Monday 16 December 2002

We finished the Requiem recording yesterday, but I'm heading back to Dundee again today (on the train this time) to rehearse for the coming week playing Vivaldi concertos.

The recordings were good fun - Mackerras maintained his irrepressible good humour to the end, despite being kicked out of his hotel at 1a.m. the previous night by a fire alarm - but what glaringly stuck out was the anachronistic position of the soloists. In the 18th century they would have sung in the choruses, and been part of the overall 'community' making the music. In a 20th century orchestral/choral environment (hopefully this practice will die out soon when performing this music and not become accepted 21st century practice too!), they only sing the solo passages, and only show up in the room for rehearsal or recording when actually required to sing. They're paid differently (more of course), treated differently (ferried to and from rehearsals by the orchestra), and as a result the music they make is different - 9 times out of 10 it just doesn't integrate with the overall sound. If the soloists had to sing in the choruses too, they would have to change the way they sing for reasons of stamina if nothing else, and if they had to stay in the room for the whole process, they would actually get into the habit of listening to what is going on around them, instead of just hitting their spot and doing their own thing. It amazes me that after the period-instrument bandwagon's been going this long, the vast majority of performances still perpetuate an artificially great distinction between the soloists and choir, which is to the obvious detriment of the music. So there.

There was just time in the dinner break for a quick chat about Linn Records's interest in the Kellie recording - things are gradually coming together on that front. By February we'll have three unfinished CDs on the go - product, I love it.