This is a recording I made this week in St. Severin Church in Severin Strasse in Cologne. I am playing a concert there with the organist, Gert Schmid on this coming Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 11 a.m. I captured this on my mini-disk player to see what was going on with the acoustics, my playing and so on.

The very first note sounds like a big ugly splat - the church is HUGE and I think I was overcompensating. The first note and the first phrase are quite out of tune (check out the terrible fifths). I think I opened my throat way too wide and probably dropped my jaw and really *honked* into the horn. The opening phrase is repeated again at the very end and you can hear it sounds a lot tighter and a lot more in tune! Overall, I love how the phrases form chords in the long acoustic (although that acoustic is causing us other problems in other pieces).

What I learned form this: Remember to focus. Better to give tight air and a solid forte than produce a pathetic 'blastissimo.'

More to come!