LONDON (8th October 2006)

represented by

 

(from left to right) Amanda Morrison, Micaela Haslam, Andrew Busher, Gerard O'Beirne

"We were very excited about this concert.  It's always great to be part of a world premiere, and of course to add another piece to our repertoire.  This one, Daniel Variations, was written with Synergy Vocals in mind - particularly our two marvellous tenors, Andy & Gerry, who have such fabulous high notes. The only problem with making it sound so easy (which it isn't!) is that Steve keeps writing higher and higher lines for them!  We had persuaded him to give the top C's to one of the sops, but there were still plenty of top B's to attend to.
 
We rehearsed at St Luke's with the fabulous Steve Reich & Musicians, Brad Lubman at the helm, and David (from Sound Intermedia) at the desk.  Steve Reich was in excellent form - incredibly chilled out considering the amount of pressure he was under.  He had a crazy schedule this year - jetting around the world to be at performances of his music, giving talks, interviews, meeting audiences, students, press etc. It's so easy to forget that he's 70 years old.  He looks amazing and is in much better shape than many people half his age!

Steve Reich and David Sheppard during rehearsal

Anyway, it was a treat finally to hear Daniel Variations come to life, having had only a score and a midi for some weeks.  Brad did an excellent job balancing and setting tempi.  These rehearsals confirmed for me that Reich's music does not just play itself.  It's like one of those 3-D pictures where you have to squint for a while then suddenly the picture comes into focus.  Likewise, with Steve's music, if you get the instrumental balance just right, along with the subtle changes of tempo, the music suddenly comes to life.
 
Daniel Variations is dedicated to Daniel Pearl, the American journalist who was beheaded by his captors having been taken hostage in Pakistan.  There are very few, carefully chosen, lyrics - "My name is Daniel Pearl", which is what Daniel said just before he was murdered; "I saw a dream" from the Book of Daniel; then finally "I sure hope Gabriel likes my music when the day is done" which is taken from one of Daniel Pearl's old records.  Apparently, he had quite a collection and was a musician himself (a violinist), so this line seemed particularly pertinent - and of course these words also ring true for Steve Reich.

Rehearsing Daniel Variations at St Luke's

Despite my dramatic morning in hospital, and having missed all the rehearsals on the day (Amy very kindly sight-read the piece for me in the general - that's what I call team spirit!), I did make it to the concert.  Steve was really kind.  He was far more worried about my health than the world premiere of his piece, which was incredibly touching.  In fact everyone in the ensemble was overwhelmingly supportive.  We even had double-bass stools to sit on during the concert, so that I didn't keel over. The best bit about that is that it has become tradition, so now we always sit for performances of Daniel Variations - marvellous!  
 
Anyway, Daniel went very well in the concert, as did Music for 18 (which audiences always love) and I was just thrilled to be there.  There was a very fine post-concert reception too (with particularly delicious mini-steak pies!) and all agreed that the Barbican's Reich-weekend had been a triumph!"
 
Micaela