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Posted: |
Nov 25, 2018 - 12:26 AM
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By: |
RonBurbella
(Member)
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It's a little too soon. We attendees arrived yesterday from all over and had a terrific get-to-know-you dinner last night with the production staff. Afterwards, a number of us chatted in the hotel lobby-bar till well past midnight. Today, the first recording session begins in about 30 minutes and we are all excited. Outwardly, it seems to be business-as-usual for James, Nick, and Leigh, who have done this hundreds of times.
And, I have to admit, I have no idea how to put a photo that is in my iPhone on the FSM Message Board. If anyone can e-mail me (slowly I turned) step-by-step instructions privately (or publicly, it doesn't matter to me), I would appreciate it.
You can label the topic line "FSM Message Board Photos for Dummies."
Ron Burbella
BurbellaRon@cs.com
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I attended the first two days of sessions on 25th-26th of November.
Smecky Studios are just a short distance from our hotel, K+K Fenix, on Ve Smeckach just off Wenceslas Square, close to Museum metro station.
Sessions were 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm with a couple of breaks in each session. The studios have a plaque by the door. You enter a foyer with a concrete floor where building work was taking place. Up two flights of dark stairs on the left and you come to an open door. On entering, everything is light and hubbub. On the left wall are enlarged album covers of scores recorded here including Angelo Badalamenti’s Mulholland Drive and Kilar’s The Ninth Gate.
Musicians grab a coffee from the hatch and chat to colleagues in the tea area to the right. Beyond here is the control room.However, move straight ahead and you enter the hall. All music stands and cables and the sounds of musicians tuning their instruments.
Five of us sat in the hall on the morning of day one. I was fortunate enough to have a position just between the cellos and basses and had a great view of most of the orchestra and of Nic conducting. I regularly attend concerts but had never sat so close to an orchestra.
At 9.00 am he orchestra were called to order by Stanka, the translator, who is also a violinist and member of the orchestra. She spoke to the orchestra for a couple of minutes in Czech. She handed over to Nic who said that we were going to record ‘King of Kings’ for James . He explained that he and James refer to the score as kok.
We then started he first cue ‘The Overture’, tubular bells, brass and then the most devine strings came in. I gasped at the sheer beauty of the sounds from the orchestra. Just amazing. No choir at this stage. They will be recorded later, maybe in January, again in Prague.
The City of Prague Philharmonic have recorded several Rozsa scores including he Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, El Cid, Sodom and Gomorrah and Ben Hur. They’ve also performed a live concert of Rozsa music and so they’re familiar with the intricacies and nuances of Rozsa’s style, No rehersals, straight into the studio, music manuscripts laid out and off they went.
The slower more melodic pieces are easier, the faster, more jagged dramatic cues, with more notes, are more difficult and require more takes, occasionally just for certain sections of the orchestra. Sometimes the best sections from each take are edited together to give the best performance on the CD.
Sometimes, the performance is stopped for James and/or Leigh Phillips, the orchestrator, to point out errors and suggest how certain parts of the orchestra should perform a certain descending triplet, for instance.
A click track is used on some cues, to help achieve the right tempo and aid the editing and overlay process including the choral sections.
On one occasion, the sixth horn player went missing after lunch. A cue requiring six was scheduled. Nic said they’d manage with five. James said he’d cancel the session if there weren’t six. A sixth horn player was called in and the session proceeded.
I was present for the recording of 67 of the 80 cues (not counting source music and violin solos by Lucie Svehlova recorded especially for the album. For me, as a non musician, this was all endlessly fascinating , to see at first hand ,Miklos Rozsa’s score being recreated for album release, 55 years on was just stunning with numerous spine tingling moments.
I confidently expect Tadlow’s King of Kings to be one of the major soundtrack releases of 2019.
James said that he has no plans for recordings after King of Kings is completed and that this project may be the end of an era. Let’s hope he’s wrong and it’s not too long before Tadlow swing into action again.
Many thanks to James, Nic, Leigh and the tech team. Also of course to all members of the City Of Prague Philharmonic who played so beautifully plus all the Kickstarter contributors who attended and made it such a fun experience.
I'm really delighted that my Kickstarter contribution helped to make this King Of Kings recording happen and can’ t wait to hear the CD.
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James said that he has no plans for recordings after King of Kings is completed and that this project may be the end of an era. Let’s hope he’s wrong and it’s not too long before Tadlow swing into action again.
Im still hope that's after finishing "King of Kings" James will record one more score. Epic, monumental "The Ten Commandments" by Elmer Bernstein.
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James said that he has no plans for recordings after King of Kings is completed and that this project may be the end of an era. Let’s hope he’s wrong and it’s not too long before Tadlow swing into action again.
Im still hope that's after finishing "King of Kings" James will record one more score. Epic, monumental "The Ten Commandments" by Elmer Bernstein.
From what James has mentioned in the past, if he were to record The Ten Commandments, he would have to wait a certain number of years (I forget how many) after the Intrada release. Plus, we at least have the Hammer two-fer to look forward to.
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This thread is about KoK.
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I was in Prague too. Apart from the Tadlow team, I met Doug Raynes, Grantlovell (NZ), Erik Nelson and Lars MG (Sweden).
I confirm: it was the experience of a lifetime.
I'm currently wrtiting a report of my experience there that I proposed to FSM for publishing. One way or the other, it will appear online once I'm done.
Just like Peter, I got the feeling this might be James' last rerecording project. When pressed with suggestions for other recordings, he simply eluded the matter.
Btw, I'm Jerome Piroue from Switzerland.
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FOREWARNING
I cut-and-pasted this from my word processor, so hope it fits OK. Here goes.
MY FIRST KICKSTARTER
When the KING OF KINGS kickstarter campaign was announced, I felt an instant premonition that this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in an end-of-an-era Miklos Rozsa project. There was no doubt that I would contribute at a level that assured me attendance at the recording sessions. I had never done anything like this before, and my anticipation was palpable. This would be my first trip to Europe in 30 years. We have all had our favorite film music recording heroes over the years. The Tadlow Team of James Fitzpatrick, Leigh Phillips, and Nic Raine has proven to be top drawer and first class In every way. I have noted quite a lot of their performances on Pandora. I always purchase their new releases with relish, and my deep anticipation is always well-rewarded. I was so looking forward to personally meeting them and to attending their recording sessions.
WELCOME TO EUROPE
I had a full days travel from Philadelphia-->Detroit-->Amsterdam-->Prague. I don't speak Dutch or Czech, but I managed. I got to the K+K Fenix in the later afternoon, at the same time as Peter Greenhill (UK). We shared an elevator ride to our rooms and met later that evening in the hotel lobby with the other attendees. In my process of checking in, I needed a quick shower first. It seemed that the angle of the shower head needed some adjusting for my short height. But the shower head wasn't designed to be adjusted and immediately fell off the wall and opened up into two pieces. Fortunately, I was able to reassemble the shower head and took my shower. Next, I needed to get my laptop unpacked and online. I had brought a current converter. So I plugged my laptop into a small power strip, attached the power strip to the current converter, and turned on the laptop...and was immediately standing in darkness. Almost all of the outlets in the room went dead, except for the bathroom. So I dressed, went to the front desk, and they had a technician reset the circuit breaker. Stupid American that I am, I couldn't believe that what I had done had perpetrated what had happened. So I repeated the same steps...with the same result. After sheepishly and apologetically going back to request another circuit breaker reset, I was successful with only the laptop plugged in. Power strip must have been bad. Off to a great start!
FIRST NIGHT DINNER - SATURDAY (Nov. 24th)
We attendees met in the lobby and proceeded to the Como restaurant, where a long table for about 30 people had been assembled. As luck would have it, I sat at the far end, where the last three empty seats (opposite me) were later taken by the later-arriving production team (James, Leigh, and Nic). We spent the hours at dinner getting to know each other. I was a little bit intimidated at first. But the more that we shared conversation, the more I got the cozy feeling we were all birds of a feather, each with our own individual talents, fields of expertise, film music experieces, wishes, accents, and senses of humor. But we all shared an intense love of film music in common, especially that of Miklos Rozsa. I had brought a scrapbook of my Miklos Rozsa and Erich Wolfgang Korngold memorabilia to be passed around the table as we ate, and we all shared in the memories therein. Dinner adjourned and we went back to our hotels, eager for the morning recording session. On the way back to the hotel, I tried to do a "dry run" in the dark to find Smecky Studios, supposedly just a short walk further down the street from our hotel, but I could not find it. It is not an obvious place to find in the dark.
RECORDING SESSIONS - SUNDAY (Nov. 25th) (9AM-1PM) (2PM-6PM)
It was Sunday, and I was too nervous to eat breakfast. I went to the lobby at the right time and "followed the crowd" to Smecky Studios, about a half-block from the hotel. The studio is undergoing major renovations and you have to walk up through an in-progress construction site to get to the studio. Five seats were set up, three behind Nic Raine's conductor platform and two more on the side by the violas and celli. We were in really close proximity. Doug Raynes had previously remarked in this thread that he had nearly gotten poked in the eye by a cellist's bow at a previous session that he attended. The cues were recorded in film order. What a sumptuous sensation it is to be so close to the orchestral players! I was enthralled to be so saturated in the music. Here is where you get an education of how the production team records first takes, full retakes, partial retakes, safety retakes, soloist retakes, section retakes (e.g., violins), in order to get a perfect recording. Nic Raine patiently and indefatigueably conducted take after retake. I always expected him to be exhausted after eight hours of conducting, but he was a real dynamo. We spent the afternoon in the newly renovated recording studio a little bit down the hall. We could hear the orchestra perfectly over the studio monitor speakers as we wartched the 24-channels of recording waveforms going by. There would be a take which sounded fine to us amateurs, but the team (more often James) would find some imperfections we could not fully appreciate and ask for adjustments (brass louder, celli more expressive, bang the drums as loud as you can, woodwinds came in late, bar 25 and bar 44, and on and on). With each new retake, we (sitting in the back) would nod to each other in amazement at the improvement in the orchestral color and sound. Digital editing will later patch together the best parts from multiple takes into a perfect-sounding cue. I was very impressed with the team's devotion to their craft and their passionate professionalism, which was well-balanced by their sense of humor and outgoing friendliness. I learned to follow the sheet music as the cue was being recorded, which was a plus for me. The choir will be added digitally at later recording sessions. At first glance, without conversation or observation, James Fitzpatrick appears to be a kindly, somewhat rumpled, absent-minded professor. But when you see him in action in the studio, you are amazed at his ability to focus like a laser beam on the sound and the timing of every part of the orchestra. He and Leigh Phillips collaborate all day at the console and mentally edit it all into the perfect finished product. And James told me that he doesn't read music! Pure talent! The communication between the team and the orchestra depends on Stanka, who translates the adjustments that are requested. I'm not a musician, but I'm convinced that he invented some of the "musical lingo" that he had Stanka communicate to the orchestra. It all works to perfection. Of interest, most of the orchestra members have not seen the films for which they are recording the music, with some exceptions.
SECOND NIGHT DINNER - SUNDAY (Nov. 25th)
This time, we were at an Italian-themed restaurant in another long table. And again, I wound up sitting at the end with James, Nick, and Leigh. Either I was incredibly lucky, or everyone else was bashful, or I walk too slow, or something. But I was happy for the opportunity to "talk shop" about the recording sessions, the future of such recordings, the razor-thin budgets involved, and even a little bit of politics. My fellow attendees all had various life experiences meeting film composers, attendance at film music concerts, traveling for film music events all over the world, and pride in their soundtrack collections. To a person, all had been thrilled to attend the recording sessions.
RECORDING SESSIONS - MONDAY (Nov. 26th) (9AM-1PM) (2PM-6PM)
By now we had become well-acclimated to the work-flow of a typical recording day. The day went similarly to the first recording day, with (it seemed to me) a bit fewer retakes being necessary. I explored the studio a bit more, studying the two floors of walls on a staircase covered by CD cover replicas. I looked at them all, with the compulsive collector in me sometimes wondering wherther I had some of them or not from "the early ears." I became more and more aware that this was a business that had to efficiently produce a final product. The orchestra is expensive and they weren't doing this just for fun. In between recording sessions, or at lunch, we attendees shared our soundtrack passions and film music life experiences.
THIRD NIGHT DINNER - MONDAY (Nov. 26th)
Now that we were well-aquainted, conversations were more personal. I tended to lag behind the marching throng, deep in discussion. We all ended up at an Irish pub restaurant and practically took over the back of the restaurant with our long table. Again, I sat at the end with James, Leigh, and Nic at the end of the table. I was wondering to myself if they were enjoying our repeated conversations or silently tolerated the pest I was becoming. Nic had a few hundred photos of his new fixer-upper home in Germany that he was restoring, much of it by his own handiwork. Leigh permused his past, present, and future projects. When pressed, James was pretty convinced that this would be the last such film score restoration project, mostly due to the financial realities of such efforts. I got the impression that there was a mixture of relief tinged with regret about the situation. As the live music started, James way trying to explain the scoring of cricket to me, who had no idea how it went, over the loud music. I made a decision that the next day's plans for me had to change. I had completed my two kickstarter days with the orchestra. My third (and last) day had been planned to take a "See Prague in a Day" combination bus-walking tour. The sessions had gone ahead of schedule and the full orchestral score would be finished recording in the next session. I was so thrilled to be there, that I asked James to be allowed to attend the third day sessions. Prague will still be there, but this Rozsa event was never going to be to be repeated. He kindly and graciously granted my request. Prague would have to wait. Rozsa was king.
RECORDING SESSIONS - TUESDAY (Nov. 27th)
Knowing this was the last session gave it a bit of sentimentality and sadness, but all good things must end.
It's kind of like the feeling at a terrific film music concert, when the last encore concludes. The final dozen or so score cues were wrapped up just in time for the lunch break. More cues that did not require a full orchestra were still to be recorded, but hearing the full orchestral score from beginning to end was such a uplifting privilege that I would leave walking on air (but emotionally with a sigh and shoulders shrugged). The team and I took individual goodbye photos before adjourning. There was enough time for me to do a little local sightseeing on foot. I had to repack and leave for the airport at 3AM fto catch a 6AM flight departure for the reverse of my arrival flights.
FINAL THOUGHTS
My deepest thanks to James, Nic, and Leigh for their conviviality, professionalism, and humor. When I met Nic on the first day, he pointed out that I had left something unzipped. And then, with his characteristic smirky smile, he laughingly recounted how he had conducted a children's concert in the same state. I had arrived to spend those three days with new acquaintances (I hesitate to use the word "strangers"), and I left with over a dozen new film music friends. I was so glad to have met Doug Raynes, Peter Greenhill, Udo Heimansberg & Renate Wieden, Kosmas and Pawel Ladis, Harald Bayer, Volker & Dorothee Hannemann, Grant Smith, Frank DeWald, Jonathan and Jessie Little, Holger Nedderhutt, Leigh Phillips, Nic Raine, and James Fitzpatrick.
Ron Burbella
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Very entertaining report Ron! It was so good to meet you and all the other Rozsa Kickstarters.
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