concert in Bad Tatzmanndorf today, that it was well received, and that Austria is a really pretty country. No pictures tonight- much to late. See you all soon.------
OK, so now I am sitting for 7 hours in Heathrow, so I will tell you more. As I said in yesterday's post, I went a-walking before breakfast, and found my way to Cafe Landtmann for breakfast. Food was good, coffee was better and the ambiance was the best of all. I sat and blogged, looked up to shoo away the finch who was going for my croissant. Watching the truckers strike go by, I was struck by the way in which the tram was moving in synchrony with the slow moving trucks. Then it struck me- I am watching union solidarity in action. We had moved up ourdeparture time from noon to 10:30 AM in order to leave time for the delays caused by the truckers, but it turned out not to be a problem. I'm glad that I finally spent some time sitting in a cafe, although I kind of wish that I had done more of that.
It was literally only 10 minutes back to the Hotel by subway (1.70Euro), so I had plenty of time to collect my things and get on the bus to head Southwest. We followed a contorted route that basically skirts the Hungarian border on the way dow, visiting Rohrau (Hayden's birthplace), Rust (home of the storks on the Neusiedl am See), Eisenstadt (burial place of Haydn) and Bad Tatzmanndorf (see map). Lots of time on the bus, but there was a wonderful concert at the end. So it was worth it. Let's see what I remember of our travels.
1) Rohrau: Haydn was born there is simple farmhouse. The house is closed to the public on Mondays. We took our picture outside of it- I posted that on the other blog.
2) Rust: Cute town on the shore of Neusiedl am See that seems really pleasant, in which the storks routinely nest on the chimneys. We walked about, looking at the birds and marvelling at the symbiotic relationship they have formed with the town. Pretty place. (Rust probably means "Storks nest here" rather than oxidized iron.)
3) Oslip: A little town that would not be mentioned except for the Storchmuhle Restaurant, an out of the way old time place that is worth wandering to visit. Ulrike (our guide) called and asked if they could accommodate 60 people and they said "Of course". We feasted on schnitzel and wurst and all of that other stuff. Dark, wooden and very Austrian. Would have been great, if our table weren't the last ones served. Or if the storm had held off a bit.
4) Eisenstadt: Seat of the Esterhazy family which seems to have owned most of this part of the world, including the contract for Papa Haydn. There is a long and involved story regarding Haydn's death, phrenologist cutting off his head, the Musikverein and a desire to rebury his body in Eisenstadt that you can probably find in Wikipedia (or Urban Legends). Anyway, we wanted to visit his grave, but we were greeted by the mother of all hailstorms when we arrived. So all I got was a shot of the church through the hail. The water ran down the streets in rivers-overflowed the sewers. Impressive.
5) Bad Tatzmannsdorf: This is a old spa town, now home to a bunch of fancy resorts/ health clinics that emphasize baths, massages and good nutrition. The local church sponsors "cultural" events- preceding us was the Children's Orchestra of the Phillipines.
Modern Church, built in 1968 or 69, will the Vatican II architecture- much wood, less formal, "alter in the round". Nice acoustics. The town has 300 people and many medical tourists. At least 200 people came to the concert. Program was all of the things we had done before, plus the Haydn "Six Psalms" (we did three) and a Schubert "Kyrie". All of the pieces went well, except of "Roll Jordan Roll"- we sang in pods and some of the repetitive lines got out of sync in the middle of the pieces. They listened politely to "Bach Again", but went wild for the spirituals at the end. Applauded fiercely and stood up as well- an unexpected response.
We had dinner at a local place with more Austrian cuisine in the evening- toasts were made and nice words were spoken. We returned to the hotel at midnight- I got about 1.5 hrs sleep on the bus, so couldn't fall asleep until 3 PM, and then woke with the wake up call at 4:45 to get to the airport in Austria.
What a trip. Cosmic meaning will await the newsletter, but I think that I learned something about performance, something about Central Europe, something about bicycles and that the glow of Stephansdom will be with me for a long time. See you on the western side of the Atlantic.
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