Finally...

It's finally happening. Back to the studio to record Brahms Cello Sonatas, and Sonatensatz and Songs with my frequent chamber partner Zuill Bailey. We're up at Oberlin College, recording for Telarc, with our grammy award winning dream team of engineer Bruce Leek, and Producer Elaine Martone and we start today... This has been a project we've long talked about and its great that it's coming to fruition. Today was a day full of photos taken by Lisa Marie Mazzucco, and final piano decision.... So it's been incredibly rich to have been practicing these sonatas for the past month, full of new discoveries. The work of recording is so unlike a performance in that not only does the whole of a piece have to be a gem, any moment, any second, split second that a listener wants to examine must as well be a gem, all facets revealed; so the practicing for such an endeavor is absolutely microscopic. Interestingly of course, Zuill has also spent a month working and we came together the last several days in Cincinnati, and both of us had the experience that certain things we had worked on and perfected in our individual cocoons, were absolutely useless together. That said, without jinxing anything, our work has gone well, and we're very much looking forward to it. I have a couple of other recording projects coming up, and I'll fill you in on those in the coming days. Also note the redesign of the website which is wonderful... and again,, i'll try to be more regular here, and look for some interesting video content in the next couple weeks as concerts start up again... all best ap

Comments

[Janet Smith]

Hve you seen the video of the 3 year old conducting Beethoven ? Have heard Awadagin did this, too,at the same age. Watch out ap- they're coming on fast !! You and Zuill will need to stick together to keep ahead of the game. But,never fear. You'll always be my 'first love' at the keyboard.Janet

[Janet Smith]

Eagerly awaiting March of next year. You told me at Elon that Telarc said that's when the new recordings would be available

[Debra]

I had the pleasure of listening to Awadagin's performance at the Bach in Mirmar, California. The chance to see him perform in person, was nothing short of magical. Awadagin performed variations of Bach and other composers. Mr. Pratt plays with such precision, such forcefulness, and most of all passion. The two encores were not enough. This was truly beautiful music at it's best.

[Chris Baker]

Being one of the lucky ones that caught your perform one of the Brahms viola sonatas that makes me very happy. Hopefully there will be some live performances to promote the recording. The second sonata is as much to be seen as it is to be heard.

[Pete Blackshaw]

Great to hear!

[Pam]

I am sure it will be a masterpiece. I can't wait.

[Tammy]

Yes… finally. Got wind of this impending union March of 08. Here’s to making it happen!!! Anxiously awaiting the end result.