En Lima, que lindo

Our last day in Quito was both spectacular and spectacularly difficult: we made a professional recording of Philip Glass' Cello Concerto. The orchestra got to the hall at 11 am and finished at 8 pm - and we were so tired. Glass was there, as was his wife, Wendy Sutter, who plays the cello solo. We played the concerto, along with Mahler 4, two nights ago to a packed house at our last concert in Quito. In the cello concerto, it's very difficult to get all the parts to match up, and we had an extra challenge with a particularly boomy hall. It's also difficult because the orchestra couldn't hear the cellist for most of the piece due to the natural acoustics of the hall and the thick texture of the orchestration. It's like jumping into a pool blind. For the recording, we had to do a lot of repetitions of tiny little parts. By the end of the day, we were on take 189. Some of those takes were entire movements, some were just one measure. It was exhausting, but I think the recording is going to be good.

That was yesterday. Today we got to get up at 4:30 am to fly to Lima, Peru! It's really foggy here. Lima is right by the Pacific ocean and there are some parts that remind me of the sunset district in San Francisco. After just one meal here, the food has really lived up to it's reputation. Lima is the ceviche capital of the world and I am willing to agree after having eaten just a little bit of ceviche pescado at our hotel for lunch. It's raw fish cured with lime and other seasonings. Amazing!