3/31 Easter Sunday. When we awoke on Easter Morning, this
was the view out of the window of our room; about 4 inches on the ground and
the snow was still falling, so we decided that a run wasn’t the best idea. The
thermometer on the pharmacy we passed each day on our way to the train station
said 1 degree Celsius!
Fortunately, many of our plans involved indoor activities,
most of them centered around Easter and Music. The first was an Easter Mass in
the Minoritenkirche, a pre-Gothic building where the Italian community in
Vienna worships. I guess that explains the facsimile of The Last Supper painted
on the wall of the church. There, we heard the Mozart Coronation Mass—full
chorus and orchestra. I guess I had forgotten that, in the churches in Europe,
the regular music for the service (our equivalent of the Worship Band) is often
a full, well-trained chorus, and especially on holidays, a full orchestra as
well! I must say, this music is so
much more conducive to worship for me…
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| MinoritenKirche |
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| Shiri's Church |
We left that service a bit early to make
it to the Easter Service at Shiri’s church, an English language service, which
I really enjoyed. Then it was a late lunch/early dinner in a café where we had
the chance to warm up (it was so cold—even in the church, and it was still
snowing) and Skype with Roni.
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| Skyping via iphone isn't east, especially in a crowded cafe! |
Finally, we went to the main Cathedral, St.
Stephens for the Vespers service, with Mozart’s Vespers—I thought it was the
piece I knew and had performed many times, but instead it was the lesser known
Vespers, but beautiful nonetheless. The choir and orchestra were excellent, and
I even enjoyed the organ interludes!
By the time the service was over, it was
time to head back to Purkersdorf to pack up, bring our extra luggage to Shiri’s
and go to bed since we needed to wake up at 5:30 to get the bus to Prague.
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