Marie Jaell - Piano works - WDR 3 broadcast

[britishcomposer]

Tomorrow, Sunday, 14 September, 1 pm, WDR 3 Musikhaus:
http://www.wdr3.de/programm/sendungen/wdr3musikhaus/musikhaus386.html

By the way, the same programme next week will feature Wüllner's Miserere.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Mathias, I'll try and record it, although the 18 Dante pieces were first broadcast last year, of course.

[Mark Thomas]

I uploaded the two short sets of six piano pieces yesterday and linked to Semi.Serio's previous upload of the same performance of the Pièces pour piano ,,après une lecture de Dante", which he'd recorded when they were first broadcast last year. However, I now see that his upload is unavailable at Rapidshare, so I've added to my post my own recording of the same broadcast of the Dante pieces.

[TerraEpon]

Unfortunetly the two pieces uploaded yesterday have horrible consistent clicking-like noises on them making them very hard to listen to. Haven't gotten to the new upload though.

[Mark Thomas]

Oh, sorry about that. Must be an mp3 encoding problem as the original recordings  are fine. I'll investigate.

[jdperdrix]

Thanks for your posts. Very interesting music. I didn't listen to all of them, but I haven't noticed any clicks... Just a very short blank at 2:47 in the "Valses".

[Mark Thomas]

I have checked the unzipped downloaded tracks, and I too hear no clicks. Anybody else have TerraEpon's clicking Jaëlls? If not then it may be an unzipping error. I have, however, rectified the short drop out in the Valses, thanks jdperdrix.

[TerraEpon]

Not sure how one could think it was an "unzipping error", such an error would produce unplayable files (or at least ones that skip everywhere).
The music itself is all there -- perhaps "horrible" was hyperbole, as the noise is quite subtle, but consistent and out of phase with the music. It's also there in the Dante piano pieces, but it's not on my end as nothing else I listen to produces it. Can I ask if anyone else listening is using headphones?
I also wonder if perhaps it's a high enough tone that I'm hearing it and others aren't because of that (I somehow have very good hearing range that despite being 36 I can hear tones people shouldn't be able to past their 20s....there was a hum in my old car that bothered me my father could not hear, for instance)

[Mark Thomas]

At 63, I'm probably too old both to hear it and correct it, then. 

[britishcomposer]

I was alarmed when I read TerraEpon's complaint. I have experienced similar faults with my recordings of internet streams for about a year now. First I thought it was the fault of my computer. I exchanged several hardware elements. Then I assumed that my slow internet connection was to blame. Consequently I changed the provider but the interferences remained. I have given up.

I hadn't listened to Mark's upload. I checked my own recording of the Jaell pieces and noticed the very slight, irregular but constant clicks. It's very slight indeed but you need not be a bat to notice it. Then I listened to Mark's recording and found the same clicking at the same moments. So it's most likely the fault auf the host who provides the stream, WDR in this case.

Just an aside: I am enervated by similar but louder noises when listening to Swedish Radio P2 streams. Once I recorded a piece and was so angry about the result that I played it again via the listen again service only to find the same clicks and noise at the same moments as in the live stream.

Can anyone explain all this?


Well, back to Marie Jaell.
Just listen to the first valse. A miniature for sure but what a strange inspired motive! I wouldn't call it a theme or melody but it is a fine evidence of her unusual talent of invention.
And listen how she works with it in such a short space, very unusual irregular phrasing. Yes, it's a miniature but a miniature of stature. Amazing!

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks for the explanation of the noises, Mathias. As for Jaëll, she's clearly a  fine, individual composer, I agree.

[jdperdrix]

With headphones, and being warned, I could hear extremely slight clicks... Almost inaudible to me... It could be a matter of individual sensibility (or age, I'm 64!) Very interesting music.

[vicharris]

I can hear what is being mentioned, but it doesn't really bother me, all of you who are over 60 like me surely must remember trying to record onto cassettes or reel to reels off the rare--at least here in US--radio broadcasts in the 70's until internet. Sometimes a whole other station would decide to intrude and I kept some of them in spite of it, assuming I would never have another chance to hear what was there. Anyway, I love everything I have heard by Jaell, would like to see how her orchestral works sound besides the wonderful (to me) piano concertos. I am listening without headphones, doing fine!

[Sharkkb8]

Might a less linguistically-challenged member than myself offer a pronunciation of the last name?
Gregory

[jdperdrix]

Spelling point: her last name is Jaëll, with the diaeresis diacritic (French "tréma"). This indicates that it has two syllables. The pronunciation is "zha-el".