Munich Bach Choir CD recording

Part of the original Magnificat score.
 From http://operamusicbroadcast.com/2009/12/16/morning-choral-work-bach-magnificat/

Last weekend we, the Munich Bach Choir, recorded a CD for the MBC's 60th anniversary.  (For a short history of the MBC check here.)  I have never been part of a professional recording before, and I must say, as much as I love singing in live concerts, CD recording is not so much fun.  Really painstaking in fact...

   The entire last week was filled with singing the Bach "Magnificat" and Cantata 147 "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben".  After very detailed rehearsals Monday and Wednesday, we performed concerts on Thursday in Munich and again Saturday in Pullach, just outside of town.  The concert Saturday was great fun -- in fact we all felt so pleased after the Saturday night concert that several of us stayed out for a quick beer afterwards, even though we knew we had to be at the recording studio the next morning, Sunday, at 9:15.  Ugh.  A beer was maybe not the smartest decision since the studio is a 40 minute train commute for me and I didn't get home Saturday 'til close to midnight, but with all the time the choir has spent together this month, people are noticeably friendlier, and I'm starting to feel much more at home in this group.  It was great to socialize a bit.

   Sunday morning then started with a 30 minute warm up, then two full hours of recording before our break.  There were microphones all over the stage, and no water bottles were allowed (!) or anything that might knock over and make noise.  The recording engineer (I think they called him the "Tonleiter") who sat out of sight in a booth above us was amazing:  he could hear every little thing, from one flat note in the 2nd sopranos to the cellos not playing their triplets exactly together.  He didn't stop us that often, but he did ask for certain parts to be repeated many times.  It's amazing to me that they can cut and paste different sections together so well (and he let our director know if he wasn't directing at exactly the same tempo) but having to stop and start and perfect various passages multiple times over was almost painful.  Interesting at first, but soon exhausting.
   At noon we had a two hour break, so that the orchestra could record their overture suite, but following that the technicians, who are unionized, needed to have their required one hour lunchtime.  So I got to know the center of Pullach pretty well (and several of us had a nice lunch in an Italian restaurant, which was about the only thing open on Sunday).  Then from around 2 to 3:30pm we blasted through the last couple movements with relatively little repeating.  I don't know whether we performed them better or whether the recording engineer was less picky, but the afternoon wasn't as painstaking as the morning.  We were certainly all on edge during the process, wanting not only to be exact, but to not have to repeat everything several times over!  One time during a good take, someone's cell phone went off in a jacket lying in the audience seats... arg.  I was glad it wasn't mine, since I realized with some adrenaline rush that I hadn't remembered to turn mine off!
   So, coming out next year, should be a pretty good recording of the Magnificat and Cantata 147, but until then I don't think I can stand to hear or see those particular pieces again.

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to the concert hall/studio, but just for the record, here is my score for Magnificat.

Now, this week, we're rehearsing the Bach Christmas Oratorio for a concert on Dec. 23rd in the Gasteig Philharmonie concert hall.  Members of the choir have sung this work every year, and thus most of them know the whole 6-hour Oratorio without even needing their score.  It's a wondrerful piece, and I know it from listening every year (it's Benjamin's favorite classical CD of all time), but having never sung it before, I had better keep practicing...