| Ever wondered what happens during an ESO recording session? Join us LIVE from Wyastone Concert Hall from 2:30pm GMT on Sunday 2nd May 2021 as we record Sibelius Symphony No.7 and Beethoven Leonore Overture No.3. We’ll have multiple cameras in the studio, as well as in the production booth, so you can see and hear how we make recordings for both ESO Digital releases and for CD. |
| This is an ESO Digital exclusive event You’ll need to be an ESO Digital supporter to watch the live stream. Not a supporter yet? Donate from just £5/month for access. Find out more at www.eso.co.uk/digital |
| Where do I access the live stream? On our website at www.eso.co.uk/livestream from 1430 on Sunday 2nd May 2021. Is this a concert? No – this is a live recording session. We’ll be recording the pieces in sections which then get stitched together in the final edit. The final concert will be available to view on ESO Digital at a later date. I can’t make the live stream times – will this be available ‘on demand’? Due to music rights this will only be available live, and not available to watch again or download after the live stream has finished. Do I need to watch the whole live stream? No – you can join at any time during the live stream (it starts at 1430 and ends by 1730) but you will be unable to rewind to watch anything you might have missed. We will also be taking a 20-minute break roughly half way through the session to give our musicians a chance to re-fuel. What do I need to view the live stream? The live stream will run the same as the other videos on our website – so as long as you can view them, just make sure you’re logged in to your ESO Digital account and on the event page, and the live stream will appear there when available. |
Not a good idea, I fear.
Hmm…well Bob, it depends, I suppose, on how the production team and musicians feel that their style is being cramped, or on how much the producer and engineer can resist ‘performing’ for the camera. As a producer (NOT involved with this project), I fear I’d have to put a lot of effort into resisting that temptation, wanting to share with others what has remained a fascinating process for me over four decades! This ESO project could work very well as an educational project; on the other hand, it could end up being a prime example of the principle that once you put a camera in front of an event, the nature of the event changes. Might you expand on your comment, Bob?
You are right, Bob.
A visit to an abattoir put my uncle off meat for ever. He became a vegetarian. Similar consequences possible here.
There are those who still believe commercial recordings are the equivalent of a live concert, only without an audience. Since decades interventions by producers, engineers and editors have made recorded performances overwhelmingly sexed up into a composite of multiple takes and production tricks.
This sort of presentation will expose what goes on behind the scenes, which should stay behind the scenes if you like live music. Cosmetic surgery procedures should remain private – who wants to see the scalpel at work? I don’t.
Hi Bob!
I appreciate your concern, but I’m fairly confident all will be well. In fact, we’ve done this several times before. We streamed an entire session of the recording of my Brahms Piano Quartet arrangement in 2017, and have also streamed portions of the sessions for the Sawyers Trumpet and Violin concerti, David Matthews 9th Symphony and Don Fraser’s Sinfonietta. The Brahms was done more slickly, but the others were just done on a phone, but always attracted lots of interest and engagement.
Per Anon’s comment – I think what clips of past sessions show is not that a recording is the result of lots of cheating, but of a really interesting, very intense, process which involves switching back and forth between rehearsal and performance modes throughout the day.
At the end of the day, a record is a record and a concert is a concert. I would have loved to have been in the studio to see Queen record the vocals for Bohemian Rhapsody. The fact that it’s only 3 guys singing is not a dark secret that must stay hidden in order to maintain the illusion of a choir, but part of what makes the record cool. It’s a process I have always found fascinating, and I would have given anything as a young musician to be a fly on the wall in a studio.
The Brahms was intended to evaporate into the ether, like this week’s session, but there are clips of some of the other pieces out there. I’ll post a few links below for the curious. These were all filmed on phones, so completely without audio trickery of any kind.
Andrew – you make a great point about the danger of letting the camera turn it into a performance for the online audience rather than a performance of the music. As you know better than almost anyone, the actually musical work is usually demanding enough that one completely forgets about the filming. We shall see!
I hope you’ll all tune in, if only out of morbid curiosity. I’m reasonably confident that the abattoir comparison will prove a bit harsh.
Ken
D Matthews 9th Symphony 5th mvt https://fb.watch/56k2Q_MiIp/
Fraser Sinfonietta 4th mvt https://fb.watch/56kcRTwBpS/
Sawyers Violin Concerto 1st mvt https://fb.watch/56kkX2f4P1/
First, ANON contributions should always be ignored. They are cowardly and a disease of our social media generation.
Kenneth – as you rightly say, a record is a record, a concert a concert. I don’t recall anyone berating a film for being a ‘sexed-up’ version of a play in the theatre.