“I felt so lucky to be playing with them. Their quality of sound, flexibility, and connection emotionally, musically and structurally has everything you could want. This orchestra has worked with Barenboim for 20 years, and of course rehearsing in this very rigorous and detailed way, you really get to know the players and the psychology behind everything. Barenboim was equally demanding of them as he was of me, really focusing on bringing out the different voices. We went deeper each day so that by the time we got to the final concert, we could be totally immersed and not have to think about annoying technical issues. That was the most gratifying part. It gave us freedom to really let go.”