European Adventures Part III ~ Vienna

Third stop on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's 2016 European Tour:  Beautiful Vienna, Austria.

Performance in one of the great halls of Europe, the Musikverein.

The hall was built in 1870 and is known for it's glorious acoustics.  Home of some of the great composers including Brahms (!!) and Mahler, the opportunity to sing in this magnificent place was humbling. 

We took a long bus ride through the beautiful countryside from Munich to Vienna, past beautiful villages nestled in rolling hills with the Alps in the distance.

We arrived in Vienna in time for a charming luncheon in Der Ratskellar, a series of restaurant halls in the basement of the old Town Hall, which used to house the giant wine barrels.

After lunch, the choir and orchestra hopped on a bus to the Musikverein for sound check.

 

Chior guests were able to wander the city.  Evan caught quite a few pictures, including a couple of rallies, lots of golden statues on tops of buildings, and lots of beautifully ornate buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

We met up again, back at Der Ratskellar, this time for a fabulous buffet in the upstairs Ballroom.

 

I imagined the orchestra playing the Viennese waltz, and wished I could dance around the room in style.  As it was, as usual, we had to eat and run!  Oh, how I wish I had more time in this amazing city.  Need. More. Time!

Back to the Musikverein for concert:

We played to a sold-out house.  In fact, at the back of the hall was an alcove where you could purchase a ticket for standing room only.  I was amazed that that section was packed for the duration of the concert, even through two encores.
 
The choir donated all the proceeds of that evening's performance to a charity, Caritas Austria.  You can read more about that here: Vienna Austria Charity  or here:  Vienna, the City of Music.

And here's one cute family's experience at the concert, fellow Utahns, living in Vienna for a period of time: viennamom.com.  In her blog post, meet Oliver, star of several YouTube videos as a little tiny kid "conducting" the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  He's adorable. Her blog post included a video of an audience favorite - a Nigerian hymn, Betelehemu.