"Thanks so much to the LA Philharmonic for looking after us and showing us so much kindness in Los Angeles.  We had a fabulous time and got to do 4 concerts in this amazing building.

Deborah Borda (President of the LA Philharmonic Association) kindly took us all out to dinner - along with our 2 conductors (Stefan Asbury and Reinbert de Leeuw), Louis Andriessen, and the other 3 soloists from the Andriessen concert - Cristina Zavalloni (vox), Geoff Nuttall (vln) and Barry Shiffman (vln).  We were all part of a wonderfully ambitious project directed by John Adams, called "Minimalist Jukebox", covering all sorts of music from African drumming and Indonesian gamelan to the latest pieces by leading contemporary composers.  It was great to have this opportunity to get everybody together, and a lovely evening was enjoyed by all.

It was most fortuitous that the De Staat girls (except Sarah) had had the chance to do the piece in the QEH, London last October.  Louis had heard the recording of that performance and, happily for us, thought that the vocals were the best he'd ever heard.  That gave everyone the incentive to do an even better job in LA!

Disney Hall stage

The rehearsal I heard in the hall sounded fantastic, and the balance was excellent - difficult to achieve with amplification in such a live hall.  I have to confess that I could have done with more of the voices when it came to the concert, but the girls did really well - as did the players.  De Staat is a fiendishly difficult piece to play, but very exciting to listen to.  Cristina was amazing in Andriessen's Racconto dall'Inferno.  She's a real show-woman, and she added lots of "hellish" movements and facial expressions to the piece.  We considered the idea of incorporating some of those moves into Tehillim - then again, maybe not!

Micaela

next LA diary...