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  • Aria & Howard Symphony excerpt online

    H
    H
    It's a pleasure for me to present this powerful and touching aria for tenor and orchestra:
    PROSPICE
    composed by William Kersten,
    Lyrics by Robert Browning
    Vocals by Ferdinand von Plettenberg

    http://www.vsl.co.at/Player2.aspx?Lang=13&DemoId=5085


    and Jay Bacal enriched our Demo Zone with the wonderful Adagio of Howard Hanson's 6th Symphony

    http://www.vsl.co.at/Player2.aspx?Lang=13&DemoId=5084

    thanks a lot!
  • V
    V
    Link to Jay doesn't work?
  • H
    H
    Thanks, the link is fixed now.
  • J
    J
    Both excellent!!

    'Prospice' is really wonderful- very well done, well written, and what a great orchestration and mix! Okay-- whose vocal chords are those? It was very refreshing to hear this more lyrical voice rather than a heavier Verdi/Puccini voice. It really seemed very fitting for this composition. What a range-- not only on the high end but also in the lower register as well. Very impressive indeed!

    Of course, Howard Hanson has always been a favorite of mine, and I was delighted to see this particular excerpt chosen for a VSL-VI demo. Jay, I really enjoyed and appreciated what you did with the string seating-- it really served the score quite nicely. Great job!

    It's really very interesting to observe, with the passage of time, how each "conductor" distinguishes himself, so to speak. Everyone has a different approach with how they might shape a line or with the choices they make on overall pacing and timing. You guys are only getting better!!

    Thanks so much for sharing and for all the long HOURS of very hard work it took to bring these tracks to life. Clearly, the end results are worth every moment of your time-- and of 'our' time as well! What a treat! [:P]
  • G
    G
    William! Very well done! I enjoyed it from beginning to end, I love your use of brass in the low range and it sounds good, very evocative of the great operas, but also your orchestration in general is top notch, I love the coda!

    A piece worthwhile listening to. [:D]


    Jay,

    All my admiration for the way you balance all that, and quite complex in places, and make it sound so musical!
  • H
    H
    Finally found time to listen to thse today, and i have to say it was worth the wait.

    Jay, well done. It's like a timeline through your performance journey hearing all the work you've done, and the improvement that goes on from an already high standard. I once remarked that you have a good sense of light and shade, but this a step up from then. Wonderful control overall, and a delight to listen to.


    Bill my friend, the Prospice is stunning. JW made the comment about the texture of the voice, and related to a comment i posted not so long ago, about vocal texture, this is a just about a perfect match. Brlliant vocal control (Is ths Ferdi?), and a tone that is, well, just right for this piece. The pathos and drama in this would be overdone in the wrong hands, but both you and the vocalist show real class in balancing this performance. I remember you telling me to wait and be patient, when i asked about this work, and now i can hear why. I must also say at this point that the team of yourself, Deitz, and the soloist, is a potent one, and really makes this work at a profound level. I look forward to hearing more of this refreshing and original style of work.

    Well done to you both, and Bill, with the Prospice heard, that makes two stunning vocal works i've heard from formidably talented colleagues here.

    My continued admiration and respect to you all,

    Alex.
  • JBacalJ
    JBacalJ
    Great work, Bill! Very dramatic and emotional. This is a musical form that I haven't really heard before-- somewhere between opera, art song and symphonic movement.

    Could you post the words to piece here?

    Best,
    Jay
  • H
    H
    The words are placed in the "Description" area of the demo.

    best
    Herb
  • P
    P
    That would be Count Ferdinand von Plettenburg I presume. I couldn't stop thinking about James Bond while listening to this. The music and lyrics are like some sort of 19th century James Bond theme.

    Very good.
  • W
    W
    Guy, JWL, Alex, Jay and Paul - thanks, I appreciate your listening and encouraging words. Herb was really great to do the recording with the fine singer Ferdinand, and I really appreciate Michael Hula and Dietz working on it.

    That Howard Hanson is another excellent piece by Jay.

    I wanted to mention that the Prospice poem was written by Robert Browning after the death of his wife Elizabeth Barrett also a great poet, and refers to both the gloom of her death but also their love which was one of the great literary love stories. I think it is one of his best poems of all, though extremely short compared to his huge epic poems.
  • JBacalJ
    JBacalJ
    Thanks JWL, Guy, Alex and Bill for the kind support. It never fails to lift my spirits and keep me motivated.

    I also want to thank Herb for allowing me to share my current obsession with Howard Hanson. It took me nearly 2 years to get my hands on the score for his 6th Symphony which has never been published.

    JWL-- Thanks for noticing the non-traditional orchestral seating. From left to right it is: violins 1, cellos, violas, violins 2, with the basses behind the cellos. I "stole" this idea from conductor Gerard Schwarz. I really like how it sounds and plan to use it more often.

    Best,
    Jay
  • D
    D
    Wow great stuff from Jay and William. I must confess to being particularly thrilled by Williams piece since it's original. Nothing quite like hearing an original work for the first time. Such terrific writing there and stellar production.

    William and Jay, do you guys use much EQ on the Appas strings or not much in general? How (in what manner) are you using the Orch Strings along side the Apass? - as 2nd string groups?

    William once again I must ask about your huge low brass. Am I hearing Wagner tubas and C Tubas as well as C Trombone?

    Just sounds great you guys.
  • W
    W
    Thanks Dave. The low brass is the standard tuba and bass trombone with two tenor trombones. Though I have been using the ensemble trombones for 1, and the solo for 2 in order to maintain the number of players when doubling. Also there are some low horns in parallel octaves with tuba.

    I was lucky enough to have the masterful Dietz on this mix, so don't know the specifics of what EQ was done, though I thought his mix sounded fantastic.
  • D
    D
    Thanks William. It's one of the best things done with samples I've ever heard so it really shows what great orchestration and great engineering (wonderful there Dietz) do when they come together.
  • K
    K
    Jay, once again you have a fantastically realistic reverb going on in there. Can you share your secret? Like which Altiverb & mike placements?

    Kerry
  • W
    W
    I also have a question for Jay.

    I understand that the people who have the Howard Hanson symphony rights were reluctant to allow these recordings. How was this resolved? It is a fine performance.

    I was thinking how much I like these Howard Hanson works, and how he is a beautiful example of how the mania for atonalism in the 20th century destroyed many great composers. Another example is Franz Schmidt. I say that as someone who LIKES atonalism and loves Edgar Varese and in fact agrees with his radical statement that "12 tones must be abandoned" but at the same time, agree with Schoenberg that there is a lot of music still to be written in twelve tones and Howard Hanson was completely dismissed because it was assumed his work could not be any good because it was not dissonant. So I feel these unpublished symphonies should be performed complete, maybe with this approach of state of the art sampling, to bring them to new listeners who have been deprived of them because of the Neo-Classical prejudices of the 20th century.
  • M
    M
    Super Duper - Love it! [:D] Just emailed my comments.

    Miklos.
  • JBacalJ
    JBacalJ
    Kerry-- I used Mechanics Hall (thanks to Alex Temple for the idea) 20 m with the mute direct button enabled. Strings were 40% wet, Horns 50% wet, Woodwinds & Brass 60% wet. That's it.

    William-- I finally communicated with the manager of Licensing & Copyright at Carl Fischer. After answering his concerns, he was kind enough to give permission to do some virtual performances.


    Best,
    Jay
  • K
    K
    Jay, thanks for the tip -- I'm gonna give that one a shot next time. I keep defaulting to the Sydney Opera House, and the sound of it is getting a little tired.

    Really nice work.

    - kerry
  • C
    C

    Just thought I would bring this thread back. I have been listening to 'Prospice' quite a bit recently, and I can tell you that it holds up well under repeated listening. The composition really works well with the words. I always thought it would be very hard to put a poem written as poetry to music without sounding cheesey. William, you have done a masterful job of it. The orchestration is incredible, and adds so much to the composition. And the mix, Dietz, is fantastic. I know, I am using all my big praise words up on one post, but this piece diserves them.

    Bravo!

    Colin Thomson