"Live recording is always an unknown quantity as there are so many potential pitfalls. Apart from the obvious musical considerations there are the problems of extraneous noise from the audience and technical issues. These days equipment and techniques are very reliable but there is always scope for something to go wrong; we are human after all!
I remember attending a performance of Liszt’s ‘Christus’ in Westminster Cathedral many years ago, as a member of the audience. Seconds before the live transmission started the sling wire holding the main microphone across and over the audience became detached and the microphone fell stopping just short of their heads - I’ve never seen engineers move so fast! Thankfully Health and Safety and better techniques prevent such occurrences these days!
No such problems in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, though, certainly one of the world’s greatest concert halls and a very rewarding place to work. The hall ‘takes no prisoners’ though as the acoustic is ruthlessly analytical and the silences are truly silent!
Bach’s St Matthew also presents its own challenges. It is a very ‘bitty’ work with many short recitatives and choruses using different styles and forces. The performers are divided into two distinct groups left and right, Chori I and II, which are a virtual mirror image of each other. Then there are many small solos which are usually sung by chorus members from different areas of the stage, as well as obbligato instrumental solos played from within the orchestra. In addition there are large-scale arias from nine soloists and the whole work is unified by the role of the Evangelist, a solo tenor who tells the story of Christ’s Passion in recitatives. So in many ways it is a very ‘operatic’ work. It is also a profound dramatic, musical and spiritual journey, and a live performance gives the unfolding architecture an emotional depth that is very difficult to achieve in the sterile environment of the recording studio. This is what makes for such a rewarding experience."
