Our concerts were well received by the audiences. Look at the shot taken during the concert in the Tokaj performance hall. We had a very nice crowd in attendance. After the concert, Hungarian coffee was in order. In the photo, you’ll see members of the Remenyi Ede orchestra with the Maestro. Looks like he’s enjoying his caffeine!!
Our time in Hungary is coming to a close, and we are wrapping up our activities here. In the photo you can see the Maestro, Laszlo and Claudia working with the recording engineer in the Hungarian recording studio to make sure our newly cut CD is top rate. Of course, we’re making time for a little fun, as well, with a visit to the Tokaj vineyard cave. What a great way to produce wine – in a cave. And the wines are wonderful. The photo shows Laszlo exiting the cave with Arpod Balog, a string bass player from the Remenyi Ede Orchestra. If you look closely, you’ll see that they are enjoying the fruits of the Hungarian vine.
Not at the same time, of course !
This week we are spending long editing sessions with the recording engineer, Richard, to perfect the music that will be on our Summerfest 2011 compact disc. Maestro Brooks-Bruzzese, Laszlo Pap, and Claudia Cagnassone along with myself, are taking part in this process. First, we must listen to all of the “takes” of each of the musical selections (or portions thereof) and determine which is the best to use for the CD. Some of the takes might have tiny mistakes in notes or dynamics ( all 20 of us performing in the recording are human, and not perfect at the exact same time !). Once we determine the best takes, we can also select certain musical measures that were especially inspiring, and put them in place of those same measures in a different musical “take” that we might like better for another reason. This is a fairly long procedure, and our ears get a bit boggled. After all the takes are determined and finished, we then start to do the balancing in volume of each of the sections of instruments (because each instrumental section is recorded with individual mics). As a final touch, any needed reverberation is added to the overall sound. After all these decisions are made, the engineer incorporates all our decisions, and completes a final copy for making of the master. We must then listen to the overall product one more time, before the final master copy of the CD is made.
Maestro: “It certainly was a jubilant moment, when all the sections were complete, and we toasted with a small glass of tokaj in celebration of our work!”
As a break in these long editing sessions, we were treated this week to a visit to one of the vineyard houses in the Tokaj region, to learn how this exquisite wine is made. Our host was the father of Zoltan Ficsor, this year’s coordinator for the Remenyi Ede, and one of the violists in the Remenyi Ede Orchestra. Several members of the Remenyi orchestra joined our contingent of American musicians, for this outing. Our guide, George, took us deep into the cellars of the Vivamus Borhaz, which were lined in fungi (the good kind) providing the perfect level of humidity for the maximum aging of the grapes. We were treated to a tasting of 9 different versions of Tokaj wine, and learned that for the sweet version, the different “puttonyos” or “points” are based on the number of containers of crushed grapes allowed to ferment for the aging of each barrel. Puttonyos range from 3 to 6, with the higher numbers becoming more sweet – almost like a cross between a rich brandy, and a honey nectar. Then, of course, there is the aging of each level of puttonyos. Our favorite tasting, was that of a “5 puttonyos” that had actually been aged 18 years.
Following the Vivamus visit, we were treated to a dinner at an exclusive, private hunting lodge retreat, owned by a good friend of the father of Zoltan Ficsor. The lodge, named “Rokaberc” is a 35 minute drive on private road, deep into the hills of Hungary, in the region of Tokaj. Open to members and guests, it is has a beautiful dining area, and recreation facilities including an indoor pool, bowling alley, and various outdoor activities. A delicious dinner including homemade chicken soup, wild boar, and traditional cucumber salad accompanied by plenty of wine and Tokaj, was enjoyed by all. What a once-in-a-lifetime experience this day was !
The past two days have been concerts in two beautiful and historic performance hall settings. The first, the beautiful Bela Bartok Hall in Miskolc. This is a 100 year old building, and historic for many reasons –being steeped in musical history, but also because it houses the musical conservatory. This conservatory is one from which many of the musicians in the Remenyi Ede orchestra have graduated. A couple of the musicians did their senior recitals on this same stage nearly 30 years ago. The hall, recently renovated, is finished in wood throughout, and has wonderful acoustics. The orchestra performed to a sold-out house, and it was good to see a few of the musician members of the Remenyi who attended this concert, but will be unable to make the US tour this year. The music we performed included Vivaldi, Mozart, the Italian composer Vitali, the Hungarian composer, Weiner and the tangos of Astor Piazzolla. One of the tangos begins with a bass solo performed by Arpad Balog, who is one member of five in his family that have performed as a part of our Summerfest. His daughter is performing as a soloist this summer, and his brother Endre was a soloist with the Remenyi in Summerfest 2009, as well as on our Symphony of the Americas Guest Artist Series in 2010. There are seven members of this family that are professional musicians four of them cellists ! After lengthy applause, (which the Hungarians do in perfect rhythm), the orchestra finished the evening with an encore of the American composer, Aaron Copland – “Hoedown”.
Last night’s concert was in the famous vineyard town of Tokaj, about a 1.5 hour drive from Miskolc. The performance hall was actually a historic synagogue which again, has been recently renovated. The acoustics were very “live” to say the least, and we were hearing ourselves “echo” a bit throughout the evening. But the hall was full again, and the audience enjoyed the incredible virtuosity of this orchestra, which is under the very successful direction of Concertmaster Tamas Kriston. The varied musical program was enjoyed by all, some of whom drove from Budapest, just for this performance. Following the concert, the entire orchestra had dinner at a typical Hungarian restaurant in Tokaj before returning home.
The hotel where the musicians of our Symphony of the Americas are staying for this first part of Summerfest, is the Hunguest Hotel Palota, in Lillafured, Hungary – just a few miles from downtown Miskolc where the rehearsals, recordings and one of the concerts are taking place. The city’s families of distinction built their villas and resort houses here in the early 1900’s and the area was named for the daughter, Lilla, of Bala Vay, the director of the county. The internationally known Palota Hotel, built in 1930 was one of the most popular resorts of the elite in this era. A statue of Jozsef Attila stands in front, as a reminder that it was in this spot the one of the most beautiful love poems of Hungarian literature was written, the “Ode”. The hotel, set in the midst of the forest, overlooks the Hamori Lake, with its beautiful clear crystal waters (with a green cast because of the plentiful quartz). Activities include rowing in the summer and ice-skating in winter. Our schedule sometimes allows for a morning walk around the path of the lake before rehearsals. There is also a narrow gauge forest train which travels 30 km through the forest.
Today we had another recording session in the theater. Renee is contemplating taking up a different instrument in her next life. Pianists always have to guess at what kind of instrument will be available for them to play, and don’t have the pleasure of carrying their own like string players! “In the past three days, I have played the piano at the rehearsal hall, practiced on the piano in the corner of the lobby at the hotel (which I was allowed to do by the management as long as I did not make any noise (?), played the beautiful double-manual harpsichord at the performance hall for the recording, as well as their Steinway, and tomorrow for our first concert, will play yet another instrument, which I will be trying for the first time just a few minutes before the performance.”
Maestro attempted to find a dry cleaners today for a few of his shirts….. this project took several hours, asking many people along the way, Laszlo’s adept work at Google Earth. We finally realized there were only two in the entire city – one of which was at the Mall, which we finally found. To our dismay, there was no such thing as dry cleaning and no starch if they were to be laundered. All ironing is also done by hand…
After rehearsal, the musicians of the Symphony of the Americas were taken to dinner of typical Hungarian food, by a member of the orchestra who plays string bass and is a Board member, and whose daughter is a violin soloist in the Vivaldi this summer.
