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Thursday...one week and one day to home :)
Today was our solo recital for the class. Everyone played and sang pretty well...I love programs like these because you appreciate all the work that went into them since you prepared and went through masterclasses together. Thats a rare opportunity, so I found it pretty fun. My piano teacher came! She is really awesome, and apparantly she was into my performance :) I played the Brahms Ballade Op. 10, Nr. 1 that she gave me a few weeks ago, and I was pretty happy with it, I guess. I'm still not convinced as to my interpretation of it, but I guess that will come with time and being home where I can actually focus on the music instead of my surroundings. I felt really comfortable performing, but I still dont have that performance poise that I think is the difference between an entertaining pianist, and a pianist who plays for him/her self. Im just not there yet. Anyway, it was another boost of confidence at a time when mine really doesn't exist at the piano.
After the concert, the fun didnt stop and I went straight into a rehearsal for next Thursday's concert. I'm playing a Mozart flute/piano sonata and its really sweet.. I like it and I like the way the flute player, Elaine, plays it...She's fun to work with! After that we headed out to Zanoni and Zanoni, a huge gelatto parlor, considered to be one of the best in the city. Their portions were huge, and their menu was probably 13 or 14 pages long...all ice cream treats. I got a banana split with chocolate and banana gelatto. I couldn't eat more than half of it...It was huge, and I've eaten smaller dinners. As soon as we got to the parlor, lightning touched down within the block and it ushered in a pretty nice thunderstorm that has lasted until now...1 am. That makes a 7 hour thunderstorm!!! Hopefully it will cool the weather down a bit. I know I've written about how hot it is here, but I really wont take central air or elevators for granted now.
So Kenya and I had to split from the group at Zanoni (we went out with our accompanist and teacher and a few other instrumentalists) and went back to the center (in the rain :( we didn't bring umbrellas...) to practice, and on our way, we passed through Stephansplatz to find probably 20 police vans lined up facing the buildings. We didn't know if it was the Euro fans, or the police telling people to take shelter from the storm... Apparently the other night at the fanzone they cancelled their broadcast of the game and a huge sign came on the screen saying "please leave immediately, there is a very severe storm headed for downtown Vienna. expect hail." It takes a good 45 minutes to get out of the fanzone in a crowd like that, and I can't imagine 70,000 people trying to shuffle out of a few small gates. Ok so back to what i was saying... We practiced our four hands piece and it really came together...It is such a cool work! It's a Mozart fugue, kinda like Mozart trying to be Bach. We hadn't really been getting it the past few rehearsals, so things finally clicked tonight and it was actually fun! I wasnt thinking about my wrists either, so they didnt hurt......hmmm maybe that means im thinking about it too much, which would definitely not be a first for me :-/
From the rehearsal, I went to Salud's where it was 5 euro Mojito night. such a deal. I didnt get anything or stay for more than 10 minutes because i went home to change and get dinner and then meet up with everyone at Flanagan's, an Irish pub. I figured that now was as good a time as any to make sure that I tried all the beers from Vienna ;) I've had a case of Ottakringer, and really really liked it. It was smooth and didnt have that nasty chemical aftertaste in some American beers, and I had a Stiegl in Salzburg, where it is brewed. So i got a Gosser, and that was about the same as Ottakringer, although I like Ottakringer better. Then I got a Hirtel, which was a dark beer. I had never had dark beer before and I really loved this. It was kind of like molasses and it even smelled good. I definitely have to try more dark beer. I also had a sip of another light beer that was too sweet for me, and Kay got a beer (we are so proud!) that was half beer half fanta...? It was pretty good, and didn't have much fizz, but still tasted a little bit like Fanta. I'd have one if I came across it. Yum. So our roommates got crazy and we came back, made awesome nachos...they were really really good, and we just kinda started pulling things out of the fridge and putting them on the chips and then put it in the oven for a bit. Then we dipped them in sour cream. I haven't gained any weight over here. haha, not! Tomorrow 4 of the roommates leave for Prague for the weekend and I am going to stay here and do my piano lesson and shopping and all the other things I really want to see and do before I leave Vienna!!
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