The Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op.30 by Sergei Rachmaninoff has long been regarded as one of the most difficult concertos in piano repertoire. In addition to the considerable technical demands the piece makes on the performer, the work also presents formidable musical and interpretive demands. Synthogy is pleased to present the entire first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, performed by German virtuoso, Volker Rogall, playing Ivory Italian Grand, and accompanied by Andreas Olszewski with the Vienna Symphonic Library. The astonishing result ranks as one of the most ambitious sampled orchestral recordings ever attempted, not only for its length and breadth, but also because it attempts to achieve such a high level of authenticity. The performers weren't permitted to favor certain notes or omit expressive markings because of strengths or weaknesses of the virtual sounds. The exclusive goal was to be true to Rachmaninoff's work, down to the last ritenuto, leaving it to the instruments and these performers to rise to the highest of performance standards.
Listen to this exciting new recording of Rach 3 with the playback controls above or by visiting our Italian Grand audio demos page here.
We are also pleased to present two exclusive artist interviews with Volker Rogall and Andreas Olszewski, conducted by Synthogy Co-Founder, Joe Ierardi. For a more in depth look at the project, you'll find these interviews reveal the techniques, challenges and decisions made by the artists as they created the work.
Volker Rogall Interview
Volker Rogall, (b. 1957) is a pianist and composer from Köln, Germany.
He studied in the Masterclass of Pavel Gililov at Musikhochschule Köln.
Since 1976 he has performed many concerts throughout Europe.
He has also been featured in jazz recordings with many European musicians
His list of credits also includes Soundtracks for Film and TV. He is currently the
owner of "Ivory Studio Cologne".
Joe Ierardi: How did you decide upon the choice of Rach 3 for this project?
Volker Rogall: The first time I listened to Rach 3 was in the early 60's, when I
was a child and my father a proud owner of a brand new hifi-system. There he
listened to Gustav Mahler, Tschaikowsky and Rachmaninoff, and my poor soul
and fingers had to practice Bach again and again. At this time I didn’t understand
the emotions and complex scores of this late romanticism.
In 1978, when I had already studied at the Musikhochschule Cologne, I watched
the Live Concert at Carnegie Hall with Vladimir Horowitz and Eugene Ormandy
on TV. This concert deeply thrilled me and accompanies me until today. I
learned and developed the Rach 3 score at the end of my studies in the
masterclass of Pavel Gililov, a former Winner of the Chopin Competition in
Warsaw. After several performances in Germany, England and France, I always
felt the desire to be pianist and conductor in 1 person because of the timing
problems, which often happen in this concert. I do not know any other piano
concerto, where accelerandi or ritardandi are written in such a frequent way.
When I first played Ivory, I immediately thought about the great opportunity to
realize Rach 3 in a manner no one did before: recording this concert with Sample
Libraries, a real challenge with enormous suspense. And I finally found Andreas
Olszewski, a great musician and conductor to accompany me.
This was a very ambitious project. Had you ever attempted anything like
this before with virtual instruments?
No, I only realized solo projects. Of course I did use Ivory for several film score
projects, but never before for recording a piano concerto. This is the first time,
and I think the results speak for themselves.
Did you feel that Ivory Italian Grand lends itself well to this work, and in
what way?
Of course, The Italian Grand is superb by enforcing his power especially in the
treble. Rach 3 is mostly quiet, but when it explodes, power is needed. Italian
Grand didn’t abandon me.
What other advantages are there to using Ivory in recording a work for
piano and orchestra?
First of all, you have the possibility to play Ivory and simultaneously listen to the
accompanying music. Ivory in my opinion is the best piano on the market for
simulating the feeling of a real grand piano. Our midi-world makes it work.
What were the big challenges you anticipated before you began the
project?
Will I find someone, who really loves this concert like I do? {laughs}
What was the process like working with Andreas to get the piano and
orchestra parts together?
In our case we worked serially. My piano score was in front, meaning that
Andreas had to follow me in each timing constellation... and he did so
fantastically!
Were there unexpected challenges that you encountered after you started
working on it?
It wasn’t really unexpected, but I had to think about how the orchestrator might
be able to work to my real time played track. Of course you cannot record such
music with click. Andreas just had my recorded tracks, which were all the time
getting faster or slower. Even though he had the score, without the possibility to
watch me playing, how will he adjust the orchestra to the constantly changing
tempi? So I created a human conducting.
Can you tell us something more about this human conducting that you
created?
When I had finished the final recording, I opened a new track just for the
conducting and recorded a real time click-track following my piano score with all
ritardandi and accelerandi. This was the best thing we could do, because I knew
exactly what I did in the piano part, and for Andreas it was quite comfortable to
follow. Of course Andreas still had to watch the piano score, but he could be
certain about the timing, when he followed this "virtual conductor " during
recording the orchestra instruments.
How different was it to prepare the piano part for this project versus
preparing for a performance with a live orchestra?
I had to check out first if this special piano score is somehow possible to realize
on a masterkeyboard. It's hard enough to play on a good grand piano, but after
some attempts I felt it worked. The biggest problem playing classical music on a
masterkeyboard is that you must try to behave physiologically like playing a real
grand piano. If you are forced to give up your manner of playing, it will sound
terrible.
Is the cadenza original or improvised?
Nothing improvised. I did change two notes, you might find out which ones they
are. {laughs} I chose the small cadenza because of the consequent
development. The big cadenza anticipates the culmination too early.
Did you prepare more than one cadenza? How did you decide upon this
one?
Earlier I thought about switching between the two versions, it could have been
quite effective. But then I decided to follow Vladi. Even better. ;)
What was it like to collaborate with Andreas? How did you coordinate
your efforts?
Well, it was quite easy working with him, because from the beginning I sensed
from him a strong responsibility and a great desire to demonstrate this unusual
masterpiece as well as possible. We were in touch by phone or email during the
time he did the orchestration. We also discussed everything before he came from
Vienna to Cologne for the final mixing. The days we had in my studio were
wonderful and relaxed, what mixing should be after all the recordings.
Tell us about the final mixdown. What was the process for deciding upon
the balance of the instruments?
We decided to use the VSL Vienna Suite, which Andreas has used for all
orchestral works. I had already prepared the depth of the orchestra with VSL, so
we saved a lot of time.
What is the main difference playing a sample-based piano and a real
grand?
Of course you cannot manipulate the tone in the same manner that is possible on
a real piano, and much depends on the masterkeyboard that you use. If you have
a surround system, you can also simulate the space which you have sitting in
front of a Grand Piano. And this works perfectly with Ivory.
What are the technical secrets of playing a sample-based piano to make it
sound like a real one?
You have to understand, most importantly, that Music never stays in the same
dynamic level. Each phrase has a development, from note to note. When you
play in this intention, it will never sound static. And to keep this flow you should
behave physiologically like playing a real piano.
Some Technical questions
What controller do you use to play Ivory?
My one and only Yamaha KX88!
What computer do you use to run Ivory?
A Mac Pro with 4 GB RAM.
What host software did you use to record the parts?
I use Logic Studio 8.
What software did you use for the final mixdown?
Only Vienna Suite and Logic.
What other equipment do you feature in your studio?
Ivory Studio Cologne is specialized for Piano Recordings. We work with Shoeps,
Sennheizer and Neumann Mics. We use several preamps like DAV or Tube- Tech.
Converters by Apogee and RME. UAD-2 Plugins, Tascam US 2400
mixing controller, Genelec monitor control. Steinway B Grand Piano.
Thanks for taking the time to share these insights with us, Volker!
My pleasure!
Andreas Olszewski Interview
visit Andreas' home page
Joe Ierardi: Tell us a bit about your background?
Andreas Olszewski: I grew up near Salzburg, Austria in a musical family. My
parents sang in a choir and my brother, sister and I learned instruments. At first I
learned drums and played in various local rock bands. Later, when I was about 20
and still taking lessons in drums and percussion, I joined Ludwig Nussbichler’s
composition class at the music school, which was quite an eye-opener for me. Soon I
made music for some student films and for a theater play, which I produced entirely
with sample libraries and software synthesizers.
After moving to Vienna I spent less time making music because I had some other
priorities, but after starting to work for Vienna Symphonic Library in 2002, I felt the
need to create my own music getting stronger again. So in 2004 I started to study
composition at the Vienna Conservatory with Christian Minkowitsch. My pieces get
played regularly here in Austria. Through my work for Vienna Symphonic Library I am
in the fortunate position to know these sample collections very well and can use them
as if I played all the instruments myself. In addition to my own compositions, I work
as an orchestrator for various productions, and commercially as well for
advertisements.
Had you ever realized a Piano Concerto with virtual instruments prior to this
project, or collaborated with a pianist in this manner before?
No, I hadn’t.
So this was kind of a new experience. What was it like to work with Volker?
It was great to work with Volker. He is a very affable person. We understood each
other very well on both a musical and personal level. We both wanted this project to
be as good as possible, and the passion that he had for the music and his work
carried over to me.
Volker described one of the biggest challenges in realizing this score to be the
constantly changing tempi, ritenuto, accelerandi, etc. Did you find this to be
true? How did you handle this challenge?
That indeed was a big challenge. Volker sent me his piano tracks in two versions.
The first one was only piano and the second one was the piano plus a click track
following the tempo changes he recorded. With the help of this click track I could
transfer all the tempo changes to my Cubase project. That was quite some work, but
after that was finished, working on this project was so much easier.
What was it like to follow his 'human conducting' track? Did you ever work like
this before?
No, I haven’t done that before. For this project I think it was necessary to do it that
way. Volker has a long history with the Rach 3, so he knows every note exactly and
has an inner feel about the timing of the piece. This inner feeling I had to make my
own during the working process. If you are new to that piece and have only the piano
track to listen to, it is very hard to feel the beat during some fast passages. So his
“human conducting” track was a great help.
What other challenges did you find when working on the score?
My own personal challenge was that I wanted to be as true as possible to the score. I
wanted the listeners to be able to hear every detail that Rachmaninoff had written.
That normally is not possible when classical works get performed or recorded.
Did any particular section of the piece stand out as the most difficult to
execute?
I did not find any section more difficult than others, but I think some parts are more
delicate than others. Whenever the instrumentation gets sparse, I had to be very
careful that the instruments have the right phrasing, because every little detail can be
heard then. For example the woodwinds in the middle of the piano cadenza need to
be very lyrical and gentle during their solos. So in this passage I had the task to be
the flute, oboe, clarinet and horn player and not just the orchestrator.
Did you have any experience with Ivory prior to this project?
No, except hearing some of the great demos on the homepage, this was my first
contact with Ivory.
Describe the mixdown session from your perspective. How did you decide
upon the balance of the orchestral instruments?
I tried to get the balance of the orchestral instruments as even as possible before the
mixing session. There are so many interesting little tidbits by various instruments
which I fell in love with. I wanted to make them all audible by accenting them
whenever I felt the need to. During the mixing session in Cologne we only had to
make slight corrections with the mixing automation to bring things more upfront or to
the background. Fortunately this was very easy, as Volker and I fully agreed which
phrases and instruments are important to the various passages. I think we had the
same result in mind during the whole process.
As a composer, do you find great value in realizing the works of the great
masters in this manner?
Yes indeed. Through this project I now can say I learned how Rachmaninoff
orchestrated for the orchestra. His way of giving little solo spots to the wind
instruments is very beautiful and inspiring at the same time.
Technical questions:
What computer do you use for your work?
I used two Windows PCs in a local network to realize this project. A Pentium M with
2.14 GHz and 2 GB RAM was the host computer with Cubase 4.5 as DAW. The
second computer, an Intel Core2 Duo with 2.5 GHz and 4 GB RAM, served as a
slave in a Vienna Ensemble 3 network connection.
What sequencing or DAW software do you use?
Cubase 4.5 for the Rachmaninoff project. In the meantime I’ve upgraded to Cubase 5.
Any other outboard hardware or software that is important to your production?
The orchestra was entirely realised with the Vienna Symphonic Library Symphonic
Cube, which is a collection of 10 sample libraries. The EQ and the reverb (Vienna
Convolution Reverb) we used during the mixing session are part of the Vienna Suite
plugin package. For the room ambience with the Vienna Convolution Reverb we used
the Grand Concert Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus.
