By Jennifer MacDonald
On Thursday 26th September 30 members of the Stonehaven Chorus plus Conductor Ralph Jamieson and 3 ‘significant others’ accompanying their singing partner, gathered at Aberdeen airport for our flight to Vienna via Amsterdam The first leg was without incident but we had a 2 hour delay in Amsterdam due to a technical fault with the next plane. Fortunately a replacement plane was flown in from London and we were able to continue our journey. Being a Choral Society, we celebrated the good news—and entertained the other passengers in the departure lounge–with a rendition Auld Lang Syne!
On arrival at Vienna airport we met Anniko from Musikland , the tour company who organised everything for us in Hungary and we transferred by coach to our hotel in Sopron in South Hungary. Although we were late due to the plane issues, we enjoyed a buffet supper before bed.
The next day we travelledto Vienna where we enjoyed coffee and Sachertorte in Café Sluka in the centre of Vienna before walking to St. Stephen’s Cathedral to change and rehearsal for an a capella concert.
Our programme of music was mostly sacred pieces as we were singing in 2 cathedrals but we also had some Scottish songs for the joint concert. We sang Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, Tchaikovsky’s Cherubic Hymn, the 23rd Psalm to the tune Crimmond, Mendelssohn’s Herr Nun Lässest Du deinen Diener”, Telemann’s Hosianna, Elizabeth Poston’s Jesus Christ and the Apple Tree, Brückner’s Locus Iste and James MacMillan’s O Radiant Dawn. Our Scottish pieces were Air falalalo and Ken Johnson’s O gin I were where the Gadie Rins and we sang Ralph Jamieson’s arrangement of Auld Lang Syne and Kodaly’s Esti Dal, a Hungarian evening hymn, both of these jointly with the Hungarian choir. So we sang in Latin, German, Russian, Hungarian and English! With the guide’s encouragement we also sang to the border guards each time we drove through a border. It worked. Who needs passports with a busload of singers belting out O Flower of Scotland!
After lunch , we had aguided tour with a local guide, both on bus and walking then back to the hotel for dinner..and a bit of socialising and lubricating the vocal chords at the bar!
On Saturday 28th September, we drove to the beautiful Schoenbrunn Castle in Vienna where we had the “Grand tour’ and some free time. Next was a boat trip on Lake Fertö then we returned to the hotel for dinner, socialising and lubricating the vocal chords.
On Sunday 29th September, we had a 1 hour rehearsal in the hotel before a trip to the Harrer Chocolate Factory and sightseeing in Sopron. After returning to the hotel to change we had a 1 hour rehearsal at church where we performed a joint concert with a local Hungarian choir followed by a meal together.
On Monday 30th September, we were on the road again, this time toBratislava in Slovakia. After a guided tour with local guide , we performed a concert in the cathedral, St. Martin’s Dome. And we managed an impromptu Auld Lang Syne to an audience of tourists on the steps outside at the end of the concert. In the afternoon we enjoyed a winery visit at Fényes Pince with wine tasting .Lots of singing in the bus on the way back to the hotel after that!
On Tuesday, 1st October, aftercheck-out, we had a trip to Eisenstadt, with a guided walk in the park and some visited the Hadyn museum then on to Vienna for some final sightseeing before our transfer to Vienna Airport and our flights back to Aberdeen via Amsterdam – but no technical problems this time!
It was a great tour thanks to all the work that Musikland put in to the organisation of our programme.
