Phoenix's Europe Trip
Our second day in Trier is marked with, not one, but two of our first public performances. The morning started with anothe ample breakfast. Going back to my bagel and creamcheese with a powered hot chocolate might be a problem after 2 weeks here. Breakfast was early since we needed to be dressed in our concert attire and ready to head to the bus at 8am. Sasha wasn't about to bring the bus through the construction area on the road again, so we had a 10 minute walk down the street to meet up with the bus (which was parked in a no parking zone of course - Sasha isn't much for rules as long as he doesn't get caught!) We all looked pretty snazzy in our touring concert dress. Usually, when we are performing at home, the men wear tuxedos with purple poufs in the pocket to match the women who wear a royal purple dress and jacket with rhinestone accents. Its a fairly stunning and formal looking outfit especially with the women's jewerly. Since packing the dresses and tuxes wasn't high on our lists, we decided instead to create this touring uniform. The women are in black slacks with a showy black and white patterned top with opalescent sequins. The men are in all black with a black and white polka dot tie that coordinates with the womens' tops. The women steal the show with they sparkles, but I'll let it slide I suppose.
Our first public performance this tour (besides singing for our supper and our quick run through of Bogo at the St. Paulinus yesterday) was a the high mass at the Trier Dom. The cathedral itself is quick amazing, sitting right next to another major church. It's core quadrangle was apparently part of a Roman structure before it was integrated into the Dom. Its easy to see the many changes to the church over the centuries, one of which must the the outstanding organ that is both visually and aurally stunning. The choir was set up behind the altar, fairly far from the congregation. We took the opportunity to rehearse in the space before the congretation arrived. The sound was amazing! When we finished singing a piece, you could hear it ringing through out the enormous space for at least 5-6 seconds. To adjust for this, Ramona increased the spacing between certain sections of the pieces so that the sound would have a chance to die out before we continued. The warm up and rehearsal went well, and I think we all felt it was about time to do our first performance - and were also excited that it would be in such an outstanding accoustic.
However, as wonderful as the sound was that we could make in this space, there is only one thing even more uncomfortable for me than a catholic high mass, and that's a catholic high mass in German. We took our cue on what to do from Ramona, sitting and standing at the appropriate times and even singing/slaughtering the opening hymn. After the first hymn I decided not to even bother trying any others. Everyonce in a while we would sing a piece that was appropriate to where we were in the service but the rest of the time was filled with long winded verses in German with a bit of call and repeat thrown in for variety. Those that know me know that I am not the least bit religious, but am subjected to services through sacred music that I perform choirs. I enjoy the music for what it is, but I don't take any deeper meaning away from it. Watching the high mass just seemed like overkill on pomp and pagentry - like a well rehearsed stage play that's been going on for thousands of years. It definately didn't make me want to connect anymore with organized religion. I think we have one other performance as part of a church service in Prague...I assume it will be similar experience. Overall the program went well. We did an admirable job of following Ramona's lead and created some beautiful music. Agnus Dei, the last section of Missa Brevis, was a bit weak and the pitch was less than perfect, and the final gospel piece really didn't work in the accoustic, but other than that it was good. The congregation even applauded after our final piece, which is a great show of appreciation, as applause is rare during a service in the Dom.
After the service we trudged back to the bus, stopping for a quick photo in front of the neighbouring church (who's name escapes me at the moment) and passing by the building that was once the Roman Throne Hall but is now a church. I had a chance to read up on both of these buildings and other sights in Trier when I got back to my room in the afternoon and flipped through the small English language visitors' guide I had picked up the previous day in Kaufhof. I could say the bus back to R. Schuman Haus wasn't exciting, but that would be a lie! We have been in constant awe of Sasha's ability to manoever our tour bus since we first squeezed through the narrow streets of Erbach, but he showed him self up today when we turned the bus around mid intersection, then backed it all the way back up the road to where he had picked us up on the morning (parking in another no parking zone of course) How he can manage to drive the bus, almost at high speed, backwards for hundreds of feet uphill on a windy road is beyond me, but its such appreciated since it means that we didn't need to walk up the hill or spend our precious Euros on taxi fare again.
After unloading the bus and walking back up to R. Schuman Haus, we just had time for a quick clothing change before lunch was laid out. Again, a good meal that included a great creamy vegetable soup and pork chops with mushroom gravy (which whole mushrooms in it - yum!) At lunch we were joined by Magdy's brother-in-law and his family from France. They had travelled an hour and a half to come to see us perform. His brother in law is originally from Washington and his wife from Equador, although she lived in both Peru and the US. They had three young children, all of whole are trilingual with fluency in English and Spanish (which they are required to speak at home) and French. The oldest is apparently beginning to learn German as well. They are living in France doing missionary work and hadn't seen Madgy for four years. They were very nice to speak too over lunch. Again I exused myself early - even forgeting dessert in the process - so that I could get some time to relax before we got back on the bus for our two hour drive to Treis-Karden for our evening concert.
Back in the room I spent some time writing more postcards so I am ready to pop a bunch in the mail as soon as I get a few more addresses and find a post office. I'm sure that I will arrive before the postcards do, but in this age of electonic communications, I don't know that its much of an issue. Postcards are just a way to remind the people you send them to that they were on your mind during your travels, even if they arrive after the fact. I checked my clothes again to see if they had managed to dry any - I decided to rinse out some of my laundry since we are in Trier for another day still - which it hadn't so my fingers are crossed, then only had enough energy left to lie on my bed reading and resting for the next hour and and half or so. Chris was doing the same thing so I will blame him for the inspiration to do absolutely nothing. Around 3, it was time to pack up our evening concert dress and change into our tour polo shirts (blue polo shirts that have our name embroidered on the breast and a canadian a flag on the left sleeve). At the moment I am on the bus as we make our way to Treis-Karden for our first full program concert. Its both exciting and a bit nerve wracking as concerts usually are. We've exited the motorway and are winding though smalle towns so I can only guess that we are getting close to where we want to head to. I think I'll just sit and stare out the window until we arrive, then update on the concert when we get back to the hotel tonight.
Tries-Karden is right on the river and had a small town feel. The few building we had a chance to see had lots of character. When we arrived we dropped off music and uniforms in the church, one of the oldest gothic style churchs in the Mosel region. It had a distinct earthen smell when I walked in and was darker and less flourished than some of the churches we have seen so far - a drastic change from the Roccoco styling of the St. Paulinuskirche. The exact date this church was built is not known but references to its organ can be traced back to the 14th century, and the organ looks like it may have been installed after the church was built. It had many large stone plaques that stood against the walls and at least one carved mausoleum. After dropping our materials off and stretching a bit after our 2 hour bus ride, we went to grab a "bite to eat".
We were expecting to have a very quick meal provided by the Moselfestival that we were participating in, but instead they had arranged a huge meal for us at a very charming pub restaurant nearby. There were 4 course, with an appetizer of bread and olives, followed by pumpkin soup, and a main course of pasta with chicken breast with mustard sauce and pesto. It included a glass of dry or semi-dry reisling. I chose the semi-dry and didn't mind it for wine. It was very sweet and was a bit like bitter grape juice but with lots of sugar. Unfortunately we had only scheduled 30 minutes to eat and this took much, much longer leaving us it a bit of a crunch to rehearse in the space. To make up a bit for the time we were losing, we asked to come back after the concert for the final course of sorbet with pineapple and liquer. Luckly they agreed so we rushed back to the church to set up and do a bit of singing to get a feel for the space.
We were a bit worried that we didn't have much time to rehearse before we needed to open the doors for our audience. Unfortunately, the audience itself was likely to be small with only 14 tickets sold in advance. However, it did turn out that we had a good sized audience - not large, but not tiny - who were very apreciative of the music, buying up 16 of our CDs during the intermission and giving us a standing ovation and a call for an encore. The concert went well, with some of the songs sounding outstanding in the accoustic, while others failed somewhat. I really enjoyed our rendition of Imortal Bach in the space and didn't mess up my counting once! Even the Swain went quite well, with the tenors wailing in full voice though the jumpy part. We ran into an issue on the benedictus with some counting, but it led to people dropping out at the wrong time instead of coming in in the wrong spot. Dona nobis pacem was a favourite for quite a few people although I felt the beginning was a bit shakey for me personally. I had a bit of difficulty recovering from the highs of the previous piece. It was agreed by most that one of the highlights of the evening was the Lux Aurumeque that we used to open the second half. We were all focussed on the piece and the accoustic just pushed it over the top.
After the concert finished up, we spent a few minutes mingling with our appreciative audience, then wandered back over to the pub for dessert. The dessert was worth the wait, but soon after I couldn't manage to keep my eyes open. I was falling asleep at the table with my table mates making fun of me. Apparently I wasn't the only one though, and we soon packed back on to the bus, returning to R. Schuman Haus after midnight. Sasha again managed to back the bus up the hill without issue and we hiked up the rest of the way, mostly in silence due to our exhaustion. As soon as I got back in the room I passed out - no time to update my journal or write any postcards - excited that I could sleep in till at least 7:30 with breakfast not scheduled till 8:30. I did manage to pack away my formerly dirty laundry that I had hand washed before the morning's service, glad that it had dried out completely and wouldn't need to be packed wet.
Our first public performance this tour (besides singing for our supper and our quick run through of Bogo at the St. Paulinus yesterday) was a the high mass at the Trier Dom. The cathedral itself is quick amazing, sitting right next to another major church. It's core quadrangle was apparently part of a Roman structure before it was integrated into the Dom. Its easy to see the many changes to the church over the centuries, one of which must the the outstanding organ that is both visually and aurally stunning. The choir was set up behind the altar, fairly far from the congregation. We took the opportunity to rehearse in the space before the congretation arrived. The sound was amazing! When we finished singing a piece, you could hear it ringing through out the enormous space for at least 5-6 seconds. To adjust for this, Ramona increased the spacing between certain sections of the pieces so that the sound would have a chance to die out before we continued. The warm up and rehearsal went well, and I think we all felt it was about time to do our first performance - and were also excited that it would be in such an outstanding accoustic.
However, as wonderful as the sound was that we could make in this space, there is only one thing even more uncomfortable for me than a catholic high mass, and that's a catholic high mass in German. We took our cue on what to do from Ramona, sitting and standing at the appropriate times and even singing/slaughtering the opening hymn. After the first hymn I decided not to even bother trying any others. Everyonce in a while we would sing a piece that was appropriate to where we were in the service but the rest of the time was filled with long winded verses in German with a bit of call and repeat thrown in for variety. Those that know me know that I am not the least bit religious, but am subjected to services through sacred music that I perform choirs. I enjoy the music for what it is, but I don't take any deeper meaning away from it. Watching the high mass just seemed like overkill on pomp and pagentry - like a well rehearsed stage play that's been going on for thousands of years. It definately didn't make me want to connect anymore with organized religion. I think we have one other performance as part of a church service in Prague...I assume it will be similar experience. Overall the program went well. We did an admirable job of following Ramona's lead and created some beautiful music. Agnus Dei, the last section of Missa Brevis, was a bit weak and the pitch was less than perfect, and the final gospel piece really didn't work in the accoustic, but other than that it was good. The congregation even applauded after our final piece, which is a great show of appreciation, as applause is rare during a service in the Dom.
After the service we trudged back to the bus, stopping for a quick photo in front of the neighbouring church (who's name escapes me at the moment) and passing by the building that was once the Roman Throne Hall but is now a church. I had a chance to read up on both of these buildings and other sights in Trier when I got back to my room in the afternoon and flipped through the small English language visitors' guide I had picked up the previous day in Kaufhof. I could say the bus back to R. Schuman Haus wasn't exciting, but that would be a lie! We have been in constant awe of Sasha's ability to manoever our tour bus since we first squeezed through the narrow streets of Erbach, but he showed him self up today when we turned the bus around mid intersection, then backed it all the way back up the road to where he had picked us up on the morning (parking in another no parking zone of course) How he can manage to drive the bus, almost at high speed, backwards for hundreds of feet uphill on a windy road is beyond me, but its such appreciated since it means that we didn't need to walk up the hill or spend our precious Euros on taxi fare again.
After unloading the bus and walking back up to R. Schuman Haus, we just had time for a quick clothing change before lunch was laid out. Again, a good meal that included a great creamy vegetable soup and pork chops with mushroom gravy (which whole mushrooms in it - yum!) At lunch we were joined by Magdy's brother-in-law and his family from France. They had travelled an hour and a half to come to see us perform. His brother in law is originally from Washington and his wife from Equador, although she lived in both Peru and the US. They had three young children, all of whole are trilingual with fluency in English and Spanish (which they are required to speak at home) and French. The oldest is apparently beginning to learn German as well. They are living in France doing missionary work and hadn't seen Madgy for four years. They were very nice to speak too over lunch. Again I exused myself early - even forgeting dessert in the process - so that I could get some time to relax before we got back on the bus for our two hour drive to Treis-Karden for our evening concert.
Back in the room I spent some time writing more postcards so I am ready to pop a bunch in the mail as soon as I get a few more addresses and find a post office. I'm sure that I will arrive before the postcards do, but in this age of electonic communications, I don't know that its much of an issue. Postcards are just a way to remind the people you send them to that they were on your mind during your travels, even if they arrive after the fact. I checked my clothes again to see if they had managed to dry any - I decided to rinse out some of my laundry since we are in Trier for another day still - which it hadn't so my fingers are crossed, then only had enough energy left to lie on my bed reading and resting for the next hour and and half or so. Chris was doing the same thing so I will blame him for the inspiration to do absolutely nothing. Around 3, it was time to pack up our evening concert dress and change into our tour polo shirts (blue polo shirts that have our name embroidered on the breast and a canadian a flag on the left sleeve). At the moment I am on the bus as we make our way to Treis-Karden for our first full program concert. Its both exciting and a bit nerve wracking as concerts usually are. We've exited the motorway and are winding though smalle towns so I can only guess that we are getting close to where we want to head to. I think I'll just sit and stare out the window until we arrive, then update on the concert when we get back to the hotel tonight.
Tries-Karden is right on the river and had a small town feel. The few building we had a chance to see had lots of character. When we arrived we dropped off music and uniforms in the church, one of the oldest gothic style churchs in the Mosel region. It had a distinct earthen smell when I walked in and was darker and less flourished than some of the churches we have seen so far - a drastic change from the Roccoco styling of the St. Paulinuskirche. The exact date this church was built is not known but references to its organ can be traced back to the 14th century, and the organ looks like it may have been installed after the church was built. It had many large stone plaques that stood against the walls and at least one carved mausoleum. After dropping our materials off and stretching a bit after our 2 hour bus ride, we went to grab a "bite to eat".
We were expecting to have a very quick meal provided by the Moselfestival that we were participating in, but instead they had arranged a huge meal for us at a very charming pub restaurant nearby. There were 4 course, with an appetizer of bread and olives, followed by pumpkin soup, and a main course of pasta with chicken breast with mustard sauce and pesto. It included a glass of dry or semi-dry reisling. I chose the semi-dry and didn't mind it for wine. It was very sweet and was a bit like bitter grape juice but with lots of sugar. Unfortunately we had only scheduled 30 minutes to eat and this took much, much longer leaving us it a bit of a crunch to rehearse in the space. To make up a bit for the time we were losing, we asked to come back after the concert for the final course of sorbet with pineapple and liquer. Luckly they agreed so we rushed back to the church to set up and do a bit of singing to get a feel for the space.
We were a bit worried that we didn't have much time to rehearse before we needed to open the doors for our audience. Unfortunately, the audience itself was likely to be small with only 14 tickets sold in advance. However, it did turn out that we had a good sized audience - not large, but not tiny - who were very apreciative of the music, buying up 16 of our CDs during the intermission and giving us a standing ovation and a call for an encore. The concert went well, with some of the songs sounding outstanding in the accoustic, while others failed somewhat. I really enjoyed our rendition of Imortal Bach in the space and didn't mess up my counting once! Even the Swain went quite well, with the tenors wailing in full voice though the jumpy part. We ran into an issue on the benedictus with some counting, but it led to people dropping out at the wrong time instead of coming in in the wrong spot. Dona nobis pacem was a favourite for quite a few people although I felt the beginning was a bit shakey for me personally. I had a bit of difficulty recovering from the highs of the previous piece. It was agreed by most that one of the highlights of the evening was the Lux Aurumeque that we used to open the second half. We were all focussed on the piece and the accoustic just pushed it over the top.
After the concert finished up, we spent a few minutes mingling with our appreciative audience, then wandered back over to the pub for dessert. The dessert was worth the wait, but soon after I couldn't manage to keep my eyes open. I was falling asleep at the table with my table mates making fun of me. Apparently I wasn't the only one though, and we soon packed back on to the bus, returning to R. Schuman Haus after midnight. Sasha again managed to back the bus up the hill without issue and we hiked up the rest of the way, mostly in silence due to our exhaustion. As soon as I got back in the room I passed out - no time to update my journal or write any postcards - excited that I could sleep in till at least 7:30 with breakfast not scheduled till 8:30. I did manage to pack away my formerly dirty laundry that I had hand washed before the morning's service, glad that it had dried out completely and wouldn't need to be packed wet.