season to taste
Food and music are so much alike. Andrew got me this cookbook of French desserts for Christmas and so far my favorite recipe is the chocolate tart. Every time I've made it though I've changed little bits about it, like what chocolate I buy or how I do the tart shells. This time it came out particularly satisfying, with the tart crust buttery and almost chewy, and the chocolate creamy and soft. The first batch I made was pretty hard, with a crunchy filo dough shell, and that was a very interesting taste but it definitely didn't create the same impression. I'm not sure if it was the particular chocolate I bought this time, or the temperature of the room or what, but the consistency was very different. I also tried making larger tart shells this time with the leftover pie crust dough from the mini ones I made for the Lost finale party. I definitely have a thing for miniature stuff but oh my god. The larger one just tasted SO much better; probably because it bakes differently when there's more dough there. It tasted so much more buttery and flaky, whereas the miniature ones taste dry, even though they hadn't even browned. I plan to do them all in the bigger tarts next time.
Likewise, I'm listening to an mp3 I just downloaded of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, purportedly from the Fantasia soundtrack, because my other copy got lost in my hard drive crash. The file I had before was also just downloaded somewhere from the web and was kind of bad quality, with a little muddiness to it. I had heard that the quality of the Fantasia soundtrack was just not that great and there's nothing they can do to make it crystal clear like modern recordings, but that the particular performance of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra is so great that people buy it and love it anyway. But this file is so clear and crisp everywhere, especially in the glockenspiel and cymbals! You can finally hear that ridiculously hard glockenspiel part that is so often obscured in the craziness of the orchestra at that section. I wonder if it's just a better remastering of the track, or if this is even a different performance by a different orchestra, and not off the Fantasia soundtrack. (I'm buying it tomorrow so I'll find out eventually.)
It just goes to show that tweaking or mastering the recording of the same performance in a certain way can yield really different results, and each performance is even more different. Classical music lovers will buy several recordings of their favorite pieces because of these differences. I mean there are obvious ones like tempo and overall dynamics, but each conductor interprets the piece a little differently, and tells various sections to play in a certain way or play more or less than others. I'm not sure I can describe very well all the ways that it's different, but when you look at the conductor you just kind of read the emotion in the face and the gesture and then try to express that same thing in your playing. It's a very human thing. So is cooking, really. It's unique every time you make it and the best experiences come from a little spontaneity and impreciseness.
Likewise, I'm listening to an mp3 I just downloaded of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, purportedly from the Fantasia soundtrack, because my other copy got lost in my hard drive crash. The file I had before was also just downloaded somewhere from the web and was kind of bad quality, with a little muddiness to it. I had heard that the quality of the Fantasia soundtrack was just not that great and there's nothing they can do to make it crystal clear like modern recordings, but that the particular performance of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra is so great that people buy it and love it anyway. But this file is so clear and crisp everywhere, especially in the glockenspiel and cymbals! You can finally hear that ridiculously hard glockenspiel part that is so often obscured in the craziness of the orchestra at that section. I wonder if it's just a better remastering of the track, or if this is even a different performance by a different orchestra, and not off the Fantasia soundtrack. (I'm buying it tomorrow so I'll find out eventually.)
It just goes to show that tweaking or mastering the recording of the same performance in a certain way can yield really different results, and each performance is even more different. Classical music lovers will buy several recordings of their favorite pieces because of these differences. I mean there are obvious ones like tempo and overall dynamics, but each conductor interprets the piece a little differently, and tells various sections to play in a certain way or play more or less than others. I'm not sure I can describe very well all the ways that it's different, but when you look at the conductor you just kind of read the emotion in the face and the gesture and then try to express that same thing in your playing. It's a very human thing. So is cooking, really. It's unique every time you make it and the best experiences come from a little spontaneity and impreciseness.