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Article - Visiting Prague
Geoff
Leonard
Visiting
Prague was once again a wonderful experience. And even though the
days were almost exclusively taken up by the studio sessions, we
still found time to visit some excellent restaurants in the evenings.
The
visit began early for me as I needed to catch the 3.15 a.m. train
from Bristol to Heathrow Airport (coach from Reading), hence I had
no sleep either that night, or indeed very much the following night
in the hotel. It’s an odd thing, as you would think that tiredness
would automatically kick in, but it didn’t work for me. In fact,
I never really slept well on any of the nights in Prague, nor even
on my first night back in Bristol. But gradually I’m getting back
into the normal pattern of things.
Anyway,
there was no problem with the train and coach, though it was a little
cold at 4.45 a.m. outside Reading station waiting for the driver
to let us in! The coach was surprisingly full, but it did have to
drop people off at all four Heathrow terminuses. On arrival at terminus
2, I had to collect my foreign currency, which turned out to be
a right pain and took almost half an hour due to the incredible
stupidity of the staff at Travel X. I moved down to check-in and
soon spotted Rickie Clarke from Silva, who was to be our score reader
during the sessions. He had arrived from the nearby hotel with Nic
Raine who was now busy parking his car. Chief Engineer John ‘One
Take’ Timperley soon appeared and when Nic joined us we queued for
our boarding passes and checked-in our luggage. James Fitzpatrick
had flown out the day before, incidentally.
The
flight was uneventful and on time, and I had a few hours to relax
before the first session began at 5 p.m. Unlike JT, who had to spend
6 hours setting up his equipment in the studio!
I
was pleased to recognise many familiar faces amongst the orchestra
and the first session began with ‘The Lion In Winter’. I thought
at the time, and James confirmed later, that it’s always a nervous
moment when they start. This was no exception and my heart sank
a little, as they seemed ‘all over the place’ with certain sections
of the orchestra playing at different tempos! But this was just
a warming-up exercise, apparently. By the second or third attempt
they sounded much more like it, and soon we were ready for the first
recorded take. I think the orchestra numbered around 70 for the
Barry sessions and they sounded terrific. Of course, for both ‘Lion’
and ‘Last Valley’, it’s difficult to judge how effective the recording
has been, since the choir is missing and will be added later on
in London. But everybody seemed highly satisfied with this first
session, so this was a good omen.
The
Last Valley was next up on the schedule and with the orchestra now
fully in a ‘Barry’ mode, they sailed through it with aplomb and
confidence and with the suite from Mary Queen of Scots also going
smoothly, we began to get ahead of schedule. This was sure to prove
useful when the orchestral had to tackle more complex material from
Newman and Tiomkin later on.
My
own day or days was Friday and Saturday with the recording of Robin
& Marian. On the flight out I had mentioned to Nic that this
year sees the 25th anniversary of the film, which is
sure to prove a useful marketing tool for the CD. Once again, the
orchestra proved more than equal to the task and despite a few retakes
being necessary for ‘noise’ in the studio, the scheduled session
for Sunday morning proved almost superfluous, there being just one
cue left to record. By now we had been joined by Mark Ayres, who
was having three of his compositions recorded by the COPP. One of
these, ‘Meg Foster’, contained challenging variations in style and
tempo – and the orchestra seemed to find this rather stimulating.
They were smiling a lot, anyway.
The
majority of Sunday and Monday were given over to recordings by Alfred
Newman, Max Steiner and Dmitri Tiomkin, but there was also time
for themes to Hannibal (Cassidy), Young Sherlock Holmes (Broughton)
and Sunshine (Maurice Jarre). The latter required the presence of
a Cimbalom. This was a special moment for me as I never previously
seen one of John Barry’s favourite sixties instruments. In fact,
I enjoyed Jarre’s composition very much, and it was this melody
that remained in my head during the somewhat tedious plane journey
home. I took some video film of many of the rehearsals for all the
sessions, though annoyingly my Lion In Winter one has disappeared!
Newman’s
Street Scene was a real treat both to hear and to see played. By
now the orchestra had swelled to a 90-piece, and included five sax
players! Nic took a lot of trouble with this piece and I think the
end result justified him entirely. I have to say that it must have
been a little out of the ordinary for this orchestra but they looked
to be having a really good time. Other themes recorded included
‘Nevada Smith’, ‘20th Century Fox Fanfare’, ‘Captain
From Castile’ (also wonderful), ‘Anastasia’, ‘Duel In The Sun’,
‘Bonanza’ & Gunfight At The O.K. Corral – another highlight.
I
suppose it will be some time before I hear any of this music in
the comfort of my own home, but at least I have the videos and some
reasonable photos. I have to mention and pay tribute to the expertise
of the entire production team which made things go so smoothly,
led, of course, by James Fitzpatrick. He occasionally seemed to
hear tiny little imperfections in the playing that I missed, necessitating
another take, but as he said "You have to do these things properly"!
One
amusing moment came when one of the percussion team, I think it
was Tony, was asked to give us a little more from his cymbals. He
replied that loud noises frightened him. And he had no answer when
Nic asked him in that case why had he become a percussionist!
I
mentioned the restaurants earlier. During one evening in one we
were approached by an American gentleman who had heard us talking
about music and wanted to know who we were and what we were recording.
We said we were recording film music and his eyes seem to glaze
over a little. We then gave a little more detail by mentioning Max
Steiner, Alfred Newman, John Barry & Dmitri Tiomkin etc., but
he still seemed somewhat disinterested. He said he was the principal
clarinettist with the New York Philharmonic, and I suppose it's
just possible he was not familiar with much film music - golden
or silver age. His wife had a few words, too, and it turned out
she is also a clarinettist.
A
night or two afterwards in a different restaurant we were approached
by another gentleman, this time from England, I think. He, too,
had heard our musical discussion (we must have loud voices) and
in particular caught a reference to an engineer named Keith Grant,
who is quite well known around the London studio circuit and Olympic
Sound in particular. He immediately adopted a sneering attitude
when he made the assumption we were recording music in Prague 'on
the cheap', but apart from saying he was a musician who had recorded
with Grant "many times", he refused to identify himself. I didn't
like him very much.
So,
an enjoyable and successful trip. I wonder if there is any Barry
music left to record now? Something will turn up by this time next
year, I’m sure. In the meantime, I’m sure James & co. will be
returning before then to finish off what didn’t quite fit into these
sessions.
Geoff
Leonard |
