The Schütz, Take 2
Thursday started off with German, as usual. After German I went to the Billa on Stephansplatz to buy water and candy treats to give to everyone at the Schütz rehearsal. On my way out I noticed a huge crowd of people (well, I noticed them on my in, too, but I didn't go over to see what was going on)....apparently some dance school or something was doing a presentation...I don't know, but there were 6 or 7 couples doing waltzes accompanied by cheesy J. Strauss recordings on this stage in the middle of Stephansplatz, and there must have been a couple thousand people there, at least, watching them. After a while these men with huge white cardboard boxes started going out from the stage, and then it really got crazy.....people were rushing toward them like they were giving away free donuts or something.....which, as a matter of fact, was exactly what they were doing! They were handing out free Krapfen, which are delicious jam-filled donuts!! Needless to say I shoved my way through the crowd (which, by the way, had completely abandoned the Austrian huge-bubble-of-personal-space custom) and got my free Krapfen before heading back to IES to reserve the practice room for the Schütz rehearsal. I stopped at reception and picked up my package(s) from home, which contained such delights as two HUGE bags of Doritos, pounds and pounds of jellybeans, and socks! A big shout-out to the 'rents for that....thank you so much!!! Everyone was very jealous, especially of the Doritos, which you can't get here. I mean, I didn't eat Doritos constantly or anything, but it was like a little taste of home.....anyway, I waited around, practiced my part a bit and made some necessary copies. As the vocalists got there I gave them each their bottle of Voslauer Ohne water and a pencil, and with everyone in good spirits we started the rehearsal. It went fairly well, for a first combined rehearsal....there were some unforeseen problems, but pretty much everything got strung together nicely. I told them that we should do part of it in the workshop on Tuesday, and they agreed that that would be good. I have yet to decide which movements we'll do, but I think it'll work out. After that fun time, I hung around for a while, mostly debating what to do about the recital that night....let me explain:
There's (apparently) two student recitals each semester for the performance workshop.....I thought that there was only one, at the end of the term....whatever. The first was today, which I found out from Michelle at our lesson last week, and assumed that since I hadn't heard anything about it, that I wasn't going to be singing. Well, anyway, on Tuesday night Russell basically told Allison and I that we were going to do the Jägerlied....which, although I guess it was up to par musically, I just wasn't ready to PERFORM it on Thursday....plus, I would have felt bad asking Mary Rose (our pianist) to do it with such short notice......and on top of it all, I had an organ lesson that night which I wasn't eager to cancel (since I've had to cancel a few times before)....anyway, we talked to Russell, and he agreed that we should just wait for the end-of-term concert to do it. *whew* that's the end of that tale....
So, anyway, here I am on Thursday, still with my organ lesson at 6:00. I find out, also on Tuesday, that the recital had been moved back from 7:00 to 6:00, which (I realized) meant that I could not attend it at all.....I started feeling really guilty about it, because I realized that so many of my friends were performing (I seriously thought that maybe 4 or 5 people were going to play....) so I was trying to figure out what I should do. Long story short: I decided to only have a 40-minute organ lesson and not stay and practice afterward, like I usually like to do, and hurry back to IES after the lesson to catch maybe the last half of the recital. At least that way I'd hear some people, and in the process not seem like such a douche.
I went down to Marianum, and after a nice little chat with the cleaning lady (who's very, very nice and speaks nice and slowly to me....it's really cute!) went to the Chapel for my lesson. Gottfried was fine with the 40-minute idea (I was sure that he wouldn't mind...) and actually it turned out to be our best lesson, maybe because I knew I didn't really have enough time, and so I was just more 'on' during the lesson. It was also the first time that we've interacted really almost entirely in German, which was fun as well. After the lesson I put on my one techno track on my iPod, and made like Lola and RAN to the Straßenbahn to catch the soonest one back to the city center. I made it back to IES in nary 25 minutes, but the recital was far more than half-over....I saw Nick and Carla in the trio, and I saw Caitlin sing her Bellini (which was beautiful) and Natalie and Claire's Prokofiev which I hear them practicing so often. After the recital there was a reception with fun conversation and delicious tea sandwiches and g'spritzt, which was tons of fun. After making weekend plans with people and generally mingling, I went home to rest from my tiring day.
There's (apparently) two student recitals each semester for the performance workshop.....I thought that there was only one, at the end of the term....whatever. The first was today, which I found out from Michelle at our lesson last week, and assumed that since I hadn't heard anything about it, that I wasn't going to be singing. Well, anyway, on Tuesday night Russell basically told Allison and I that we were going to do the Jägerlied....which, although I guess it was up to par musically, I just wasn't ready to PERFORM it on Thursday....plus, I would have felt bad asking Mary Rose (our pianist) to do it with such short notice......and on top of it all, I had an organ lesson that night which I wasn't eager to cancel (since I've had to cancel a few times before)....anyway, we talked to Russell, and he agreed that we should just wait for the end-of-term concert to do it. *whew* that's the end of that tale....
So, anyway, here I am on Thursday, still with my organ lesson at 6:00. I find out, also on Tuesday, that the recital had been moved back from 7:00 to 6:00, which (I realized) meant that I could not attend it at all.....I started feeling really guilty about it, because I realized that so many of my friends were performing (I seriously thought that maybe 4 or 5 people were going to play....) so I was trying to figure out what I should do. Long story short: I decided to only have a 40-minute organ lesson and not stay and practice afterward, like I usually like to do, and hurry back to IES after the lesson to catch maybe the last half of the recital. At least that way I'd hear some people, and in the process not seem like such a douche.
I went down to Marianum, and after a nice little chat with the cleaning lady (who's very, very nice and speaks nice and slowly to me....it's really cute!) went to the Chapel for my lesson. Gottfried was fine with the 40-minute idea (I was sure that he wouldn't mind...) and actually it turned out to be our best lesson, maybe because I knew I didn't really have enough time, and so I was just more 'on' during the lesson. It was also the first time that we've interacted really almost entirely in German, which was fun as well. After the lesson I put on my one techno track on my iPod, and made like Lola and RAN to the Straßenbahn to catch the soonest one back to the city center. I made it back to IES in nary 25 minutes, but the recital was far more than half-over....I saw Nick and Carla in the trio, and I saw Caitlin sing her Bellini (which was beautiful) and Natalie and Claire's Prokofiev which I hear them practicing so often. After the recital there was a reception with fun conversation and delicious tea sandwiches and g'spritzt, which was tons of fun. After making weekend plans with people and generally mingling, I went home to rest from my tiring day.
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