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Here are my Notes as the Producer, plus more...

Posted by John Marks (M) on October 2, 2015 at 18:26:28

In Reply to: RE: RMAF: Grace Design Giving Away a John Marks 24/96 track--here's the Dropbox key posted by samac on October 2, 2015 at 17:05:58:

Dear Scott,

First off, thanks for your kind words, which I will pass on to Steve Martorella.

And please call me John!

Alexander Scriabin: Prelude, op. 11 no. 15
Stephen T. Martorella, Steinway piano

NOTES FROM THE PRODUCER: JOHN MARKS

I wanted to add musical variety to the CD project I produced and engineered to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the founding (in 1638) of the First Baptist Church in America. So, I asked Minister of Music Steve Martorella to play one of Scriabin's solo-piano preludes. Scriabin's preludes are very much the kind of music Steve often would play before or after the service, as a prelude or a postlude.

The op. 11 pieces were a delightful new discovery for Steve, and we quickly settled on no. 15, in D flat. Popular-music fans with long memories (and a knack for trivia) might recall that a fragment of Scriabin's D-flat Prelude served as the introduction to Michael Murphey's 1975 radio hit "Wildfire," which in due course was certified by the RIAA as a Platinum record.

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1871-1915) is remembered today primarily for a small number of orchestral pieces or the curious fact that he experienced synesthesia, that is, the perception of musical tones as colors. Later in life, Scriabin was influenced by the Symbolist movement (as well as by the belief system Theosophy), and, independently of Schoenberg, he developed an atonal compositional language.

Scriabin's early piano pieces, however, are strictly tonal. Scriabin's early compositional style is in the Impressionist vein, but also evidencing the greatest admiration for Chopin. Scriabin's op. 11 no. 15 is a graceful tendril of melody suspended over pensive, slow-moving chords. Consisting of only 27 measures, op. 11 no. 15 is as memorable, as it is brief.

I recorded Steve in the Auditorium (the worship space) of the First Baptist Church's Third Meeting House (1775-1776). The Auditorium is 80 feet square; I estimate the highest part of its barrel-vaulted central ceiling section to be 56 feet. Despite having a horsehair-plaster ceiling, the reverberation time in the room is a bit tight. To make the sound less dry, a helper and I removed all the pew cushions, which just about doubled the reverberation time.

In order to get a realistic portrayal of the piano's being in a three-dimensional space, I used Coles' model 4050 stereo ribbon-microphone array in a Mid-Side disposition. I adjusted the M-S matrix control on the Grace Designs m201 microphone preamplifier/Analog-to-Digital converter so the Side-facing microphone contributed 60 percent of the sound, while the Mid-facing microphone contributed 40 percent of the sound. The microphone stand was approximately 9 feet back from the side of a golden-era Steinway, with the microphones at a height just below the highest part of the piano's raised lid.

Although this 24-bit, 96kHz track "sounds quiet," its peaks are circa -4dB, resulting in an uncompressed dynamic range of approximately 40dB.

v. 1.5

# # #

There's a bit of a problem with Scriabin recordings because until recently he was hardly even a "minority enthusiasm." He was noted mostly for a couple of orchestral pieces and his neurological quirk.

I'd say the easiest and cheapest way to decide what you want to buy is to search on YouTube for his orchestral works (Pierre Boulez comes highly recommended) such as Poem of Ecstasy, and his piano works such as the several sets of Preludes. Scriabin's son-in-law Sofronitsky was one of his greatest interpreters, but AFAIK he did not get recorded in modern sound.

There's a highly-regarded live Richter recital of only Scriabin works, again in mono sound.

So, after checking out YouTube, choose some pieces and get recording recommendations from www.arkivmusic.com.


ATB,

John

• Scriabin @ www.arkivmusic.com.   (Open in New Window)

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