nov 10
november 10 2006
today was vienna tourist day and our last concert in europe! no more mahler, change of conductor and of soloist. on one hand, i'm happy to not have to play the mahler any more -- there are some parts that i swear get worse the more i play them -- but on the other hand, i was enjoying working with the conductor, and i'm really not looking forward to the rehearsal period for the next programme. this half of the tour we played over the summer, but the next part is brand new... disaster in the works, possibly. either way, it's going to be a crapload of rehearsing. ick.
so i started the day with the most insanely huge and delicious breakfast buffet ever. then went wandering with xiaodan, kate, and mark (assistant of the soloist). got some photos of the stephensdom (cathedral), the church we went to last night, and the horseback riding school, then headed over to the belvedere where we stopped for coffee because we were freezing and everyone had to pee. came back to the hotel, practiced mandolin (ick), went out looking for food, then sound check/concert.
the vienna konzerthaus is finally the first hall that we've played in that hasn't been either super dry or super boomy. it sounded like a concert hall should, and it was refreshing, if a little confusing since i've been getting used to wacky acoustics. the concert was packed, which was awesome considering that the concertgebouw orchestra was playing around the corner and also playing mahler. there were some very critical-looking people in the audience... there was one lady who seriously kept staring at me, giving me the evil eye because i kept screwing up in the dvorak. then i told my friend who sits behind me about it at intermission, and then she found in the audience ANOTHER lady who apparently was watching me with an evil look on her face for the whole mahler!! argh. evil viennese women are out to kill me. anyway, concert overall went okay, the mahler was good and we had a rocking time at the end of the encore (egmont overture) going up insanely high on the G string. second violin power!! although not for long since i have to play first for the next programme. argh.
so tomorrow our flight to beijing is at 2pm, leaving enough time in the morning to go do a little shopping before hopping on the plane. apparently we are keeping the same plane we've been in so far for the flights through asia/australia -- it's a really small aircraft for such long flights, i'm really not looking forward to it. on the bright side, they do have outlets so i can plug in my laptop and be a dork the whole flight.
transit: 0h
flying: 0h
today was vienna tourist day and our last concert in europe! no more mahler, change of conductor and of soloist. on one hand, i'm happy to not have to play the mahler any more -- there are some parts that i swear get worse the more i play them -- but on the other hand, i was enjoying working with the conductor, and i'm really not looking forward to the rehearsal period for the next programme. this half of the tour we played over the summer, but the next part is brand new... disaster in the works, possibly. either way, it's going to be a crapload of rehearsing. ick.
so i started the day with the most insanely huge and delicious breakfast buffet ever. then went wandering with xiaodan, kate, and mark (assistant of the soloist). got some photos of the stephensdom (cathedral), the church we went to last night, and the horseback riding school, then headed over to the belvedere where we stopped for coffee because we were freezing and everyone had to pee. came back to the hotel, practiced mandolin (ick), went out looking for food, then sound check/concert.
the vienna konzerthaus is finally the first hall that we've played in that hasn't been either super dry or super boomy. it sounded like a concert hall should, and it was refreshing, if a little confusing since i've been getting used to wacky acoustics. the concert was packed, which was awesome considering that the concertgebouw orchestra was playing around the corner and also playing mahler. there were some very critical-looking people in the audience... there was one lady who seriously kept staring at me, giving me the evil eye because i kept screwing up in the dvorak. then i told my friend who sits behind me about it at intermission, and then she found in the audience ANOTHER lady who apparently was watching me with an evil look on her face for the whole mahler!! argh. evil viennese women are out to kill me. anyway, concert overall went okay, the mahler was good and we had a rocking time at the end of the encore (egmont overture) going up insanely high on the G string. second violin power!! although not for long since i have to play first for the next programme. argh.
so tomorrow our flight to beijing is at 2pm, leaving enough time in the morning to go do a little shopping before hopping on the plane. apparently we are keeping the same plane we've been in so far for the flights through asia/australia -- it's a really small aircraft for such long flights, i'm really not looking forward to it. on the bright side, they do have outlets so i can plug in my laptop and be a dork the whole flight.
transit: 0h
flying: 0h