Greetings from Vienna!
Just arrived tonight (Monday Mar. 3) via Frankfurt. On the plane from Frankfurt, our small group, consisting of me, LA Chamber Orchestra board members, plus development executive and shepherd Danielle Harrell, stumbled onto members of the Vienna Philharmonic. They looked just as confused and bleary-eyed as we did. A violinist from the Vienna Phil said they had just played the third of three New York concerts Sunday afternoon. He added, "I don't know what day it is." Welcome to the club. The KUSC Kroup that felled Dennis Bartel Friday morning (he's better now) also kept me well-awake on the trans-continental flight from LA. Tried to avoid the spectacular coffee here (oh, just a sip) after arriving so I can sleep tonight.
Meanwhile, tonight, members of the LA Chamber Orchestra gave a concert in Germany. The concerts began Thursday evening, Feb. 28, and they've already played in Ferrara, Treviso, Hannover, and the Hamburg concert tonight. Executive Director Andrea Laguni sounded absolutely elated after the performance tonight when I spoke to him on the phone. Two encores! The audience still didn't want the orchestra to leave the stage. The soloist was Vesselina Kasarova, a fast-rising Bulgarian mezzo.
She sang Mozart and Rossini. Can't wait to hear her later in the tour. She's supposedly amazing.
If tomorrow's Tuesday (and it is) it must be Vienna for LACO, who will join us here for a 7:30pm concert at the Konzerthaus Big Hall, which promises glorious acoustics. The soloist will be composer and pianist Uri Caine, who has a very close association with this orchestra and its music director, the indefatigable Jeffrey Kahane. Caine's piece is called Mosaics for Piano and Orchestra.
At a dinner tonight celebrating the tour at historic Cafe Demel, Caine talked a little bit about the piece. It's never played the same way twice. He's a brilliant improviser and jazz artist, and those skills come into play here. He described how sometimes conductor Jeffrey Kahane will raise his eyebrows in surprise during a performance when Uri detours from the expected course. But Uri tries to reassure, him, there's no wrong note! It's just different tonight.
LACO hasn't toured Europe for 30 years. I look forward to telling you all about the tour. Watch this space!
Warmest regards,
Your Bleary-eyed Blogger
