looking for every possible flaw. By the end, you never want to hear it again.<\/p>\n
Of course, there are always still little smudges on a first edit- that\u2019s why we call it a first edit. What is different, and more stressful, about editing a CD as opposed to prose is that you are completely at the mercy of what is “in the can” from the sessions. If I leave off the \u201cd\u201d on \u201cband\u201d I can just type it in. With a CD, you have to ask yourself- did we get a clean \u201cd\u201d on \u201cband? \u201cI\u2019m sure we did! It was just before we finished that take…. I think it was…. Well, if he didn\u2019t use the \u201cd\u201d I\u2019m thinking of on this “band”, was there a reason? Did I miss something? What if we’re out of “d”s?!?!!??!!?<\/p>\n
Rather than just typing in a “d” on “band” \u00a0you make a note of it, talk to the producer who talks to the editor, who then tells you whether or not there’s a “d” available. Can the “d” be integrated given the available edit points? It can take many weeks.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s really a playday for the paranoid.<\/p>\n
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Post script- Not long ago I got a nice window into the lengths producers will go to find a “d” for “band” when editing a CD. I borrowed a score of a Shostakovich symphony from an orchestra that had been used for editing their recording of the work (a CD I already had!). In three places, the producer\/engineer had noted “take 67a or Rostropovich.” Nicking the odd note from another CD is apparently the dirty little secret of the industry. That won’t be helpful with something like Gal- when you’re doing a first recording, there is nobody to steal from….<\/p>\n