Ludwigsburg (DE), Residenzschloss/Ordenssaal
Our day started with a very early flight from Vienna to Stuttgart. I got up at 05:06, met mathias at Landstraße/Wien Mitte and the rest of the gang at the gate round 7:00 half asleep or at least I was half asleep. While waiting at the gate we ran into Annegret, a classical flute player that mathias worked with and who we ask for advice regarding our bass flute mission and she showed us the way from Stuttgart to Ludwigsburg where we arrived around 10:30 at the train station, still so early. Johanna Schwille picked us up and drove us to our hotel. I think we all went for a little nap then and a walk round town before soundcheck and maybe a second nap after lunch. The castle in Ludwigsburg was built between 1704 and 1733 under the Duke Eberhard Ludwig and I really don‘t know how to describe this impressive castle, it is truly unbelievable!!! The gardens, the rooms, the artwork, the walls, the furniture...it is mindblowing!!! We couldn‘t believe our eyes and later on our ears because the acoustics in the „Ordenssaal“ were just great and thanks to Benjamin Wuthe (our sound engineer for this occasion) he blended our sound perfectly into the acoustics of this extraordinary room. Thank you to Thomas Wördehoff, the director of the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, for inviting us to this exceptional place and giving us the chance to share our Brahms within these walls to such a charming audience. We simply had a great time playing in this room and enjoyed every song. Joris Roelofs on clarinets was with us and his soli on „My Only Light“, „Faith In Love“ or „Echoes“ tell a different, beautiful story every time. „There was a Hausdieb in the woods“ our running joke of the day also known as the song „Echoes“, the one where mathias & Ingrid have their crazy "piano meets Glockenspiel“ parts, was one of my favourites of the evening, Hans played very powerful lines underneath the „Hausdieb“, oh yes! In the encore „Kein Haus, keine Heimat“ Miss Ingrid O played a magnificent solo while the rest of us kept on going with the riff! The concert was for one of the major sponsors of this festival: Wüstenrot and so our first encore "Kein Haus, Keine Heimat" was a perfect match. As a second encore mathias and I played Schumann‘s „Mondnacht“ and it was wonderful to sing this song in a room with acoustics like this...I loved it!
Well and then came the party! Thomas showed us the way through the gardens to the buffet where we got spoilt all the way. From great wine, to delicious food surrounded by this beautiful park and lovely people, thank you for this wonderful night! We also had the chance to talk to Bernd Hertweck the chairman of Wüstenrot, it was a pleasure to meet you! And now it is time to mention Johanna Schwille and Lena Heil, part of the team of the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele - they were amazing, taking care of us in such professional and at the same time personal way, after our concert they brought all our instruments back to the hotel, so that we could enjoy the evening without going back and forth, and thank you for putting the beautiful flowers in my room, I brought them all the way back to Vienna again on an early flight but oh how it was worth it, yours Lia!
