Evidently last night was a late night for most of the USF students. We were missing a bunch of them at our 8:30 a.m. rehearsal. But the rehearsal went well anyway. Afterwards, a few of us went to Steiner’s (remember Willie?) for a treat. I had the Austrian equivalent to a Hot Fudge Sundae. Then it was a short nap.
Big G and I decided we had two missions this afternoon: 1. Finish our shopping for our family and friends, and 2. Be tourists in Eisenstadt. There are a ton of spots in this town that we haven’t had time to visit yet. So today we did it.
First was the Haydnhaus, where Haydn lived for 12 years while working for the Esterhazy family.
Haydnhaus
Next we decided to do some shopping for presents. I can’t show you any pictures of us shopping because the gifts we bought are surprises for some of you that are reading this. But I can show you a picture of Big G riding a train on the main walking street!
Big G riding the train
We did quite a bit of shopping before we hit our next tourist attraction, which was the tour of the wine cellar at the Schloss Esterhazy. This is a palace we’ve been rehearsing and performing inside for the entire time we’ve been here but we haven’t yet had time to do some of the touristy things. The Esterhazy Family has had a winery for hundreds of years and until recently the cellar has been in the basement of the palace.
This is just a sampling of what they still have in the cellar
To give you an idea of how big the casks were that they held the wine in, I had Big G stand next to one of them. Please remember that Big G is sort of a small guy.
Big G and wine cask
After the tour we got a bite to eat at the “Pizza Boy” just near the Schloss Esterhazy. Excellent food, Italian of course. Then we attended the piano version of “The Seven Last Words” by Haydn. The pianist was excellent and it was a real treat to be able to hear the third of the four versions. On the way back to the palace Big G decided to try his hand at being a palace guard:
A little side sidenote, I found this picture of the Haydnsaal while on our tour today and thought it was interesting:
Haydnsaal without chairs
OK, where was I? Well it was time to get ready for our Friday night Gala Concert. This is the concert in the Haydnsaal where all the big wigs in the area show up in nice clothes to hear us perform.
This is us lining up for the concert:
Lining up in the courtyard for the Gala Concert.
The concert was the best we have done. There was a reception for us afterwards:
Friends at the reception after the concert
OK, total honesty here. . . it’s 11 p.m. in Austria and we just finished our biggest concert of the entire festival. I have been sitting in the hall to do this blog but have been a little distracted (see below)
That's my chair and computer
And this is just a sampling of the folks that have dropped by while I’ve been composing this post. So please forgive me if there are major mistakes. I’ll fix them tomorrow. For tonight, we’re all happy to have completed such an important concert.
Gotta go, Jeanne is contacting me on iChat.
Mark
Holy freaking cow. That is a big cask o wine. You and your 500 closest friends might get a headache from drinking that much wine!
Margaret, I’m so happy you have been following the blog. You were very important to both Jeanne and I during your time at OU. I still remember you singing the solo on the Vaughan Williams “O Taste and See.” Wonderful!
Nice blog Mark, thank you for sharing with us… Big G’s older sister here… he said he might take a train ride while he was there …. but somehow I don’t think he went very far…