Harnoncourt Sunday and Boring Monday
Stehplatz Tickets at the Musikverein: €5
Program and Coat Check: €3.10
Junk Food: €8
Completing my four-night concert streak: Priceless
Sunday afternoon was fairly uninteresting....I woke up around 12:30, having slept on the futon, as described in my last entry. I spent most of Sunday afternoon dicking around doing minor cleaning and writing in my journal....also watching South Park with the roommates....but the day was not a complete waste, because I went to a concert last night! I figure that no matter how lazy my day is, if I go out and do one worthwhile thing in Vienna then it hasn't been a complete waste of a day. I had heard about a concert of Nicolas Harnoncourt and the Concertus Musicus Wien at the Musikverein, and having heard of Harnoncourt, and enjoying the few recordings of his that I have, I thought it might be really fun. When I found out Mike (roommate) was going, I decided to go for sure, and after scarfing down the dinner we were all making, Mike and I headed to the Musikverein in the hopes of getting last-minute tickets. Unfortunately when we got there, they were all sold out, so we just got Stehplatz. The concert was really quite excellent....they did a couple of pieces of Corelli, which were good. I must say that I've never enjoyed Corelli that much....both pieces were actually quite moving. Harnoncourt certainly has a way with late baroque/early classical....it just comes alive in his hands. There was some piece by Muffat, whom I've never heard of....last on the program were two things by Bach: a sonata or something, and then the 3rd orchestral suite (the one with the famous "Air on the G string" which, if it doesn't sound immediately familiar, I guarantee you'd recognize if you heard it). That piece was absolutely incredible....the trumpet parts were played by these natural horns things that looked like trombones with immovable slides.....it was really interesting. The sound they made was incredible, and it must have been way way hard to play, since there didn't seem to be valves or pistons or slides or anything...and those parts would be hard to play with just your lips....I guess that's what they were doing! (note to self: my favorite ornamentation: you know the C#-b in the 1st violins during the big b minor cadence after the double bar? usually the C# is the last sixteenth note of the previous measure, but he did it as a eighth-note appogiatura on the downbeat of the measure...it was wicked awesome....I love those 9-8 suspensions over minor chords!) The concert was just great, and hopefully this week I'm going to go back and buy tickets (honest-to-goodness sit-down tickets) to the Messiah, which Harnoncourt is conducting on the 18th of December. That whould be absolutely fantastic....ooh I can't wait!!
Today, nothing out of the ordinary. I worked after German, so I didn't do my Music History reading, and AA&A was a bit lugubrious today, but it was helpful to take notes on the laptop...her speech pattern and pattern of repetition is perfect to dictate while typing. After I got home I called the organ teacher whose name Frau Schachermeier gave me, but twice when I got his message machine it thought it was a fax, so I couldn't leave a message. I tried again later and finally talked to him...he seems really nice, his English is OK, and I just hope he knows that I suck at the organ! I mean, I had given Frau Schachermeier a pretty brutally honest description of my abilities, so I doubt she would have misrepresented me to him.....all in all I don't hink it'll matter that much....I just hope that I get to practice. I told him that I haven't played since August, and he sort of said "whoa!" in surprise and alarm..... Hopefully I can practice on the piano and regain some of my chops before the lesson....oh well. I'm having a lesson (of sorts) this Thursday at his school in the 18th district....apparently the school has a chapel with an organ. Well, that's about all I did today...(I certainly didn't listen to the Vanhal for Classical Symphony!) so I guess it's off to bed!
Program and Coat Check: €3.10
Junk Food: €8
Completing my four-night concert streak: Priceless
Sunday afternoon was fairly uninteresting....I woke up around 12:30, having slept on the futon, as described in my last entry. I spent most of Sunday afternoon dicking around doing minor cleaning and writing in my journal....also watching South Park with the roommates....but the day was not a complete waste, because I went to a concert last night! I figure that no matter how lazy my day is, if I go out and do one worthwhile thing in Vienna then it hasn't been a complete waste of a day. I had heard about a concert of Nicolas Harnoncourt and the Concertus Musicus Wien at the Musikverein, and having heard of Harnoncourt, and enjoying the few recordings of his that I have, I thought it might be really fun. When I found out Mike (roommate) was going, I decided to go for sure, and after scarfing down the dinner we were all making, Mike and I headed to the Musikverein in the hopes of getting last-minute tickets. Unfortunately when we got there, they were all sold out, so we just got Stehplatz. The concert was really quite excellent....they did a couple of pieces of Corelli, which were good. I must say that I've never enjoyed Corelli that much....both pieces were actually quite moving. Harnoncourt certainly has a way with late baroque/early classical....it just comes alive in his hands. There was some piece by Muffat, whom I've never heard of....last on the program were two things by Bach: a sonata or something, and then the 3rd orchestral suite (the one with the famous "Air on the G string" which, if it doesn't sound immediately familiar, I guarantee you'd recognize if you heard it). That piece was absolutely incredible....the trumpet parts were played by these natural horns things that looked like trombones with immovable slides.....it was really interesting. The sound they made was incredible, and it must have been way way hard to play, since there didn't seem to be valves or pistons or slides or anything...and those parts would be hard to play with just your lips....I guess that's what they were doing! (note to self: my favorite ornamentation: you know the C#-b in the 1st violins during the big b minor cadence after the double bar? usually the C# is the last sixteenth note of the previous measure, but he did it as a eighth-note appogiatura on the downbeat of the measure...it was wicked awesome....I love those 9-8 suspensions over minor chords!) The concert was just great, and hopefully this week I'm going to go back and buy tickets (honest-to-goodness sit-down tickets) to the Messiah, which Harnoncourt is conducting on the 18th of December. That whould be absolutely fantastic....ooh I can't wait!!
Today, nothing out of the ordinary. I worked after German, so I didn't do my Music History reading, and AA&A was a bit lugubrious today, but it was helpful to take notes on the laptop...her speech pattern and pattern of repetition is perfect to dictate while typing. After I got home I called the organ teacher whose name Frau Schachermeier gave me, but twice when I got his message machine it thought it was a fax, so I couldn't leave a message. I tried again later and finally talked to him...he seems really nice, his English is OK, and I just hope he knows that I suck at the organ! I mean, I had given Frau Schachermeier a pretty brutally honest description of my abilities, so I doubt she would have misrepresented me to him.....all in all I don't hink it'll matter that much....I just hope that I get to practice. I told him that I haven't played since August, and he sort of said "whoa!" in surprise and alarm..... Hopefully I can practice on the piano and regain some of my chops before the lesson....oh well. I'm having a lesson (of sorts) this Thursday at his school in the 18th district....apparently the school has a chapel with an organ. Well, that's about all I did today...(I certainly didn't listen to the Vanhal for Classical Symphony!) so I guess it's off to bed!
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