| DAVID PICKETT musician |
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I have been involved in audio recording since a teenager. At that time, and since, I have designed and built my own audio equipment, including loudspeakers, microphones, amplifiers, and an analog tape recorder. I have been active in professional audio since 1969, when I joined EMI’s Abbey Road Studios as a recording engineer and was engaged in recording music of all genres. Since leaving Abbey Road in 1979, I have concentrated on producing recordings of classical music.
Listening to takes at an EMI recording session for Vaughan Williams' Pilgrim's Progress in Kingsway Hall, December 1970. L to R, foreground: Ursula Vaughan Williams, John Noble, John Alldis, Sheila Armstrong; background: Christopher Bishop, Sir Adrian Boult, Ian Partridge, Gloria Jennings, Christopher Parker, David Pickett. (Photo credit: Godfrey McDominic/EMI).
During my 10 years at Abbey Road I worked in England and Italy with EMI house producers and engineers, including:
Christopher Bishop
Bryan Crimp
Anthony Griffith
Suvi Raj Grubb
Ronald Kinloch-Anderson
Walter Legge
George Martin
John Mordler
Mickie Most
David Mottley
Norman Newell
Walter Ridley
Martin Benge
Neville Boyling
Robert (Bob) Gooch
Michael Gray
Christopher Parker
Alan Parsons
Chris Blair
Harry Moss
Hazel Yarwood
Mike Batchelor
Bill Livy
Len Page
Ken Townsend
and with:
George Korngold (RCA)
Bill Leader (Leader Records)
John McClure (CBS)
Paul Myers (CBS)
Alan Warner (United Artists)
Michael Williamson (London Records and Westminster Records)
Musicians with whom I worked included:
Dame Janet Baker (Beethoven, Mass in C)
Sir John Barbirolli (Vaughan Williams and Sibelius Symphonies)
Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline Du Pré, Pinchas Zukerman (Beethoven, Piano Trios)
Leonard Bernstein (Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps, Symphony of Psalms)
Pierre Boulez (Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande)
Sir Adrian Boult (Vaughan Williams: A Pilgrim's Progress, Brahms, Symphonies)
Montserrat Caballé (Bellini, Il Pirata; Puccini, Manon Lescaut; Verdi, Don Carlos)
Placido Domingo (Puccini, Manon Lescaut; Puccini, Manon Lescaut; Verdi, Don Carlos)
Carlo Maria Giulini (Verdi: Don Carlos; Beethoven, Mass in C)
Otto Klemperer (Bruckner, Symphonies 8 & 9; Wagner, Die Walküre)
Leopold Stokowski (Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade)
Sir David Willcocks (Handel, Messiah, LPs of Christmas carols and psalms)
I was also responsible for audio restorations, and compilations, including:
Wilhelm Furtwängler: Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (1953 RAI Ring Cycle)
Maria Callas, La Scala recordings
Sir Thomas Beecham, Puccini: La Bohème (stereo)
The Beatles: "1962/1966" (Red Album) & "1967/1970" (Blue Album)
The Golden Age of Hollywood: a series of albums of film music and dialog (Warner Bros/United Artists)
Laurel & Hardy film soundtracks (UA)
Extracts from the Bing Crosby Radio Shows (UA)
Rev. 29. Nov 2018
Gustav Mahler conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on ten occasions: in Prague, Hamburg, Vienna, Strassburg and New York. For the last seven of these performances he prepared and used his own score and orchestral parts. I have transcribed and edited these materials...
Links to short essays on this website and a list of more extended writings on various aspects of Gustav Mahler’s life and music.
Around 1930, stereo was invented independently by Bell Labs in the USA and by Alan D. Blumlein at EMI Labs in England...
Samples of 4.0 surround recordings, some made with my pantophonic microphone, can be played back with Firefox, Chrome and other browsers.
The Welsh conductor, Wyn Morris (1929 – 2010), made his London debut at the Festival Hall in 1963 with a performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. This was a daring choice of repertoire for the time and Morris’s performance was greeted with unusually strong critical acclaim...