6 September 2012 - Austrian Outing

Many of you may not know this but S is a bit of a classical music buff.  He has a lovely and stately Steinway & Sons grand piano (which I am scared to go near) which has just returned from a tropical holiday in Germany to be retuned and have an air-conditioner installed!  Gotta keep them ivories cool I guess.

S is also quite the accomplished pianist although I have not as yet received any sort of personal performance (hint, hint!).  S claims to be a bit rusty and is practising before hitting the concert circuit again.

He also has a favourite composer being Franz Schubert, an Austrian composer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schubert).  So, what is all this leading up to?  Just over the border in Austria (read, two hours car ride) in a town called Schwarzenberg they hold a Schubert festival called the Schubertiade.  This runs a few times during the year and fans from all over the world come to this particular concert hall to hear the pieces performed.  As you can imagine I was a bit of a virgin when it came to Schubert so this was to be my first foray.

I am not a complete ludite and have been to a number of classical performances and even some opera, and, wait for it, enjoyed it.  S was a bit worried as Schubert often lends itself to those with a particular taste in classical music - doesn't it all sound the same [insert barrage of outrage here.......].  I have also affectionaly called Schubert, Scooby Doo which of course makes his fans the Scooby Gang!  Not sure if all are sharing in my affectionate name.  Oh, the trouble I can get myself into!

Anyway there were two performances to attend, one at 4:00 pm and one at 8:00 pm.  So off we darted in the SLK across another border into Austria.  You will be pleased to know that the cows also had bells on them, so all is right in the world.

We arrived into Schawzenberg in time for a coffe and piece of cake.  I have to admit the urge to run throught the fields and up the hills crying "climb every mountain" was strong but I could not find Maria (she is a problem after all).  There was a doe, a dear a female dear, and ray, a drop of golden sun though.  Oh, I could go on for hours.

I have to say though that there were a number of people who were dressed in Austrian traditional dress and there was the cutest family who looked like the Von Trapp family singers - I am not kidding.  Worst part was I could not get a photo!

The first performance was by a Martin Stadtfeld who performed some Schubert and Rachmaninow.  He was a tall, lanky fellow who has his own paino stool that is set very low I am not sure how he plays!  Anyway he did a pretty good job by my reckoning and S was delighted (as was the rest of the Scooby gang).

The second performance involved singing (who says classical music doesn't have words!!). The tenor was Ian Bostridge who is from the UK and world renowned.  The pieces were all Schubert.  It was an interresting experience for me.  The pieces themselves were fine but I struggled with the singer.  He looked very strained and pulled some amazing faces!  Most were thrilled with his performance (I think he came back four times on stage and did two encores) but apparently he does otracise some fans.  I thought it was merely because I was a bit of a thug.  I will go with the first option and pretend to be clever! 

Also met a bunch of friends of S who are part of the gang who were very enamoured with the show too.

Was then time for the two hours drive home after a fun night of new experiences.