BOXES 178-179: SSO Tour, Part 2.

Elaborate metalwork signs, like the ones on this street in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, are a celebrated German tradition. A typical example is the one you see for the Gasthaus Greifen (Griffin Inn). But I loved the one with the Golden Arches that I saw when I was on a tour with the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra in 1989.

Rothenburg was a side trip that many of us took when we had a free day in Heidelberg, where we were based for the greater part of our tour. I'll show a few more photos from Rothenburg later, but for the moment let's return to our first day in Heidelberg, where I was especially excited about the concert we were going to give in the Courtyard (Hof) of Heidelberg Castle. It was to be Haydn's oratorio The Seasons, in which we'd be joined by a Heidelberg Madrigal Chorus and a church choir from the adjoining town of Wiesloch. (My "home stay" for Heidelberg was at the house of a member of the Wiesloch chorus and her family.) My previous post showed one photo of the Hof; here are some more I took on our first day in Heidelberg:

There were some costumed people sitting at a picnic table in the Courtyard--maybe they were the staff who gave tours or served beer inside the Hof pub with the giant beer keg?

But before the Courtyard concert we gave two 'tryout' performances of The Seasons some distance from Heidelberg, both on the same day. The first was a matinee in the town of Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart, in a newly built theatre--by far the most impressive place I'd ever played in.

The theatre seats were spread out asymmetrically, which might have contributed to the outstanding acoustics--a revelation to me. (I was suddenly hearing players in other sections of the orchestra I had never heard during our concerts at the Kohler High School auditorium, where we usually played.) Too bad that the first photo below has a harpsichord soundboard blocking part of the view.

This was an early Sunday matinee, 11 am, and we omitted the "Winter" section of The Seasons for time considerations, but as it turned out, we played much of it for encores after a very enthusiastic reception. All too soon we were back on the buses for another performance that evening, with no cuts, at another and exceedingly different location, inside a church in the little town of Heppenheim, north of Heidelberg. The parish church of St Peter--also called the Cathedral (Dom), though technically it isn't one--was built around 1900 in neo-gothic style, though apparently part of one tower is medieval.

The interior had quite a reverberation--maybe 6 seconds. We had to play strictly according to our eyes on Maestro Prestamo's baton, ignoring the sounds echoing around us.

Heppenheim was a beautiful town at the base of a steep vine-covered hill:

They were having a festive "wine market" on the streets when we arrived, with booths set up to offer samples of the local product. We players had a half-hour to enjoy the scene and sample the wine before the concert began. I still have the souvenir 0.1-liter glass that came with the first wine sample. Here's a photo of one of our horn players, Kurt Kellner, shortly before the concert:

I also brought back some posters for our concerts, including this one from Heppenheim

The Heidelberg performance of The Seasons was the next evening, but we had the day free, and many of us signed up for a Rhine River 'cruise.' The boat left from Bingen, across the river from Rudesheim:

Among the ruined 'castles on the Rhine' was Ehrenfels, seen above another cruise boat. Next you see some of our group enjoying the cruise:

And here is Rheinstein Castle:

With its tower and church, the town of Oberwesel was certainly picturesque; and finally, at a bend in the river, the Lorelei Rock, where in legend a mermaid lured unwary boatmen:

That evening we got ready for the concert in the Hof:

The concert started at 8 pm, when it was still daylight, and continued into dusk and dark; the evening was not too warm or windy, and the only distractions were birds chirping--not really unwelcome in the parts of The Seasons that actually mention birdsong.

The next day, following a two-hour bus ride eastward, was our walking tour of Rothenburg, an especially well-preserved medieval town with city walls still intact.

Besides the McDonalds sign, here are the other photos I took inside Rothenburg:

On the way back we took a detour to Rietburg, west of Heidelberg, to visit the historic Von Rhodt winery, at the foot of a mountain:

The ride back to Heidelberg took us over the Rhine at one point:

Our concert that night was in Heidelberg's Stadthalle (civic theatre), a really handsome building, with Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) elements, opened in 1903:

Here we are arriving, and then standing below the stage and proscenium:

There were little flyers for the Hof and Stadthalle concerts that I saved:

At some point the next day I was with some others at a high point on the Wiesloch side of the Neckar:

And here are some fellow musicians at that spot:

We had one more concert to play while we were still based in Heidelberg, in a nearby town called Sensheim. Their Stadthalle was a new building: here is the exterior, followed by shots of a lobby area and the stage:

And finally, before I left Heidelberg, or more specifically Wiesloch, I took a photo of my very kind hosts, Heidi and Hermann, during a dinner at their home:

From Heidelberg our buses took us up to Marburg, a couple of hours north. Marburg too is a well-preserved town, with its university founded in the 1500s and a castle (now a university museum) looking down from its hill:

Our performance that evening was at a local high school. Here we are arriving at the school, and then on the stage:

I'll add a cropped view of this last photo, because it's the best picture I have of most of the players on a stage:

That evening there was one last reception held for us--a special one simply because it was the last one of the trip--we would be heading back to Zurich the next day for our flight home. I took several pictures during the reception, none very good, but I'll include the passable ones here as a record of the friends/fellow musicians on the trip. I do think the expressions and body language indicate that we were having a good time. The couple in the fourth photo are Manuel, our conductor, and Anne, his wife and SSO cellist.

Well, there was some fatigue too, as the Prestamos might be showing, along with Lucy Beenen with her head on the table in the next photo:

In the following pic it appears that Arnie Gesch, bassist and our business manager, is making a speech:

And here, violinist Becky Bartels is humorously addressing our tour guides, with some players looking on:

If I recall correctly, we stayed at a university dorm that night, and went back to Zurich Airport early the next morning. I'll finish this report with two more posters for our performances. The one from Esslingen on the Neckar emphasizes its Partnerstädte (sister cities); the one from Marburg is smaller and plainer.

Most of our group flew back home that day, but a few others extended their European stay, including Ellen Luebke and myself: we rented a car and headed eastward, to Vienna and Budapest, returning with a dip down into northern Italy and then up to Zurich, where we stayed a few days with my friend Heinz before flying back. This trip will be the subject of the next few posts.