on recording ❧ 73
could not judge from what I was hearing while playing what the sound on the
playback would be like. In the studio itself, almost nothing appeared to sustain
and I could sometimes judge from the movement of my fi ngers better than
I could hear with my ears the extraordinarily subtle gradations of dynamics
that these performances demanded. What was ultimately necessary was a kind
of triple hearing on my part; hearing in the inner ear of the ideal sound of a
piece; hearing what I was obtaining from the instrument; and fi nally, after end-
less experimenting, recording, and listening, hearing what the sound of the
playback would probably be like.
I had long since learned never to go into a recording studio without being
able so thoroughly to dominate my fi ngers that I might be prepared, on the
basis of what I heard in playbacks, to change immediately the scheme of
articulation, gradation of staccato and legato or of touch in any part of a
piece, or indeed throughout an entire piece. Thus, the fi nal version of the
D-minor Fugue presents a scheme of articulation to which I was led by hear-
ing playbacks, and which I carried into execution for the very fi rst time in
this one performance.
The work of these sessions, whether in recording or in listening to play-
backs, could never for an instant be allowed to fl ag from the highest pitch of
concentration: mental, nervous, and muscular. Except for a two-week break
during which I returned to Paris, it was almost impossible for me to consider
undertaking any other form of diversion. Either I was exhausted from a prior
recording session or I was sparing myself for the one forthcoming. The equi-
librium demanded of clavichord performance is so delicate and so perilous
that it cannot be exposed to the onslaughts of the ordinary world. Not once
during these two months did I make my presence known even to my closest
friends in Hamburg.
I now take up, for the fi rst time since I made them, my notes from these
recording sessions. I have not yet been able to bring myself to hear the fi n-
ished recordings, such was the abyss of utter exhaustion with which I associ-
ate them. The surviving notes appear to apply only to the fi nal versions in
their sequence, and to a handful of subsequent retakes. As usual, they are in
German and the comments run very much as in previous notes, except that
here there is much emphasis on quality of sound. The sound of the perfor-
mance, as I heard it in playback, closely represented my musical intentions.
A glance at my grading shows that it runs from ninety minus to ninety-fi ve. I
wonder what I would think now!
Over the years, I had learned to identify certain “takes” as “originals” and
certain “retakes” as more or less successful “copies.” Occasionally, I have been
wrong. Sometimes a performance that I expected to qualify as an “original”
turned out to be only a preliminary study, either because I was not fully warmed
up, or because certain problems had not been suffi ciently worked out. As far as
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rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
#1