The Schumann Songbook Landestheater Linz

I went to mathias‘ place round noon to pack everything I might need, my flute, notes and my Schumann Songbook : ) ...and just when we were getting ready to print our setlist, mathias noticed that the train we were supposed to take had already left one hour ago without us : ). You might know that mathias loves trains and he always books the train tickets long time in advance to make sure he gets his favourite seats, so you can imagine how surprised I was that missing a train does actually happen even to with Mister rüegg : ). I think it was the first time in 5 years : ). There was still enough time, so we took the next one and arrived in Linz round 4. We headed straight to the hotel, checked in and continued right away to the sound check. We had no troubles finding our way to the Landestheater Linz but as soon as we entered the building we got lost for quite some time. We couldn‘t find the „Orchestersaal“, the building is incredibly big, full of bright staircases that lead to different concert halls. Unbelievable! Backstage the hallways were filled with musicians and the dressing rooms looked exactly the way I pictured them when I was a little girl – with the lightbulbs surrounding the mirror. And while we were playing our Schumann Songbook Falstaff was playing in the main hall!I just loved the whole atmosphere of the place. The „Orchestersaal“ is a beautiful concert hall shimmering in gold light. What was really new to me was that the stage was not set above the audience but that it was the other way round, the audience was on some kind of podests and was looking down on us. I really liked it, it felt very open and natural to me to play at groundlevel. As always our sound engineer, the one and only Thomas Egger was taking care of us and he competely made us feel comfortable. Our soloist of the night was Stanislav Paluch from Bratislava on the violine. We had played once with him before in Waidhofen and I was very much looking forward to playing with him again, his playing is simply wonderful!
The team of the Landestheater was very kind and we had plenty of time to get ready. Backstage Ingrid told me that her sister and her brother-in-law were coming tonight, as well as the one man who is responsible for introducing and encouraging her to play percussion and all sorts of drums – the bandleader of the brass band in her hometown!!! Ingrid and I went to the same school in Linz, the Adalbert-Stifter-Gymnasium, and we both feel very connected to this town. I loved going to school there and to play our Schumann Songbook for the very first time in Linz was very exciting and special for me. My mum and my dad were in the audience as well : ) and they brought many of their friends. Thank you so much for your support! From the very beginning of our concert I felt very connected to the audience and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we had a great time sharing our Schumann Songbook with you. Thank you so much for coming out that night and bringing your wonderful energy into the room.
After the concert I had the chance to meet and hug so many of you - some of you I haven‘t seen in such a long time. I have to admit I got a little lost in this kind of reunion and time flew by so that I even got locked out of our dressing rooms as everybody had already packed up and left...they had to get back to Vienna and Stano had to catch his train...oh my, thank you for the wonderful goodbye selfie!!! Ingridi, Hans, Stano, Thomas you are the best!!!I really mean it!!!Thank you to Hans, Ingrid, Stano and mathias for your powerful music and your powerful soli! Everytime we play these songs, I get to discover them in a different way. Oh how I love these songs and how I love playing them with you! mathias and I were staying in Linz for the night and he helped me to get back into the dressing rooms : )! Lovely Miss Kathrin Obernhumer took mathias and me to an Italian place with great pizza. I was so excited about our night that I felt very tipsy after two small beers...I have to admit that I had been very anxious about this concert and I felt so deeply grateful and relieved for the way it turned out that I couldn‘t stop dancing around, not even when I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep : )!The next morning I woke up, still in a dancing mood and when I saw that the breakfast buffet offered sparkling wine I couldn‘t help it and I enjoyed a glass. It was only then after the breakfast that I actually felt tired and I still had 30 min left to rest in the beautiful bed before heading back to the train station...and that‘s what I did : )!

Oh I sincerely hope to be back soon and to get lost inside this music theatre once more!

Yours Lia

The Event:
Linz (A), Landestheater, "The Schumann Songbook"