"All except Mandy flew out to Frankfurt on 14th. Mandy was to arrive early the following morning. We'd been warned that, when we got to our hotel, there'd be no-one on the front desk. The plan was to open a safe in the outer foyer with a given code. In this safe would be one room key, then in that room would be the other 4 keys. A lot of scope for things going wrong here! - fortunately, however, all went to plan and we were all tucked up before midnight.

This project was something of a last minute booking. Gerry O'Beirne (usually tenor 2 in both pieces) was unavailable for this tour, so we were delighted to have Phill Brown on board. This programme is a big sing for both tenors and I was really grateful to Phill for his coolness in taking it on - particularly when he'd had a tough few weeks with building work at his house - roofs falling in etc!

We had a full day of rehearsal in Frankfurt - half a day for each piece. Phill did a fabulous job, as expected, and the players were as wonderful as ever. The only sad thing, I felt, was that the conductor (Franck Ollu) hadn't really taken to Daniel Variations so this piece started off rather negatively. For me, the tempi were wrong. The piece lacked the flow and the contrast it needed, rendering it rather turgid. This was a shame, and I'm afraid it didn't improve much due to the lack of enthusiasm. I do hope that Daniel Variations hasn't been pushed to the bottom of Ensemble Modern's pile because of this. It's a wonderful piece, but it doesn't just play itself.

Anyway, we still managed to have fun. It's always such a treat doing You Are (Variations) with these guys. We call the vibe players and pianists the "mallet mafia". It is just the most incisive, accurate and exciting playing you're ever likely to hear.

     
The Mallet Mafia

The following morning, after another quick run through of Daniel Variations, we took the train to Munich. Our hotel in Munich was virtually in the main station. To be fair, it wasn't noisy, but it was pokey and a bit grubby. Let's not stay there again! Having dumped our luggage in our rooms, we left Rachel (quite heavily pregnant now) in the hotel restaurant and went out for a supposed 5 minute wander to see what was where. We ended up walking down into the centre, and of course stopping off for Glüwein at the open-air ice-rink. Rachel had finished her meal by the time we got back for dinner - oops. Still, she seemed quite happy with her book and she'd had an excellent meal, so we followed her example and also stayed for dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Unfortunately, the concert day was on a Sunday so absolutely everything was shut on our free morning. There was a Christmas market, however, and we all bumped into each other checking out the stocking fillers at the various stalls in the main square.

Phill, Mandy & Andy at the market

Our concert was at the Muffathalle, which is more of a pop venue than a classical one really - all very black and trendy. The dressing rooms were less than glamorous. This one was for all the women in the entire ensemble

Mandy in the dressing room

but at least it was only for one night. There were TV cameras all over the place, recording both rehearsal and concert for a local TV programme. I had a stinky cold and was worried that this was not going to be my best performance! I guess I'll find out when the DVD copy arrives...

Mandy and I had dinner between rehearsal and concert in the amazing swimming baths (well, in the restaurant in that building) next door. We couldn't be bothered to traipse back to our hotel.

Singer's eye-view of You Are (Variations)

It felt slightly weird doing a concert where I wasn't sure what was going to come out. I was dosed up with Benylin, paracetamol etc, and didn't have much voice left. Still, I managed a "little voice" version of my part, which I hope the lovely Norbert (sound engineer) managed to mix up so that it sounded normal!

Taking a bow after Daniel Variations

So, after a marathon year of Steve Reich, we took our final bow for 2006, headed back to our hotel and straight to the bar for a medicinal night-cap or three."

Micaela