After Stephansdom

This tour is divided in half by the wonderful performance on the 4th of July.   On Saturday,  we bid farewell to the rest of the Robert Page Festival Singers while we waited to be transferred to Hotel Ananas-  closer to town, but it would have been easier to stay in one place for our whole time in Vienna.  After stepping into a nearby phone booth,  we instantly transformed into the  the Blackstone Valley Chorale, with an urgent rehearsal at the Universitat of Music-  wonderful rehearsal space that included a piano that Andy wants to sneak home on the plane. Our goal was to prepare for a concert in Berndorf on Saturday night with a completely new repertoire, heavy on the spirituals and "new music" that characterize American choral music:  “Hard Times”,”O Nata Lux”, “Roll Jordan Roll”, “Bach Again” and “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” alone, and “Locus Iste” and “My Lord, What a Morning” with an Austrian choir  (Chorgemeinschaft Berndorf-Veitsau, a local group had coordinate activities for us)  We did OK in the rehearsal, but we had forgotten some of the work we had done back in Whitinsville.  Andy worked us hard, then we hopped on the bus, to visit a few places  before hotel check in.

First stop was the Hundertwasser houses;  a cluster of houses and streets based on  the idea that the human mind dislikes straight lines, and that you can design spaces that encourage people to talk to each other.  Cool place.  Reminded me of South St. in Philadelphia.

Second stop was the square next to the Albertina, to let us off for lunch. Now, I have only a $100Euro note in my pocket, which I “broke” on another gift for my Julie (not don’t get your hopes up, dear, remember who is buying). Then, I grabbed some pizza and ice cream in the shopping district- we really didn’t have time to do nore than that. Back to the bus and on to the check in!

At check in, they had forgotten my single room, and I ended up spending a night in a fairly crowded triple room with two great Worcester chorus members before moving to a small and crowded single. Hotel Ananas seems to pride itself on how many people it can fit into a single room. By the time we had sorted this out, we had barely enough time to get into our performance tuxes before the concert. But we did so, making it onto the bus for the performance.

The ride was north and east, to the town of Berndorf, named for a bear that did something with chain mail and a sword- our hosts did not know the story, but it was commemorated in the bear stature that we dutifully visited. The church had a beautiful, reverberant sound, that was very forgiving. We decided that it would be fun to sing there. This was sort of an exchange concert- first them, than us, than them, then all of us together and then a dinner with “dancing”. Full evening. 

The singing was good. Their group did a mixture of Americian and Austrian sacred works with arranged “pop” tunes that were clearly their favorites. I get the sense that the barrier

 between the classical and the pop world is less rigid than in the States. Our performance was good, not great. “Hard Times” we have down. “Roll Jordan” was exceptional, I thought, and “O Nata Lux” reverborated nicely within the dome. The joint pieces were worth waiting for- the song was rich and full, and made “Locus Iste” really fit into that time and place. There were lovely speeches of greeting and Fellowship, all and all adding up to an almost 2 hour program, with no intermission. The people were very happy with us- many joined us for the after show entertainment.

The entertainment was disappointing; we had bier (Dank Gott im Himmel), but food was bread with spreads of various kinds- not enough. Then they brought in the native dancers- Austrians in cowboy hats doing line dances to old country and western songs. Long and not all all what I had expected. I did, however, have a chance to speak with a lovely Austrian couple (he worked in technology, she an accountant) who enjoy concerts like ours and travel about to find them. When we got home a midnight, however, I was still tired and hungry, so several of us had dinner at an Italian place around the corner that was open until midnight. Pizza twice in one day? Ah, yes. But it was good pizza. Then we went to bed- early morning tomorrow, and did not want to oversleep church.