Following several exciting collaborations on theatrical and concert pieces, the world-renowned composer Louis Andriessen (1939-2021) wrote one of his last pieces for Nora and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The song cycle The Only One premiered in May 2019 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall under conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Set to intense and unsettling texts by the Flemish poet Delphine Lecompte, this piece is a whirlwind of inner voices: tender, flamboyant and malevolent.
Andriessen has long been known for working with jazz / pop singers for his compositions, with view to radically shifting the traditional singing style in contemporary classical music. It made him the perfect composer for Nora – in Andriessen’s words, he wanted ‘everything Nora can do to be included in this new piece’!