Sir James

On St. Patrick’s Day I recorded the York Symphony Orchestra with soloist Sir James Galway, flute.  Though very long, the concert was a joy to record, and was even better today as I mixed the recording.

I’ve noticed as I watch more and more hockey that some teams play better when they play good teams, and play worse when they play teams with bad records.  Well, the same thing happened this past Tuesday evening.  The York Symphony was just great.

I knew James Galway was good, I’ve heard plenty of this recordings, but listening to him live was something different.  I had a microphone just in front of him, so I had the best seat in the house.  His sounicquality is just amazing.  To think he has been his entire life, as he is about to turn 70, and he is still rock solid.  That said, it blew me away that he stopped one movement because he was flat, and had the orchestra start over.  Others might blame the orchestra or try to hide it.  James just stopped the orchestra, apologized to the audience while making a joke and started the 2nd movement over again.

I bring all this up because most concerts that I record don’t stick with me all week long, but this one did.  It’s these types of concerts that make we want to record symphonies more and more often.  Now if only I could get on a recording for a CD release, that would be truly interesting.