Puchberg (AT), Schloss Puchberg - Pale/rüegg Duo
It was a hot hot summer day and we got to Schloss Puchberg round 5, after a short but wonderful train ride with iced coffee and air condititioning. Schloss Puchberg is 10 min by car from my hometown Wels and my Mum picked us from the trainstation and took us to Puchberg – thank youuuu mum!!!Our sound engineer and his special helping hands Mena and Xaver were already there when we arrived and busy unloading the car and playing soccer...It was the third time for us to play in Puchberg – underneath those beautiful Lindentrees but it was the very first time for us to play a Duo concert, just mathias and me – just the two of us!Miss Gabriele Hofer Stelzhammer invited us and encouraged us to play as a Duo and it was something that I‘ll never forget. It was so very intimate and challenging, I am very grateful for this opportunity!!!I have to admit I was very very nervous!The soundcheck turned out to be very very hot : ) 32 degrees celcius...And with us this time our long time companion Mister Christoph Burgstaller and he put a very special microphone in front of me...some kind of a not official AKG mic...it was incredible and I enjoyed singing with it and playing with the possibilities it offered so very much. Burgstaller has known us for quite some time and so he knows our music, our sound, my voice inside and out – it is such a pleasure to work with someone who pays so much attention to every detail...thank you B!!!And his exceptional talented kids helped everywhere they could!Xaver took care of mathias : ) and ...Mena (my favourite flute student) was taking care of eeeeverything else - she was incredible (and sold soooo many of our CDs…) we are hoping she‘ll come along and work with us everytime from now on!!!Of course I have to talk to Burg first : )!Back to the music...we played almost all of my favourite ballads by Robert Schumann like „Widmung“, „Mondnacht“ or „Ich will meine Seele tauchen“ and inbetween we played some songs written by mathias for the VAO like Voltaire or Insecurity is the secret of eternal youth and some of our songs from „my poet‘s love“. In the beginning I couldn‘t believe how many familiar faces I recognized in our wonderful audience. My flute teacher was sitting right there, in the front row and I havent seen her in 12 years or something like that!!!I couldn‘t believe it!!!I started playing the flute when I was 8 years old, I think and I remember everything so clearly, I was so excited to see her again. Then I recognized my flute companion from my days with the brass band „Eisenbahner“ in Wels and I kept on discovering so many familiar faces, that I share memories with, friends and family...I was deeply touched! mathias and I enjoyed our time playing very much, (mathias really loved the piano, it was the same one he has at his place!!! ) it felt new and challenging to us in many ways. I felt a strong connection to the audience in a very intimate way that led us through the whole evening and it continued til long after we played our last song...thank you to everyone for coming out on this warm summer night!Oh and the birds were singing with us too : ) - unbelievable - and the trees were leaving sticky little things on the piano keys making it tricky for mathias : )!!!There is nothing like playing open air : )!!!
Once again thank you to Gabriele, to „Bildungshaus Schloss Puchberg" and its wonderful team!!!
Thank you for opening your doors for me...I think you know what I mean!!!
For the next couple of days we're gonna be in the studio - recording our Schumann Songbook - recording the ballads we played last night...underneath these Lindentrees...
Yours Lia
