Vöcklabruck (AT) - Stadtsaal 'The Great European Song Book'
Close to home. Vöcklabruck is only about a 20 min trainride from my hometown Wels. mathias and I took the train from Vienna ‘round noon and met the rest of the band at the venue for soundcheck. And as always when playing close to home I am a bit more nervous than usual. It has always been easier for me to sing in front of strangers but at the same time it is such a special feeling to know family is sitting right there showing their support. And this time my niece and nephew for the very first time would be there too. They’ve never seen what their aunt is up to on stage and it meant a lot to me that decided to come with grandma and grandpa aka my mom and dad to the concert. We played at the Stadtsaal in Vöcklabruck – a huge space with a huge stage that is set quite high above the audience, so mathias with his slight vertigo was facing an unexpected challenge : ). Luckily for him, as a pianist, his back is facing the abyss most of the time : ). A wonderful team was expecting us, showing us everything and making sure we have everything we need. Thanks to all the helping hands at Kuf! We played our ‘Great European Song Book’ with Stano Palúch on violine. And with us, as always, Thomas Egger taking care of our sound on and off-stage. This program, our favourites from ‘A Winter’s Journey’, ‘The Schumann Song Book’ and ‘The Brahms Song Book’ is truly the core of our work. We, mathias, Hans, Ingrid and I have been working together between Kunstlied and Song for the past 10 years and almost on the day exactly 10 years ago we had our Schubert-Premiere on the stage of ‘Porgy & Bess’ in Vienna. Time flies! Although sometimes I think music is able to slow it down for a second and can connect memories with the present moment – almost like time traveling it sometimes feels like I’m in the past and present at the same moment in time. Such a special moment occurred for me when we played Schubert’s ‘Wegweiser’, which was one the first songs from the Kunstlied-world I started to work on. Singing it, it always takes me back to these first moments with this melody alone in a room in front of the piano, having no idea that it would shape my artistic path for the coming decade.
As a band, we had an intense couple of months with recording and playing ‘The Blue Piano’, so we were already warmed up and ready to go. We had a great time and enjoyed every song, every note. Ingrid was on fire on her cajon solo in ‘Tell me, my sweet sheperdess’, Hans dove into mighty grooves and colours during his bass soli on ‘Auf dem Flusse’ and ‘Happy Little Song’ (yes : ) for this night, we also included some songs of ‘The Blue Piano’) and Stano on violine rocked ‘Faith in love’ and up-tempo Polka ‘Märzveilchen’ like he always does. mathias layed beautiful soundclouds in the exactly right tempo :) underneath one of my fav Brahms ballads ‘ ‘Heidenröslein’. And during our first encore ‘The Post’ Stano shared the solo chorus with Ingrid and started to play percussion on his violine!!!It was incredible, definitely one the highlights for me! Our audience was as warm-hearted as one can wish for! Thank you all so much for coming and sharing this journey with us, making us feel at home in many ways. Thank you Simone Zaunmair for your support throughout the years and for inviting us to the ‘Stadtsaal’ in Vöcklabruck. mathias and I closed the evening with Schumann’s ‘Mondnacht’ knowing that this concert, this encore marks a special moment in our journey as collaborators. We all, Thomas, Stano, Hans, Ingrid, mathias and I hugged and waved goodbye. I drove back with my mom and dad, sitting between my niece and nephew on the backseat, talking about music, soccer and what we would eat back in Wels : ). It was an emotional night for me facing goodbyes and new beginnings…coming home ✨.
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Yours Lia
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