Thank you for this rather fair and relevant comments. Maybe I feel like sometimes having reached a point closer to the goal than the 50% you concede. Iâm saying âsometimesâ cause the evening-filling* 25 songs unevitably represent different levels of realism and skills when using my VSL libraries and software, because they show different steps of a learning process. So listening to the one minute excerpts in that youtube video is a bit like studying a treeâs annual rings: although not consequently following the chronology of Mahler composing the songs, the story begins with the âLieder eines fahrenden Gesellenâ.
I dare to say that at least at great deal of my Wunderhorn songs (featuring strings as âDes Antonius von Padua Fischpredigtâ or not as âTrost im UnglĂŒckâ) might deserve a lighter sentence.
Confessing that itâs about sth. like learning by doing might sound like an unprofessional point of view, but the most professional decision would have been to keep my hands off the whole project, cause there was no commercial supply nor demand back in 2016 and there isnât today. I apparently still am what I was one year ago: the only one to ever make such Mahler âkaraokeâ as far as itâs orchestral. My instrument as professional is the piano, but adoring the orchestral songs of Mahler I used to devote to them as a bathroom singer becoming more and more sad for there was nothing like all the âMusic Minus Oneâ piano concertos I enjoy playing along with the orchestra even at home. So please note: I would not even have worked on one single Mahler lied if anyone else had already done the job.
And at first I did not confide in my patience to tweak the orchestral versions but would make do with the piano ones. But then I felt that itâs decidedly Mahlerâs genius and expressiveness as orchestrator which made me love the recordings Iâm familiar with for decades.
Since the time when I started I discovered a handful of piano accompaniments of different artistic levels spread over the internet, but even the complete songs as well done piano accompaniments would not have stopped me once being in the suction of the VSL world I had approached to after years trying to get along with hardware sample players or the Garritan stuff as part of âFinaleâ (notation software).
Now, as the whole project has taken shape, I know that it was wrong to push along the decision of buying the big string collections in addition to my âspecial editionâ libraries.
But, again: I do not deny that my results tell the story of a learning process.
To my experience one of the challenges dealing with the âspecial editionâ strings is the slow attack of the legato patches which often forced me to choose the rather unexpressive all-purpose âsusâ patches, especially when I needed looped samples for long notes. Maybe I should have achieved more subtle moments devoting to the editing features of the software (such as âenvelope time stretchingâ or âhumanizeâ) but maybe I thought that the âsynthieâ like sound is due to the reduced possibilities of the lower price segment. For the same reason I often preferred renouncing Mahlerâs portamenti rather than using the miaowing ones offered in my patch repertoire. Good to know that you like some woodwind moments: I often felt in trouble with the slow attacks of several clarinet patches too.
But keep in mind: Writing this self criticism I think of âWenn mein Schatz Hochzeit machtâ which is unforunately the very first song in the very first cycle and the very first...
I dare to pretend that some âWunderhornâ lieder benefit from having made some progressdealing with the challenges of making do with the special edition.
Spontaneously I should say âWo die schönen Trompeten blasenâ is one of the first songs I did and maybe reveals similar problems as the slower âwayfarerâ songs, but listening to all of my 12 Wunderhorn lieder, as a whole I feel much less like agreeing to what you say as if focusing on the Gesellen- or the Kindertotenlieder.
My Mahler is not yet ready. I did all of the 25 orchestral songs, but want to add the vocal symphony movements announced in my thread. The âUrlichtâ has taken shape, and it is the first one carefully approaching to my new possibilities having purchased the big âsolo string 1â collection recently.
Iâm still on my way (probably have reached less than 50%) discovering my new possibilities using the increased choice of string vibratos, portamentos â shortly: of all the things Iâd better had bought at the beginning instead of waiting until this June when VSL made them cheaper for one month.
Please keep in mind. As thereâs practically no supply nor demand I pay for my passion instead of being paid. As I said: It is âVerlorâne MĂŒhâ â a lost labour, but a love labour as well.
*Sorry for this germanism. Iâm afraid my english is full them.
