If it's Saturday, it must be the Rathaus

Sightseeing

The morning was filled with shopping, sightseeing and sachertorte. We were met by unsmiling Viennese saying "Bitte Schon" ,"Danke Schon" "Gross Gott". It was all very schon.The wonderful tram sysytem allowed us to spread out in all directions and cover the centre of the city in such a way that it was almost impossible to turn around without seeing some Irish person somewhere in the distance. In the back of all our minds was the Concert in the Rathaus that evening. We had seen it and it was BIG.

Many people got to see the Treasury or Schatzkammer in the course of the weekend. A truly mystical and magical collection of objects at the exact centre of the Empire, all designed to emphasise and re-inforce the divine right of these kings to reign. From the True Cross to the Biggest Emerald in the World to the Holy Grail to Charlemange's Sword, all proved that God had given them the special right to be his representative on earth. If he hadn't, why would they have all these wonderful objects ? Marvellous! Surprisingly, this was the second Holy Grail I have seen this year. The other one belonged to the Spanish Hapsburgs and was kept in the Cathedral in Valencia. But it's not quite as impressive as the Austrian Hapsburg's one.

Getting Ready for the Gig

A rehearsal had been called for 4.00 and we all dragged back exausted. But we met a ball of fire, Donagh. Firing on all cylinders, he revved us all up with his energy and got what turned out to be a very good run thru. I was amazed because I had come back from the Belvedere with him 10 minutes before and he was as tired as anyone. As I said before, must find out what he's on.

Astrid ( or Schatzi,as she was called) our little guide was all we could expect from a guide. She marshalled us all onto the bus on time and delivered us to the Great Hall in plenty of time. Complaints of " We've over an hour to wait ! etc" quickly died as we took in the opulence of our surroundings. The place was built just before the Empire took a nose dive into oblivion. It was as if they realised the game was up and they wanted to go out on a high note. They truly wanted to impress. And they did.

An opportunity arose to have a warm up and we were ushered to a smaller reception room with a piano in a corner. The room was warm and comfortable and the sound was great and then Donagh said " It's a Boesendorfer". Luckily he was referring to the piano. Even more luckily, we knew what he meant. He had been telling us earlier that his favourite piano was a Boesendorfer and here it was, perfectly in tune and ready to go. Gemutlichkeit!

THE CONCERT

This is the great Hall of the Town Hall of Vienna where we performed a Concert of Christmas Music on the 10th December 2006 as part of the 26th International Advent Festival.

This was a venue that we could get used to, vast and as long as 2 football pitches but with a perfect acouistic. Made us sound great. The MC was a Ukrainian who told us that he was specially moved by the way we had sung the "BogaroDitse". He also said that it was UKRAINIAN and NOT Russian

I had noticed him earlier, during our performance looking a little anxious..

Accepting that he had sat thru a lot of Choral Music by the time we started, there is some excuse for his slightly wandering attention. I, personally, have no objection to members of the audience consulting their watches frequently. However I do draw the line when they start shaking them as if they are afraid they have stopped. This can cause loss of concentration which, as we all know , is not a good thing.

After the Concert we had the pleasure of talking to Michael Ladic who runs a Choir in the 13th District of Viennaand who called around to compliment us on our performance. His kind words were all the more appreciated as he certainly knew what he was talking about. He listed off all our good qualities, our blend, our discipline, our dog like devotion to our conductor. This WAS A MAN WHO KNEW HIS ONIONS. Michael suggested a sort of twinning between our two Choirs. This was met with interest and delight and we hope will be followed up. As well as Michael, we made contact with a group from the Basque region of N. Spain who were keen on singing with us again. But that was later, in the Heurigen and that requires a whole post to itself.