It feels like it has been a year since I participated in the Florida Orchestra‘s “Celebrate Delius” week in January, 2012 by singing tenor at the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay. The performance of Frederick Delius’ “Appalachia” and “Sea Drift” at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida was conducted by Stefan Sanderling with guest baritone Leon Williams. This live concert was to be a commercial CD by Naxos and indeed, it was finally released through amazon.com and iTunes (actual cd’s available for purchase too!) in September. For a while it got into the top five most popular releases in its category and I hope it stays there for a long, long time!
I am not going to write a review on Delius’ music or quality of the recording, etc. as many are more skilled to do this. Instead, let me dwell on the preparation process instead which, to me, was a significant personal undertaking and eventual contentment in itself:
I can’t exactly remember how many Tuesday nights the Master Chorale had to rehearse these pieces but I know there were not too many. I remember having to rush to USF right after work, skipping dinner just to make it to the 7pm rehearsals. Recording week was in January and before that were other significant performances. The ones I remember are “Carmina Burana” in October, a concert with Andrea Bocelli at the St. Pete Times Forum and Christmas Pops at the Straz, Mahaffey and Ruth Eckerd Hall where my winning piece, “Venisti”, was premierred. And then Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year had to happen too.
What amazed me was how the 150-member Master Chorale rehearsals were efficiently handled. The three hour Tuesday night rehearsals were just so promptly utlilized to the minute – from carefully prepared vocal warm-ups to sectionals to tutti rehearsals in the end. Each rehearsal also had to dwell on partial sections and passages and only towards the final rehearsals did we eventually sing the pieces in whole. These included preparation for other concerts as well! Hats off to MC’s conductor, Dr. James Bass and, of course, to Brett Karlin who was the assistant conductor. I am a conductor myself, but if I had to handle something like this, I would have ended up in a shrink’s couch in three weeks!
On the other side of Tampa, the Florida Orchestra, I’m sure, had to have the same intensive rehearsals.
Master Chorale had only two chances to make a perfect recording. One was a live morning concert recording and the other was a patch up recording for any problem areas that may have happened the day before. Both sessions were a bit scary. I normally do not feel this kind of pressure anymore, but knowing that this was a professional recording to be released worldwide made me feel a little self-conscious. Did I sing the right notes? Did I stick out? Was I loud enough? Did the mics pick up my burp?
In spite of these occasional bursts of paranoia, the concert recording went just so perfectly. Delius, Maestro Sanderling, the orchestra, the choir and Mr. Williams all cuddled up on stage on a wintery Friday morning and came up with a very heartful, masterful performance worthy of listening to again and again and again.
On a personal level, the Delius experience was utterly enjoyable and self-fulfilling, and eventually listening to the final mix (which I downloaded from iTunes) left me teary-eyed and feeling so proud to be part of such a huge and special undertaking! I wish I could do this everyday of my life. I’d skip any meal for something like this!
Buy the Delius CD
Click here to order the CD on Amazon
Click here to order the mp3 on Amazon
Click here to order the mp3 on iTunes
The CD is also available for purchase at the Florida Orchestra’s ticket center and during its performances.