As well for Wolfgang and Ute as for me. Three months after their matrimony they finally made a six day honey-moon. It must have been slightly stressy:
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1st day: Switzerland/Grindelwald with view on Eiger/Mönch/Jungfrau. A little trekking tour to the cime of the "Männlichen". Then passage through the Lötschberg-tunnel to the Lago Maggiore north west from Milano. |
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2nd day: Visit the "Isola bella" in the Lago Maggiore, go to Milano, visit the "Museum of the Teatro alla Scala", the "Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele", the "Duomo", then pass on to a parking place near Sirmione at the "Lago di Garda". |
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3rd day: Bathing in the Lago di Garda and a visit at an old friend from the Scala, Piero Salvaggio and his family. He had two kids with his wife Fiorenza. They were very grateful to get two free tickets from the press office of the Arena di Verona for a performance of Verdi´s "La Traviata"! |
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4th day: Venice! Wolfgang always wanted to go there on his honey-moon. They visited the Marcus place, the theater "La Fenice" (which burnt down years later) and last not least made a trip to the "Lido di Venezia" an island in front of Venice with a large snady beach. |
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5th day: Passage to Trento go up to the already mentioned Lago Tovel the "Lago rosso" which gets red every some years. NOw Wolfgang could enjoy it together with Ute. Up to now they had always slept in the van on two matresses like in an improvised mobile home. But that night it was getting so cold that they went in tha little hotel at the banks of the lake. That was nice! |
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6th day: Leave the nice hotel at Lago Rosso and go back to Würzburg. But not directly because Wolfgang wanted to view the beautiful "Passo Gavia" again which he had known with a friend from Milano, Lorenzo Militello, years ago. So they had to make six different mountain passes: Passo Tonale, Passo Gavia, Passo Stelvio, Passo Umbierto, Passo Reschen, Fernpaß! An infinite serpentine driving which would have driven me crazy! I would have got vertice and dropped down the mountain.... |
"Alstervergnügen" with consequences
Just for a little advertisement I was scheduled to play in the Altervergnügen a mass event every August in Hamburg. All around the little lake in the center of Hamburg, called Alster hundreds of stands are set up and people enjoy walking and eating and listening to live music. (enjoy = Vergnügen).
For the announcement of that event we posed on the walkway beside the ships where the press conference was held.
We were to play on the main stage at the "Jungfernstieg" and had one hour planned. But the artists before us did not respect the timing so we had only 50 minutes including setup and loading again. The professional moderation of Carl Heinz Holmann and the applause of the audience helped us to catch up in the time table and the pure music was 30 minutes. That´s 10 minutes for setup and 10 minutes to go down the stage again!
Another performance we had in front of the stand of the ZDF (second german state TV station) and an old class mate of Wolfgang, Hans Pehmöller helped for the setup.
Another day we played in the big entrance hall of the Hamburg trade show "Du und Deine Welt" (You and your world).
Around these events Wolfgang and Ute were going for a walk in the center and met an old friend from the German-Poish society who had engaged Wolfgang long ago for a recital in Norderstedt with a sponsored C7 piano by Yamaha. Meanwhile he was chief of the revision department of a big private bank in Hamburg and gave Wolfgang the personal guarantee for a credit to buy the Imperial in Lichtenfels. He was my big brother and the last one of six which were for sale. They are going round for rent for 8 to 10 years and then are sold like me. By this guarantee a dream of Wolfgang came true for which I served as an optimal preparation. But no reason for trouble for me: Wolfgang had so many engagements in this time that he hoped to keep both of us, I hope so!
Action with two pianos
The next piano courses were taking place in a little hotel of a friend in Hettstadt. It was just built and the direct stairs to the basement were not usable, yet for pianoplan. So we had to go round the house and down through some little stairs. But they had a left 90 ° turn which was absolutely too small for us. So Günter had to dig up the ground to make us pass in a straight line. The hotel was perfect from the hotel aspect but the acoustical situation was too little isolated so that the musicians would disturb each other. So we did no more than two courses there.
QLB
is the original car sign for the city of Quedlinburg, where Wolfgang drove one of the two grand pianos he had sold after the last course. Dr. Uta Walter who had contributed her old piano to the courses now got a little Yamaha grand, also Renate Müller-Ranné who was the best booker so far. Uta had build a very representative doctors office with her husband in Quedlinburg, a big job in the eastern country after the re-union of Germany. She was very busy in her office and had little time to practice.
Also bringing the new piano to Renate in Springe close to Hannover was a very nice meeting with a countryside general practicioner who dedicated her whole life to her patients day and night!
Russian "Grande Dame"??
Well, next time when Wolfgang came visiting me (he had been around for a while!) he brought a russian lady pianist with him who played very fine. She did not really want to discuss piano technique with him, I had the impression that she was creating a certain "image" or "nimbus" around her and no more critically self-reflecting herself. I would even call it "star allures". She was telling how bad her situation in Petersburg was and asked for engagements. Wolfgang worked hard to get her a gig on the trade show n Würzburg from the cultural department. That was though not fine enough for her and she did not accept it. That will have been the last time Wolfgang did something for her...
Autumnal music festival
in Bad Urach, with Hermann Prey as artistic director. Here I was brought with a brother of the same size from Lichtenfels. The town recital hall has a stage one meter hight but only a small staircase only for pedestrians at the side. So Wolfgang had to put his wooden ramp. To fix its position he had to drill two 10 mm holes into the stage floor. The men of the town were astonished how easily I was driving up that ramp on the stage. They had always lifted the pianos up there by hand with five men! We were lucky to accompany for a high level program with Hermann Prey and his artists.
Meanwhile Wolfgang drove his Imperial on the Mainfrankenmesse (trade show of Würzburg area) and met his father who had come for a meeting to Würzburg. He gave Wolfgang a cheque for all the costs for a new house where he would move to with Ute and the expected baby. We should move to a real normal house. To make me enter he could cut the handrail at the entrance area (so that it could be removed and put back in a second).
Quiet times.......
Back home from Bad Urach Wolfgang was stressing on. Next morning my brother was brought back to Lichtenfels and Wolfgang played on the morning on the trade show. Then he took the Imperial 8955 to play on a congress of the sales team of a bank from Schwäbisch Hall. For me everything is clear now! The big engagements are done by the Imperial now and I can stay at home and only get a performance every once and a while.... I am upset!
Well, maybe I learn to know some other aspects of life - not bad either. The Bösendorfer factory passes on th Wolfgang some orders for rental of the Imperial. so that he can catch up with his payments for both of us. But it was very sad that the managers did not do what they promised. They give only one instead of three rentals a month and not for three but only for two years. That was all and Wolfgang was angry at the "partners" from the Bösendorfer factory in Vienna! Maybe he has too old imaginations of partnership? Never mind.
Jazz 2
Two hot week-ends in Würzburg expected me in November 1993: I played for some days during the Jazz festival at the cultural center of Grombühl, the Imperial wasin the town hall room for a recital and also the 12th piano course washeld there. Sunday morning wolfgang drove my smal brother from Lichtenfels to Karlsruhe again.
Saturday next week-end I played in the Festung Marienberg, the castle on top of Würzburg for the Orthopedical congress. Two doctors made a Jazz duo with my brother who had returned from Karlsruhe. Their session was reial hot stuff!
Operette & Musical
Now I could accompany operette and musical songs, Wolfgang was accompanying Ute for a performance of the conservatory in the hall of Bad Kissingen and Bad Bocklet. The program had its little contradictions: Ute with her big belly (the baby coming soon) was singing: "Why shouldn´t a woman have a lover...?" and she caressed her husband during he played so that he made some mistakes! At least after a year they managed to perform something together.
Well normal routine now is that students are coming from nearby and from further away, Wolfgang always explaining the same things with a lot of patience. My lid is mostly closed and a lot of music sheets, folders and so on. Mountains of paper of invoices are lying on me every three months when he i smaking the accounts for the quarter.
Then the rehearsals with Petra Wolf-Perraudin are coming; they manage to sell their Lied recital for three times. Her voice is very voluminous and I have to give my best to support her adequately. The three recitals were:
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In a car store Schirmer in Hildesheim close to Hannover. Schirmer is a good example of cultural sponsoring! His daughter being a pianist he just built in his store a concert hall and put a Grotrian Steinweg grand piano. Many stores should folow his example! |
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Cultural weeks of Julius-Spital wine yard in Würzburg |
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Maritim Hotel Braunlage |
We did some other courses in the castle hotel of Vellberg near Schwäbisch Hall, mostly I was placed in the breadkfast room, sorrounded by good smells. But I was also in the big meeting room. Especially one time I enjoyed, when the great pianist Detlef Kraus was teaching five docs and made a whole lot of demostrations from his nearly unlimited repertoire.
