Reviews

'As always, it was sheer pleasure to observe Robin Hill's remarkable fluent technique: everything looks easy when he plays it.' Colin Cooper- Classical Guitar Magazine ----- 'Wonderful for their (Hill & Wiltschinsky) precision, touch and clarity of sound... refined virtuosity, the achievement of a long interpretive process.' Il Giornale D'Italia (Rome) ----- 'I loved your CD and thought your technique and performance were fabulous...' Rick Wakeman

Monday, May 28, 2007

Domenico Scarlatti and the Honky Tonk Piano....

As we have been talking about 'incidents' in the recording studio, I remembered another one, that happened a few years earlier.
Again, it was Hill/Wiltschinsky, and they were recording an album in Yorkshire. 'Music of Europe'.
On this particular day, their attention was solely on Scarlatti's sonata K141.
This is a highly intricate toccata like movement which places severe demands on the players - especially at the tempo that Hill/Wiltschinsky perform it.
The duo pride themselves on their recordings being pretty much what you will hear in concert. No editing was done in this recording, the moment is simply captured again and again, until they are satisfied.
Due to the complexity of the piece the duo spent an entire day recording and re-recording this one piece.
As day turned into evening they tried one more time to capture the sound they wanted.
As the final note disappeared into the air they knew they had achieved their objective.
Both Robin and Peter have an uncanny telepathic understanding when it comes to music.
The relief, and release of tension was incredible, and Robin leapt up, ran to the other side of the studio, and thrashed out some honky tonk, on an idle piano.
"That was great", said the sound engineer, "You'll be pleased to hear I recorded it".
"I hope you didn't do it over the Scarlatti", replied Robin, joking.
Errr, whoops, he had......
What do they do? Shout, scream, jump up and down.
No.
The duo pick their guitars up and start all over again.

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