Check out the screenshots below from the "Rach 3" session:

Interview with Volker Rogall by Joe Ierardi of Synthogy

Biography
Volker Rogall, (b. 1957) is a pianist and composer from Köln, Germany.
He studied in the Masterclass of Pavel Gililov at Musikhochschule Köln
Since 1976 he has performed at many concerts throughout Europe.
He has also been featured in jazz recordings with many European musicians
His list of credits also include Soundtracks for Film and TV.  He is currently the
owner of "Ivory Studio Cologne".

How did you decide upon the choice of Rach 3 for this project?
The first time I listened to Rach 3 was in the early 60's, when I was a child and my father a proud owner of a brand new hi-fi system.  There he listened to
Gustav Mahler, Tschaikowsky and Rachmaninoff, and my poor soul and fingers had to practice Bach again and again. At this time I didn’t understand the emotions and complex scores of this late romanticism. In 1978, when I had already studied at the Musikhochschule Cologne, I watched the Live Concert at Carnegie Hall with Vladimir Horowitz and Eugene Ormandy on TV. This concert deeply thrilled me and accompanies me until today.  I learned and developed the Rach 3 score at the end of my studies in the masterclass of Pavel Gililov, a former Winner of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. After several performances in Germany, England and France, I always felt the desire to be pianist and conductor in 1 person because of the timing problems, which often happen in this concert. I do not know any other piano concerto, where accelerandi or ritardandi are written in such a frequent way.

When I first played Ivory, I immediately thought about the great opportunity to realize Rach 3 in a manner no one did before: recording this concert with Sample Libraries, a real challenge with enormous suspense. And I finally found Andreas Olszewski, a great musician and conductor to accompany me.

This was a very ambitious project.  Had you ever attempted anything like this before with virtual instruments?
No, I only realized solo projects. Of course I did use Ivory for several film score projects, but never before for recording a piano concerto. This is the first time, and I think the results speak for themselves.

Did you feel that the Italian Grand lends itself well to this work, and in what way?
Of course. The Italian Grand is superb by enforcing his power especially in the treble. Rach 3 is mostly quiet, but when it explodes, power is needed. Italian
Grand didn’t abandon me.

What other advantages are there to using Ivory in recording a work for piano and orchestra?
First of all, you have the possibility to play Ivory and simultaneously listen to the accompanying music. Ivory in my opinion is the best piano on the market for simulating the feeling of a real grand piano. Our midi-world makes it work.

What were the big challenges you anticipated before you began the project?
Will I find someone, who really loves this concert like I do?  {laughs}

What was the process like working with Andreas to get the piano and orchestra parts together?
In our case we worked serially. My piano score was in front, meaning that Andreas had to follow me in each timing constellation... and he did so fantastically!

Were there unexpected challenges that you encountered after you started working on it?
It wasn’t really unexpected, but I had to think about how the orchestrator might be able to work to my real time played track.  Of course you cannot record such music with click.  Andreas just had my recorded tracks, which were all the time getting faster or slower.  Even though he had the score, without the possibility to watch me playing, how will he adjust the orchestra to the constantly changing tempi? So I created a human conducting.

Can you tell us something more about this human conducting that you created?
When I had finished the final recording, I opened a new track just for the conducting and recorded a real time click-track following my piano score with all ritardandi and accelerandi. This was the best thing we could do, because I knew exactly what I did in the piano part, and for Andreas it was quite comfortable to follow. Of course Andreas still had to watch the piano score, but he could be certain about the timing, when he followed this "virtual conductor " during recording the orchestra instruments.

How different was it to prepare the piano part for this project versus preparing for a performance with a live orchestra?
I had to check out first if this special piano score is somehow possible to realize on a master keyboard. It's hard enough to play on a good grand piano, but after some attempts I felt it worked. The biggest problem playing classical music on a master keyboard is that you must try to behave physiologically like playing a real grand piano. If you are forced to give up your manner of playing, it will sound terrible.

Is the cadenza original or improvised?
Nothing improvised. I did change two notes, you might find out which ones they are. {laughs}  I chose the small cadenza because of the consequent development. The big cadenza anticipates the culmination too early.

Did you prepare more than one cadenza?  How did you decide upon this one?
Earlier I thought about switching between the two versions, it could have been quite effective.  But then I decided to follow Vladi. Even better.

What was it like to collaborate with Andreas?  How did you coordinate your efforts?
Well, it was quite easy working with him, because from the beginning I sensed from him a strong responsibility and a great desire to demonstrate this unusual masterpiece as well as possible. We were in touch by phone or email during the time he did the orchestration. We also discussed everything before he came from Vienna to Cologne for the final mixing. The days we had in my studio were wonderful and relaxed, what mixing should be after all the recordings.

Tell us about the final mixdown.  What was the process for deciding upon the balance of the instruments?
We decided to use the VSL Vienna Suite, which Andreas has used for all orchestral works. I had already prepared the depth of the orchestra with VSL, so we saved a lot of time.

What is the main difference playing a sample-based piano and a real grand?
Of course you cannot manipulate the tone in the same manner that is possible on a real piano, and much depends on the master keyboard that you use. If you have a surround system, you can also simulate the space which you have sitting in front of a Grand Piano. And this works perfectly with Ivory.

What are the technical secrets of playing a sample-based piano to make it sound like a real one?
You have to understand, most importantly, that Music never stays in the same dynamic level. Each phrase has a development, from note to note. When you play in this intention, it will never sound static. And to keep this flow you should behave physiologically like playing a real piano.

Technical questions

What controller do you use to play Ivory?
My one and only Yamaha KX88!

What computer do you use to run Ivory?
Mac Pro with 4 GB RAM.

What host software did you use to record the parts?
Logic Studio 8.

What software did you use for the final mixdown?
Only Vienna Suite and Logic.

What other equipment do you feature in your studio?
Ivory Studio Cologne is specialized for Piano Recordings.  We work with Shoeps, Sennheizer and Neumann Mics.  We use several preamps like DAV or Tube-Tech. Converters by Apogee and RME.  UAD-2 Plugins, Tascam US 2400 mixing controller, Genelec monitor control. Steinway B Grand Piano.

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Interview with Andreas Olszewski by Joe Ierardi of Synthogy

Tell us a bit about your background.
I grew up near Salzburg, Austria in a musical family. My parents sang in a choir and my brother, sister and I learned instruments. At first I learned drums and played in various local rock bands. Later, when I was about 20 and still taking lessons in drums and percussion, I joined Ludwig Nussbichler’s composition class at the music school, which was quite an eye-opener for me. Soon I made music for some student films and for a theater play, which I produced entirely with sample libraries and software synthesizers.

After moving to Vienna I spent less time making music because I had some other priorities, but after starting to work for Vienna Symphonic Library in 2002, I felt the need to create my own music getting stronger again. So in 2004 I started to study composition at the Vienna Conservatory with Christian Minkowitsch. My pieces get played regularly here in Austria. Through my work for Vienna Symphonic Library I am in the fortunate position to know these sample collections very well and can use them as if I played all the instruments myself. In addition to my own compositions, I work as an orchestrator for various productions, and commercially as well for advertisements.

Had you ever realized a Piano Concerto with virtual instruments prior to this project, or collaborated with a pianist in this manner before?
No.

So this was kind of a new experience. What was it like to work with Volker?
It was great to work with Volker. He is a very affable person. We understood each other very well on both a musical and personal level. We both wanted this project to be as good as possible, and the passion that he had for the music and his work carried over to me.

Volker described one of the biggest challenges in realizing this score to be the constantly changing tempi, ritenuto, accelerandi, etc. Did you find this to be true? How did you handle this challenge?
That indeed was a big challenge. Volker sent me his piano tracks in two versions. The first one was only piano and the second one was the piano plus a click track following the tempo changes he recorded. With the help of this click track I could transfer all the tempo changes to my Cubase project. That was quite some work, but after that was finished, working on this project was so much easier.

What was it like to follow his 'human conducting' track? Did you ever work like this before?
No, I haven’t done that before. For this project I think it was necessary to do it that way. Volker has a long history with the Rach 3, so he knows every note exactly and has an inner feel about the timing of the piece. This inner feeling I had to make my own during the working process. If you are new to that piece and have only the piano track to listen to, it is very hard to feel the beat during some fast passages. So his “human conducting” track was a great help.

What other challenges did you find when working on the score?
My own personal challenge was, that I wanted to be as true as possible to the score. I wanted the listeners to be able to hear every detail that Rachmaninoff had written. That normally is not possible when classical works get performed or recorded.

Did any particular section of the piece stand out as the most difficult to execute?
I did not find any section more difficult than others, but I think some parts are more delicate than others. Whenever the instrumentation gets more sparse, I had to be very careful that the instruments have the right phrasing, because every little detail can be heard then. For example the woodwinds in the middle of the piano cadenza need to be very lyrical and gentle during their solos. So in this passage I had the task to be the flute, oboe, clarinet and horn player and not just the orchestrator.

Did you have any experience with Ivory prior to this project?
No, except hearing some of the great demos on the homepage, this was my first contact with Ivory.

Describe the mixdown session from your perspective. How did you decide upon the balance of the orchestral instruments?
I tried to get the balance of the orchestral instruments as even as possible before the mixing session. There are so many interesting little tidbits by various instruments, which I fell in love with. I wanted to make them all audible by accenting them whenever I felt the need to. During the mixing session in Cologne we only had to make slight corrections with the mixing automation to bring things more upfront or to the background. Fortunately this was very easy, as Volker and I fully agreed which phrases and instruments are important to the various passages. I think we had the same result in mind during the whole process.

As a composer, do you find great value in realizing the works of the great masters in this manner?
Yes indeed. Through this project I now can say I learned how Rachmaninoff orchestrated for the orchestra. His way of giving little solo spots to the wind instruments is very beautiful and inspiring at the same time.

Technical questions:

What computer do you use for your work?
I used two Windows PCs in a local network to realize this project. A Pentium M with 2.14 GHz and 2 GB RAM was the host computer with Cubase 4.5 as DAW. The second computer, an Intel Core2 Duo with 2.5 GHz and 4 GB RAM, served as a slave in a Vienna Ensemble 3 network connection.

What sequencing or DAW software do you use?
Cubase 4.5 for the Rachmaninoff project. In the meantime I’ve upgraded to Cubase 5.

Any other outboard hardware or software that is important to your production?
The orchestra was entirely realized with the Vienna Symphonic Library Symphonic Cube, which is a collection of 10 sample libraries. The EQ and the reverb (Vienna Convolution Reverb) we used during the mixing session are part of the Vienna Suite plug-in package. For the room ambience with the Vienna Convolution Reverb we used the Grand Concert Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus.

Which Vienna Instruments did you use?
I used the following Vienna Instruments:
Chamber Strings I+II (For some divisi sections)
Orchestral Strings I+II (For some divisi sections)
Appassionata Strings I+II
Woodwinds I (Flutes, Oboes, Clarinets, Bassoons)
Brass I+II (Viennese and French Horns, Trumpets)
Percussion (Timpani)

Synthogy is a Massachusetts based audio software company founded by George Taylor and Joe Ierardi, former engineers of Kurzweil Music Systems. Together they bring more than 35 years of design experience in synthesizers, musical instruments, effects, and sound design to the field of Virtual Instruments.