Monday may have been the best day ever possible.. we'll see :)
Mein Montag:
6:30- Horn Yoga/Routine practice stuff
8:00- Shower, become a real person by 9:00
9:30- Search desperately for the Wiener Phil ticket box that Manuel showed me. However, being the directionally challenged person that I am (in this case depth perceptionally challenged), it took my 20 minutes of wandering around to find it. Turned out I just didn't walk quite far enough on the street...
10:00- VIENNA PHILHARMONIC REHEARSAL OF BRUCKNER's 4TH SYMPHONY. aka. highlight of my day :D
1:00- After being thoroughly inspired, practice some more. then eat a bit
3:00- 401, music history
3:45- After being let out 2 hours early, I used my time wisely and read half of the required reading for wednesday.
6:20- Cross Cultures Philosophy. WOW. My teacher's a genius.
8:00- Go home. Dinner. Practice. Bed.
BEST DAY EVER!
That's the horn section, with some strings in the way =P (jk!! i promise!)
The Rehearsal was so incredible. They can really play, that much is obvious though. Maybe I should tell you what's not obvious. They really know their hall. They sounded amazing in there. They are an amazing powerful brass section. When Chicago play here, the trombones were too loud, and not really in a good way unfortunately. It's not their hall, they're not used to it, no big deal. Vienna knows their hall and you can tell. I sat in the middle of the hall instead of under the overhang in the Stehplatz, so it was much more resonant. Oh, and I'm pretty sure it was Christoph Eschenbach conducting, almost positive actually. He was great, I couldn't really understand what he was saying to them, but he made some good changed. He would sometimes sing what they were doing, and then sing what he wanted them to do. Then it was really obvious. He actually asked them for more sustain once. The tuba sounded huge, I'm not really used to that, although one would imagine I would be. I think I was hearing a lot more of individuals than an orchestra blend, but there was still a blend. It was just something new to my ears. The trombones were really loud, and sounded fantastic. The trumpets were on rotaries, so they had less of a center to their tone (like Herseth) and more of a spread, flat sound that cut like crazy. The strings, to my ears (for what they're worth), sounded more rough than what I'm used to. I'm comparing everything to Chicago, as it's really the only other top notch orchestra that I've heard a lot of. To my eyes and ears, the strings were also not as together as Chicago. I loved the clarinet. The oboe was.. European. lol. Actually much less than I expected. I'm not so experienced in judging flute, but he sounded nice, less full and huge that Dufour or Robertello (sp?), but still very pretty. I couldn't really hear the bassoons much. haha. The horns. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but they had a really rich, dark color when they play solo or quietly. Much darker than my horn color. Then when they get loud they are crazy brassy sounding. I definitely knew that was coming. Much brassier than my horn! It's really cool to hear it live. They sound really resonant and smooth and beautiful. The opening was incredible. I got goosebumps and my eyes began to water immediately as Wolfgang Tomböck (I'm almost positive) came in so cleanly and beautifully on the first note. What an amazing experience. The orchestra as a whole does not use as much sustain as Chicago generally does, however they are still quite convincing in their approach.
Although the best part of the day was right in the morning, what was left was still wonderful and productive. History seems like it's going to be interesting at times, and painful at other times. I've already started reading about gregorian chant. Thus beginning the painful part. ;)
Philosophy seems really interesting, after 2 days of it now, I can tell that it's going to be a really interesting class. Even after 3 hours of History or after Deutsch class, because it's a completely abstract way of thinking, it's going to be engaging. I was dreading the first reading because it was semi long and we only had one night. Aber! It was sooooo interesting, I read it right before I went to bed, and I don't think I could have put it down if i tried. It was called "The Wall" and it was by Sartre. It was really intense and then our discussion was even better. I feel like I'm going to have a whole new way of looking at things after taking this course. I'm so excited!!
These days have been great, but exhausting. I'm getting up at 5:30. I need some sleep. night night!
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