on recording ❧ 71
tuner. Although he was as good as his predecessor in setting up an exact equal
temperament, his methods of tuning the unisons and octaves of the harpsi-
chord were hopelessly inadequate. Almost every fi ve minutes after the start of a
session, a red light would fl ash and the chief engineer would ask, as tactfully as
possible, if I heard anything wrong with the tuning. This was invariably a signal
for a rechecking of the harpsichord. It was impossible to replace the tuner, yet
the engineers felt that it would be unwise to dispense with him altogether.
For the rest of the summer I retuned most of his tunings; never could I
begin to record anything without fi rst thoroughly checking the instrument.
The instrument itself, having been reduced to a state of near hysteria by the
opposing tastes of its two tuners, and by the dampness of Paris dog days, ceased
altogether to hold a tune for longer than half an hour. Again and again, just
after launching into a challenging piece in the fi nest of fettle, I would be inter-
rupted by a query from the control room and obliged to stop and retune. It is
useless to do a patchwork job; the whole instrument must be rechecked. Then,
with whatever composure I could muster, I would begin again. Over and over,
the balloon of my inspiration was punctured by a pinpoint of red light fl ashing
from the control room. It was like having a fl at tire every hundred yards.
I have chosen to forget whether I exploded more than once, but on at
least one occasion, after innumerable starts and stops in the recording of the
D-major Prelude, I blew up with a violence that nearly demolished everything
within reach, including the harpsichord. Although the surge of inspiration
tempted me many times to go ahead as I would have done at a concert, credit
goes to the producer for never allowing me to record on a harpsichord which
was the least bit out of tune. On hearing the fi nished recordings, my astonish-
ment knew no bounds when I discovered that little trace of our diffi culties
could be detected, except in the A-fl at Prelude and Fugue with which, at the
time, I must have insisted on going ahead.
I have just opened the notes which I made during these recordings. They
bear the dates August 5 through September 9, 1965. The comments, like-
wise in German, are similar to those for Book I, but somewhat more detailed.
Since self-criticism was the order of the day, most of my comments are nega-
tive, with a view to exploring possibilities of subsequent improvement. But,
after thirty-two pages of this kind of commentary, I fi nd what appears to be
an assessment of the fi nal choices as heard in their proper sequence. It bears
the ironic title “Triumphbogen!”^2 The ratings range between 86 and 90, with
a preponderance of nineties. At that time, I felt that I could do no better.
Indeed, one of the results of long experience in making records is the ability
to recognize and to accept for better or worse what one can accomplish on a
- Literally, triumphal arch.
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