Book Review

The Unicorn Hunt
by Dorothy Dunnett

This is the fifth book in the House of Niccolo series. It's also the first book of the second half, and things are definitely different. Nicholas is a rather changed person in this volume - he's much more burdened by his responsibilities and endeavors, and much less happy, too. Although the lack of happiness has a lot to do with the fact that Nicholas' personal and professional intrigues and conflicts have become much more complex, involving higher stakes and greater dangers. This new mood as well as the lack of satisfying resolutions (it is the middle of the series, after all) made for a less satisfying read than the previous books. Overall, though, I am still very much enjoying the series as a whole, and although I was not satisfied by the ending, I was left with a strong desire to see where all of the plot threads lead and how they will be wrapped up over the remaining three novels.

Recording session

The recording session for The Floating Land was today after work. It went quite well. The performance wasn't completely flawless, but it was certainly much better than I would have gotten on a student concert or at a reading. Bryan and Susie were awesome. Bryan is going to do the editing and such, so I should have the sound files ready to burn to a CD within the next week.
We used Rear Window Recording Studio, which is in Brookline, right near Coolidge Corner. It's literally run out of the owner's large, rambling Victorian house. Their Steinway concert grand was a fabulous piano - I almost wanted to take it home with me. It had a great sound, and was the most wonderfully responsive instrument I've ever played. I'm used to having to work much harder to achieve fine dynamic shadings. The engineers were friendly and relaxed, and the studio itself was very comfortable. It was more homey than slick or industrial, but that was an advantage as far as I'm concerned. I don't play on stage anymore, so a room that emulates a living room is bound to make me feel more at ease.
I'd never done a professional studio recording before, so it was a very intersting experience. I was a little concerned that the situation would feel foreign enough to affect my ability to play my best, but that turned out to be unfounded. Maybe the great piano that I loved playing had a lot to do with that. One of the advantages of a recording studio, I discovered, is that you don't have to be able to play the whole thing in a single take. We played the piece in sections, and Bryan will be able to knit them all together. That, and being able to listen to a click track through headphones while recording takes a lot of the pressure and nervousness out of the process.