PART I:
THE FAZIOLI GRAND PIANO

My dream instrument was the Bösendorfer 280 VC. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single one in the whole of Berlin. Then I heard about a Fazioli308, was allowed to play it… and got goose bumps! So it became my instrument for the studio recordings.

It is always a dialog between the player and the instrument. Both listen to each other, inspire each other, become one with each otherin the most beautiful and best moments.

Sometimes I could really hear that Fazioli was enjoying going on a trip with me…

When he feels challenged in a beautiful way (taking off his elegant silk scarf and rolling up the sleeves of his cashmere sweater, so to speak) and explores and crosses sonic boundaries together with me that have never been appropriate for him in his classical self-image.

World-class grand pianos (Steinway, Bechstein, Bösendorfer) are the finest masterpieces of craftsmanship and sound artistry. The Fazioli also belongs to this select club in the piano Olympus.

The Fazioli is an infinitely elegant instrument.

If it were a car, it would be a Lamborghini, an Aston Martin or a Maserati.

I was looking for an instrument that could react to my playing in an extremely sensitive and complex way. Minimalist solo compositions are not about the (over)abundance of tonal information, but about the most expressive articulation possible of what is written on the sheet of music and should be played or heard.

I wanted a very soft, muted and yet clear basic sound. The instrument should be able to sing so well that it brings tears to your eyes, i.e. it should be able to respond to the slightest changes in touch with a differentiated sound.

I was looking for an instrument that could be modulated from the softest fragility to the most extreme limits on the threshold of tonal noise, while retaining a coherent sound in the overall picture.

I didn’t want a “Model D –clinical-objective/linear – reference resonance” of a Steinway, but a partner who is committed, who is permanently alive in terms of sound, who surprises me, who can take me with him when I take him with me.

Grooving elegance and lively grandeur,

beguiling softness in the treble and murderous energy in the bass ,

radiant, stellar transparency and dark, sparkling thickets,

reality on a sensitive scale from one to one thousand.

The Fazioli can do a lot of that. Also because I had a gifted sound engineer at my side in Martin Ruch and a gifted piano tuner in Marco Maria.

I was always surprised, in some moments almost overwhelmed by its sonic offerings: then it seemed to me as if I didn’t have enough computing power at my disposal to be able to fully process and convert everything that was coming at me in the present.

Imagine a blindfolded chess player playing thirty games simultaneously. You can reach the limits of sweet madness,

where the parallel realities begin to gently collapse and lose their material solidity and unambiguity…

You have to be able to live with this wing every day. That’s not possible, but it’s not so bad either, because:

1. a) can I do my part by practicing on the piano at home to give him
2. b) to be a little closer to ear level the next time we meet again for a recording session.

No problem at all: in concert as in the studio, the path goes on and on and on; that’s wonderful and it applies here as in all other aspects of life:

The more to find out, the more there is to know!

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PART II:

IN THE STUDIO

or:

THE DIFFICULTY OF FINDING THE BALANCE BETWEEN THE DEMANDS OF A STUDIO RECORDING AND LIVELY REPRESENTATION

A studio recording is a lasting REFERENCE. It is the documentation of a present state. It compresses a certain period of life. It is a reflected, valid statement. It is an inventory.

Of course, it should achieve an optimum of coherence, but without freezing into perfection and coming across as over-stylized, over-controlled or over-ambitious. It is very important to always keep in mind what you can and, above all, what you CANNOT do when it comes to assessing your own abilities as a performer.

Unbelievable but true: Nowadays, almost EVERY bar of classic hi-end recordings is cut and edited to create a TOTALLY flawless and perfect end product.

My aim must be to create a combination and compatibility of these demands and playful lightness, joy, inspiration, experimentation, favor of the moment, openness and inner freedom during the sessions.

Pure perfection is machine inviolability, liveliness means human vulnerability. And I think you can live with being vulnerable.

On the one hand, you have tonal ideas in your head; concepts of how the individual pieces should sound; on the other hand, a grand piano like the Faziolia, due to its delicacy in combination with a precise recording technique, offers you something every second that you immediately register, with which you resonate and to which you react.

Sometimes it hits exactly what you want, sometimes something completely different. Then, as you continue to play, you are surprised and have to decide in real time (or later when listening back) whether you let yourself be taken into the uncertain new territory or whether you try to get back to your original idea.

Every note, every sound played creates images, colors, memories, mental states, feelings on different meta-levels – all at the same time as the motor processes on the one hand and the cognitive-conceptual processes on the other.

In the studio, there can be no absolute ideal recording , but there are almost infinite possibilities of what could be ideal – and what, of course, cannot be sustained note for note in reality.

In the studio, you experience the entire range of emotional states:

You experience moments of absolute calm, intimacy and immersion in sound.

You experience moments of absolute frustration, despair and helplessness at not being able to get a piece or a certain passage of a piece to work the way you want it to.

You experience moments of absolute happiness in those moments when you get it “absolutely right” (expression, mood, precision) while playing. Or in the moments when you critically listen to a certain take or a cut between different takes in the control room in agreement with the sound engineer and are certain that it fits!

The studio time in March was a sensationally exciting, instructive and happy time. Now I’m taking a deep breath until the final mixes, which we’ll be creating at the beginning of May.

The next step after that: the exact HOW, WITH WHOM AND WHEN of the album release.

Good times in the very Now – Exciting times ahead – I`ll keep you informed!