Schloss Waldenfels (AT) - Waldenfelser Musiksommer

In her introduction of the evening, the organizer of Waldfelser Musiksommer amazing Nina Maderner said that there are couple of things one should, if given the possibility, not miss out on – including spending an evening filled with music inside a castle somewhere in Mühlviertel in Upper Austria. And I think, she might be right! What a special venue!

I almost never drive by car to a concert but this time with all my bags ready to go and a friend from LA on board, I drove my old and trusty Saab from Vienna to Upper Austria. The day before was a hot, hot day with peak temperatures round 37° degrees celsius and the more we got out of the city the more it cooled down – and it didn’t stop cooling down : ). In some parts of the Mühlviertel it had 17 degrees celsius – what a blessing - such fresh air : ). We rolled the windows down and talked about our favourite Beatles albums. I had picked up mathias and his entourage, the up-and-coming singer Miana, who will also be part of his Kunstlied-programme ‘Das blaue Klavier’ – ‘The blue piano’ in which he wrote somewhat traditional Kunstlieder for piano and baritone and then arranged himself for a somewhat traditional jazz quintett : ). It’ll premiere in fall - you’ll soon find out more! We arrived at the castle in the afternoon and were greeted by the one and only Border Collie Leni, she might be the true owner of the castle…Her kind and heartfelt welcome meant the world to me and she stayed by our side from this moment on and I mean it! She laid by my side on stage til the very last song of the evening. What an honour to share the stage with her! You can imagine how happy mathias was that his movement ‘More Animals in Jazz’ finally made a big step forward : ).

I hadn’t sung unplugged in so long, I can’t even remember when – but the acoustics in the halls of the castle and our duo setting made it possible and so we decided to do it, no mic, no monitors, no mix – just piano, flute, percussion and my voice. It is something so intimate and special and challenged me in many ways. We played songs from all our programs, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, even ‘My Poet’s Love’ and a song from the Vienna Art Orchestra. Through this special setting I felt like I’ve gotten to know this passionate and heartwarming audience and the audience got to know me. And yeeessss I might have shared stories I normally wouldn't have 🤗... We even premiered the ‘Leiermann’ and ‘A little song’ from mathias’ new programme in the end – it was the very, very first time these songs were played on stage and what an audience we got to play it for!!!I am truly grateful for this night, thank you each and everyone who came out (some had come all the way from Vienna, and my mum from Wels : ) ) I can only hope that I’ll see you all again soon! Thank you Nina for doing what you do and for letting music fill these mystical halls.

‘You'll see the sun come shining through for you’

Yours Lia

P.S.: Forever Leni, Leni forever 🐶🤍🐶!