On a festivity day a lady flutist came from Amsterdam for a three day visit. She went through a big file of music sheets with Wolfgang sight-reading it and they had a lot of fun with it.Especially the "Grande polonaise brilliante" composed by the inventor of the modern flute, Boehm, was making the director of the spring show and his wife exciting! this piece later was selected to be performed in the IBM recital at the castle of Bad Urach.

Here you see what came out of such musical meeting. Wolfgang knew Jacqueline Dekker from Bayreuth where he had played for the touristic groups in the Markgrave´s opera house during three Wagner festivals. She had been there without flute and only years later Wolfgang could see her great talent and later engage her for a recital.

Another day a group of musician friends came to the pavillon and told me later about it during breakfast in Leinach. They made a real classical jam session. Even an opera singer was there, Evelyn Bulin-Holzschuh and she sang "Un bel dì vedremo" by Giacomo Puccini so that it sounded far over the roofs of Würzburg.

Shortly before the festivity of witnesses a medical journalist came to Leinach, leaned his shoulder on my long side and interviewed Wolfgang profoundly. This interview was published in the "Medical Tribune" with many good questions and had 5 photos on two entire pages.

Right after witnesses Wolfgang loaded me and drove in my birth town Vienna. That was a very risky enterprise since I have ivory keys. For several years there is the law that no ivory at all maybe exported over any frontier. With his travel over the frontier Wolfgang risked to get me confiscated by the customs together with the van! With that his existence would have been ruined! But he kept cool and calculated that he had an international carnet ATA for me and in the worst case could make pledges to the government.

So he choosed a little frontier near Passau where the custom people assumingly did not know much about grand pianos and maybe would not know they could have ivory keys and he was lucky to slip over the frontier into Austria. At two a.m. we arrived at the Graf-Starhemberg-Gasse and Wolfgang layed down to sleep at my side.

The techncians of the factory worked on me for two entire days and improved the intonation (how soft the hammers would be what influences the sound quality) and the regulation of the action (to have an optimal touch for the pianist). So they took me apart and worked on the segments. I must have been in a deep anestesy because I cannot recall more details.

Meanwhile Wolfgang enjoyed himself visiting friends in Vienna and making a tour to the "Neusiedlersee", the big lake with a large border made of "Schilf" next to Hungary. When I was fixed like a racing car in the boxes we made a show trip up and down a staircase for the new general director Dr. Mario M. Hilse.

Then we went across Austria over night with some rest in between. Having brightest sunshine we crossed the Silvretta pass one of the most beautiful passes. Thus we came to Gaschurn in the region of Vorarlberg where Wolfgang gave a recital in the sanatorium Dr. Felbermaier on an old brother of mine.

Right after the recital we went on and were luckz again to get over the customs at Bregenz (not the motorway one but in the town). At 4 a.m. we arrived back home.

The poor garden table.......!

Now we had some normal time period with every day business, office work and some practising. The van was given to a friend for his move and we were visited by Evelyn the soprano and her friend, Markus Bulin. Next morning while they were still sleeping Wolfgang tried to get me on the pianoplan outside the door on the terrace. That was heavy work.

When he pulled me up with a little electric engine pulling a steel rope I lost balance because my slide was not correctly leaned on the edge of pianoplan and I tumbled down on the poor poor garden table! Ouch! I was lucky to have the table which slowed me down but it got totally destructed by my weight! I only got a little impression on my bottom which did not even disturb.

Wolfgang was lucky to have Markus and Evelyn there to help him to push me up by hand now. Only two months later he managed to enlargen the door at its top as I will tell in a different chapter.

My premiere in the Würzburg theatre........

At the theatre there were new problems. The ramp to the stage level was at least 1 meter high and it was impossible to get on it directly from the van. Not even pianoplan could reach that height. The stage director got some workers make an improvised ramp with strong boards and trembling and shaking I drove up this strange construction.

The Lied matinee with the Tenor Andreas Wagner was very nice and the GMD (general music director) Jonathan Seers was content with me, too.

The re-loading into the van was so fast that the workers were astonished and nearly missed watching it.

the same evening we drove to Heidenheim festival where Evelyn sang the Agathe in the Freischütz of Carl Maria von Weber. Next day we met Mr. Geyer again to prepare the IBM event.

Less than two weeks I had some rest (apart from a piano lesson with a Frankfurt children psychiatrist lady) before I got to another very nice place: The Rokkoko-castle in Veitshöchheim close to Würzburg.

At first I was inside the hall for some rehearsals. In the evening it was quite windy and we ought to perform outside. The stools were setup outside but the weather was critical. Until the last moment I was left in vertical position on the pianoplan to be prepared to go outside. that was very reasonable because an hour before the concert should begin it poured down and the manager decided to move to the Mainfrankensäle -some concert halls of that town- and perform there.

We drove up the five steps of the sandstone stairs and - "crack" - a little piece of the edge of a step broke out. Wolfgang threw it away but the housekeeper had already discovered it. Good luck: The admnistration later did not charge anything! Thank you! For the steps on the other side Wolfgang took maximum precaution and drove over two ramps and did not even touch the steps.

Load, drive 2 kilometers, unload again, go into the lift. STOOOOP! My top would nearly have hit the elevator which was extremely low! So get me down from pianoplan, push me in the lift by hand and make the setup on the stage. The recital began punctually! Make someone copy that precision just to change location one hour before a concert with a concert grand piano! That´s only possible with the "Mobile Unit".

To avoid taking me down from pianoplan again we went out of the hall over the stage stairs going through the hall and then over the front stairs. These stage stairs are like often so steep that I nearly lost my balance if I would not have been supported by two strong men on the lower end. Then again the hall doors were too low.

I would like to send many architects to the moon! So we had to turn round over the terrace, from outside through the foyer then the main entrance and the stairs outside! Wow that was complicated and only because architects for big halls have no idea about the needs of stage management......