Vienna (AT), Porgy & Bess - Premiere "The Schumann Songbook"
Playing new material for the very first time always brings me to my limits and although there is this is feeling that I can‘t wait to share these new songs and that they feel like secrets, that I cannot hold back any longer, I am more nervous than usual, feeling even more vulnerable and scared. The last few days right before a premiere are so special in many ways : ) rehearsals are incredibly intense and in between you try your best to explain during interviews what it is that you‘re doing and why you‘re doing it : )! I never know if I‘m really ready, there is always a part that tells me I could work a little bit more on that part or on this phrase, but at some point you have to trust that yourself and that you did you‘re best. It was our third premiere or lets say three and a half including our set with songs of the Vienna Art Orchestra this summer : ) it was time for our „Schumann Songbook“. mathias did his first arrangements of Robert Schumann songs in January and now on the second of November we had the pleasure to play our favourite Schumann songs at the one and only Porgy & Bess for the very first time. And with us once more creating the sound of our Schumann Songbook incomparable Ingrid Oberkanins on percussions and incredible Hans Strasser on bass. I still can‘t believe it, that it has almost been 4 years since we had our very first concert with Schubert songs at the Porgy & Bess in February 2013. THANK YOU for being the most wonderful band in the world : )! Our soloist of the night was, yes you know who, Mister Mario Rom on trumpet playing his mind blowing solos over mathias‘ arrangements. Two days before the concert I met with extraordinary designer Susanne Bisovsky!!!!YES and can you imagine: I was allowed to wear one of her magic outfits for our concerts and decided right then and there that I will be wearing her and her only from now on! We started our soundcheck round 4 and I have to say that when you work with Thomas Egger you can not really call it a soundcheck : ) because he is so fast and subtle that we just keep rehearsing and „abracadabra“ soundcheck‘s done : )! oh yes, its true : )! I kept gazing to the entrance because I was waiting for someone very special to drop in : ) and I still can‘t believe that they came - all the way from Switzerland just to hear our Schumann, the stunning pianist Oliver Schnyder and his beautiful wife. We met them this year in Ittingen within a wonderful festival that Oliver was curating. Mathias and I were truly happy to see them - having their support means a great, very great deal to us and we felt deeply honored to share this night with them! Aaaand coming all the way as well were Brita Ostertag and Philip Bachofner, two classical flute players and organizers of the „Schlosskonzerte“ in Rapperswil/Zürich, yeeees and we are so excited to get to be part of their concerts in 2018 : )!!! We finished our soundcheck early and had a lot of time to get changed and ready. Around 20:30 Christoph Huber was coming backstage to pick us up - it was time – Christoph introduced us and told the secret story about the very beginning of the Porgy and what mathias had to do with it ; ). These last few minutes before hitting the stage usually don‘t feel very good for me and are very hard to explain, lets just say, I was very relieved to finally get on stage and hear the first bars of „Die Sennin“ : ). We were welcomed by a wonderful audience, who were open and supportive, listening to us intensely from the very beginning. For us, time flew by and I couldn‘t believe it when we started our last song of the set, „Märzveilchen“, we call it our „ragtime-polka“ which always makes me smile, especially when Hans, Ingrid and mathias start with the grooooovy, crazy solo chorus and Mario tops it all of with his extraordinary phrases!!!Dear Band, thank you for giving it all you got!!! And I cannot thank you enough, dear Porgy, for making this night possible. There were so many helping hands involved during our preparations over the last month and one of them, a very very strong one : ) was Walter Pinter, who was fighting for our Schumann Premiere and spreading the news all over the place, thank you Walter!!!And another one was Bert Wertmüller, thank you once more for supporting us in many ways including capturing beautiful photos of our premiere night! My family and dear friends of ours came out, sitting in the front rows supporting us with so much love!!!Oh how lucky we are to have you on our sides!(also ; ) I was very excited to meet Mister Markus Kupferblum and Mister Peter Marboe after the show)!!!
Thank you once more to each and every single one who came out that night - finding out how we are continuing our journey with the one and only Robert Schumann and his magnificent songs.
Let‘s keep our fingers crossed that this was just the beginning : ), yours Lia!
