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James Rotondi "The orchestra is a floating body," says Ottmar Liebert. "That's the beauty of it—and it's also what makes an orchestra so difficult to perform with." Liebert, best known for his wildly popular "Nouveau Flamenco" recording with his group Luna Negra, recently recorded the lovely Leaning Into the Night (Sony Classical) with a full orchestra conducted and arranged by Brazilian guitar maestro Oscar Castro-Neves. The record combines a classical repertoire from Mompou, Villa-Lobos, Ravel, Puccini, and Satie with orchestrated versions of Liebert originals. Accustomed to "playing with a heartbeat groove where you're either in the groove or you aren't," Liebert's greatest challenge in playing with the orchestra was adjusting to its shifting tempos--particularly on compositions filled with ritards, accelerandos, and syncopations. "Satie's 'Premier Gymnopedie,' for instance, sounds simple, but whenever you try to be clever by adding a ritard or extra sustain, the piece just falls apart." Liebert also had to train himself to expect the unexpected. Before he performed Villa-Lobos' modulation-rich "Prelude No. 3," for example, he was warned by a classical guitarist friend that "Villa-Lobos loved his rum. he'd start composing and drinking, so further into the piece you get these sudden twists and turns." In order to achieve the full, robust tone he found missing in many of the guitar concerto recordings he researched. Liebert recorded most of Leaning Into the Night in an isolation booth, while the orchestra performed in the main room at L.A.'s Ocean Way studios. He close-miked his Keith Vizcarra-built Flamenca negra (cedar top, Brazilian rosewood back and sides) and Eric Sahlin-built Flamenca Blanca (cypress back and sides) with a Neumann U47. Both guitars feature Vizcarra's patented "V-Peg" design, a geared friction, 1-to-4 ratio peg modeled on traditional classical guitar pegs. Liebert claims the design yields tonal benefits as well as tuning ease. For strings, Liebert prefers D'Addario's Pro Arte EJ46C Composite. While he admits to not being a tutored classical guitarist, Liebert nevertheless enjoys moving in different musical worlds. In addition to his work with Luna negra, he has played on cuts by Celine Dion, Diana Ross, and Kenny Loggins, and has also performed on ambient and hip-hop projects. Still, he confesses that invading the classical domain has its spiritual as well as musical challenges. "Villa-Lobos makes you feel uncreative by comparison, he shrugs. "Maybe I need to drink more rum." |