The night we got to Vienna we went to the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. They played a two piano Mendelssohn concerto and it was awesome! One of the piano players was the conductor of the group too. That was amazing to see the conductor play his instrument and conduct at the same time. He was amazing at both! Talk about keeping your chops up when you start conducting! Their second piece was a Brahms. Oh my gosh that was fantastic! The horn solo was just absolutely incredible.
The next day we had a walking tour of the city. We got to see so many interesting sights and our tour guide told some great stories! We finished our tour by the old royal bakery so some of us went in to get chocolate from the shop. We now have tasted royal chocolate! Then some of us went to see Saint Stephan's church and go up the tower to look out over the city and then down into the catacombs. That was really cool. We got to see where a couple of the Hapbsburgs are buried. That night we went to a jazz concert. That was fun, it was a change of pace from all the other concerts. The guitar soloist was really good too! The only thing I was disappointed with was the fact that the guitar soloist was turned up so loud that it was hard to hear the other players in the band. You could tell they were good but it was just hard to hear them sometimes. It was nice to hear a jazz band again though, I haven't heard one in awhile.
The next day we went to Eisinstadt to see Haydn's church. We had to go on an hour train ride to this little town... But that hour ride turned into a 3 hour ride when no one checked our tickets and the train separated at a stop with half going to Eisinstadt and the other half going somewhere else. We were on the wrong half that went somewhere else haha. So we had to stay on the train and wait for it to turn around and then get on another train that really took us to Eisinstadt. It was a real adventure. We were so hungry by the time we got to Haydn's church but we had a scheduled tour of the church so we couldn't get food just yet. The tour was great though! We got to see the original part of the church and got the history of it. Then we got to see Haydn's tomb and then the catacombs. For awhile Haydn was buried with the wrong skull, and when Haydn's real skull was actually returned to his body, the other skull was put in a place of honor in the catacombs. That night we went to the Vienna State Opera house and saw the Magic Flute. Oh my gosh it was phenomenal! The singers were fantastic, the orchestra was gorgeous, and the sets and props were magnificent! The character Papageno used real birds! I loved how they choreographed this opera, it was just so engaging. Papageno went out into the audience at one point and the into the orchestra at another, it was just so much fun to watch. The conductor conducted the whole opera without a score too... How amazing is that?! and the queen of the night sang her aria absolutely brilliantly! It was absolutely jaw dropping to hear that aria performed so well. If you haven't heard the queen of the night aria, look it up right now!
Today Megan, Miranda, Claire and I went to a high mass sung in Latin. It was so cool! It was very traditional and the quartet that sang was gorgeous. Claire said they sounded exactly like the listening examples in music history. After mass we had lunch and then met back up with everyone else to go to the Tonkunstler Orchestra in the Musikverein (or the golden hall). The hall was stunning and the orchestra was amazing. They played a Haydn symphony and a Bruckner symphony. The Haydn was great, but oh my gosh the Bruckner was fantastic! Each movement felt like its own symphony because he had so many different emotions in the same movement. It was very fascinating to listen to and the brass was absolutely "face pealing", to quote Powell. Every movement had these fantastic brass fanfares and they were amazing!
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