Almost lost in history... My father attended this concert, and I shared his memories last year on YouTube. But other than him, nobody else seemed to
know this concert even existed, because the recording was never available. Until now... A man contacted me last year saying he also attended, and
had his father record it on the radio while he was watching the concert.
Although the musicians fingers were "frozen" in the cold, they seemed to play just fine and fast. You can hear Farid's oud prominent throughout.
Really, I've never heard this composition played so well. Also nice slideshow of Farid and his oud.
awesome, if only Oud could be this prominent more often when it ought to be. How did they do it?
In this case, they probably did it by having the one and only microphone directly in front of Farid. In the live Farid videos I have seen there is
only one visible mic. There might be some others hanging above the violin section etc. But the only close mic-d sound is oud (and voice). Also this
was 1964. It is likely that there were no stage monitors, that is to say there were no speakers facing the musicians. When there are no monitors there
is no feedback and you can turn up the oud mic without worry.
But also, as I have said before in other posts on this forum, making an oud be loud enough in an ensemble where each instrument has a mic or pickup is
not so very difficult. What is difficult is finding a sound engineer who is competent and who cares about balance and good sound.Badra - 10-16-2019 at 08:37 AM
Even before I heard this recording, my father told me the sound of the oud was very powerful and loud, he could feel it everywhere with the acoustics
in the amphitheater. I am working on getting Awal Hamsa from this concert. In that he plays a taqsim which is sure to be great...
The thought of the oud out in the cold made me think of another, first hand story I was told recently. A friend of mine, who played oud
professionally most of his life, in his 80s now, told me he was with Munir Bachir one day. They were in a room with a few other men, and the oud case
was open with the oud exposed. One of the men opened the door to outside, and Bachir screamed in anger, he was upset the outside climate/humidity etc
could affect his oud.
