Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Making of Venezia e Napoli

Soon it is time to release Venezia e Napoli.

Thinking back to how it started takes me back to my high school friend Udo, with whom I shared an interest in listening to classical recordings. Fast forward to running into each other many years later, and to making plans to produce a recording together. Udo now works as recording engineer for the Hessischer Rundfunk Corporation in Frankfurt, Germany. He knew of a great venue in Frankfurt with a German Steinway concert grand taken care of by a fantastic piano technician. August was the time we both could free up. It was also the time of the worst heat wave in Frankfurt. The heat was unreal, like a fever. Recording is an emotional and intellectual whirlwind of the most intense kind. The heat definitely contributed to it.

The German Steinway sounded miraculously beautiful, absolutely stunning, and the piano technician was amazing. As to be expected, Udo turned out to be a highly experienced recording engineer guiding the entire recording process. It was inspiring and fun to work with the team. We had two fantastic days of intense artistic work. The recording sessions were fueled pretty much exclusively by cookies (chocolate chip!). We had the venue for two days, and we recorded a lot of notes, so there was not much room to head out for food. Udo’s wife was wise enough to hand me a big bag filled with cookies on the morning of day one.  We finished them all.

Soon it's time to release the recording. All of us are thrilled about the product, and we loved the making of Venezia e Napoli. I hope you'll enjoy listening to the beautiful sounds created on those two hot days of music making!