More soon...
*****
Hi!
I wanted to send you a report about last weekend last night already, but I had just arrived in Munich, and was pretty tired (never get lost on Switzerland's roads, some of them are dark and small ...).
I arrived in Lucerne by car Friday afternoon, and it was a very pleasant drive, not just because the landscape is breathtaking, but also because I live in Munich now and the trip to Lucerne is now considerably shorter! The weather was pretty poor - I was hoping for snow and sunshine, or at least sunshine, but we got rain and NO sunshine. I checked into good old Pickwick, all was well, until I went to pick up my tickets. I was so absolutely 100% sure I had bought tickets for at least Friday or Saturday, so the shock was pretty huge when I found out I had only made a reservation for Monday. I went back to the hotel and was quite depressed, until I remembered what mothers like to say: "if you want something, just ask." So, back to the KKL, and indeed, they had one (!) ticket left for Friday night. Sometimes you just have to believe in fate ;)
Since there was precious little time left, I dressed up - with my "I love HS" button of course - and bumped right into Sabsi, Babsi and Jim, who stood in the middle of the Foyer; and that is an achievement, considering we weren't that lucky with our meet-ups recently.
The pre-concert lecture I found more interesting than last year's. You can actually see Howard Shore blossoming when he is talking about his music, which I find brilliant! I was sitting pretty close to the orchestra, which I actually love, just the choir was a bit low, but that had to do with my seat, since both Jim and Sabsi heard them perfectly. What can you say about the concert? I can't find superlatives anymore, so I won't even try. Sabsi thought Friday's performance was the "weakest" of them, but I couldn't hear much of a difference compared to the other two I attended on Sunday, even though they completely missed the sync point of Sam's arm entering the screen before his fight with Shelob.
At his last count, Jim found 38 additions, but I'm sure he can shed light on this himself. There really are some considerable additions, especially in the first third of the film. For instance, the whole Isengard/Palantir scene has now music, not just new music, but also known music newly placed. One bit I adored was an added choir to the Nature theme when the Rohirrim leave Edoras. With all the care that has gone into repolishing the music for the live performance, I find it an exceedingly odd decision to not put the Complete Recordings version of the Destruction Of Mordor piece back into the film. But that was indeed a minor blemish on an otherwise stellar performance.
After this premiere concert, there was a party on the second (or third?) floor with some singers and the orchestra. Howard Shore and his wife were there, as well as Kaitlyn Lusk and, surprisingly, Sir James Galway, who apparently lives near Lucerne. All four of us were to embarassed to ask for a group picture, so we took turns in taking pictures from a safe distance ... ;) Sabsi, however, got her photo with Kaitlyn Lusk, which lifted her above the clouds for the rest of the night.
Saturday morning, before the official Blog meet-up, I strolled through the town, which I've never actually done before. I can't get over the beauty of this town. But you could actually get lost in there, with all the small alleys. The meet-up later made me really miss last year's. We took a group photo at the lion monument, and sat for quite some time at the KKL's World Cafe (after I've led them to a dead end, sorry about that :)).
My original plan was to leave Sunday morning; after the group split up to get ready for the lecture, I asked whether they had tickets left for Sunday, and again, they had a ticket left for Sunday morning. That's strange, since Friday I was told there were two tickets left for Sunday evening, but they would only give them away together. Naturally, I took it.
Sunday was a bit of a crazy day. I checked out around 9.30, packed my bag into the car and walked back to the KKL for the concert. After that, we had a "healthy" meal at Burger King (Sabsi's first time ;)) and said goodbye to our friend. I mentioned to Sabsi how I was not sure whether I should stay for Sunday night's concert. She said if I really wanted, I could possibly get a ticket if we asked Mr. Zängerle. So I did what every rationally thinking person would do - I flipped a coin. And as I said, you can't fight fate ;)
So, I went back to the Pickwick and checked in again. Ironically, I got the same room. To kill the time before the performance, Sabsi and myself just aimlessly walked around Lucerne and talked a bit, until we found ourselves in a strange industrial area near the KKL, and Sabsi said she no longer felt authorised to be there :)
We met up with Jim again, who apparently overslept the entire last evening (good thing he didn't have a ticket ...), and indeed Sabsi could get me a ticket. I didn't have a good look at it, she just told me "oh, you're sitting right next to me", so I followed her. The ticket lady didn't seem to have any objection, so I thought that was my seat, second gallery, left side. I sat down, the concert started, and I had to go to the bathroom really badly. The ticket lady said it was okay, so I went quickly. When I came back, the door was locked, so I asked someone to let me back in. She glanced at my ticket and led me to the right side of the gallery. I glanced at the ticket, and indeed, the seat was the exact same seat, just on the other side. I tried to convince her to let me in on the other side again, since the seat was empty anyway, but no luck.
At the intermission, Sabsi told me she thought she had scared me away LOL
I thought Sunday's performance was pretty flawless. It started an hour earlier, so the three of us had a drink at the Pickwick afterwards, until 1 am, until they started to move the chairs, so that was obviously a sign to leave.
On Monday, Sabsi, Jim and myself met up again, we sat in Starbucks for almost three hours. Afterwards, Sabsi made the suggestion to visit the Glacier garden. It didn't look very spectacular at first, but the bizarre teddy bear exhibition was quite a looker. One scene, with around 50 bears in a medieval bedroom looked like it came out of a horror movie. Jim was fascinated by the museum's obsession with drunken teddy bears. Not sure what teddy bears have to do with glaciers, though.
Sabsi had the fabulous idea to send a postcard to Howard Shore, and she was indeed wracking her brain to come up with a comment that didn't make her (or US actually) look too much like an obsessive stalker. Not sure if the card will ever arrive ... not sure that's necessarily a bad thing ;) But she made a photo of it to as proof (or evidence ...)
We paid the post office a visit, and then I had to leave, sadly.
The trip back to Munich, as I said, took me on an unexpected route. Apparently, my navigation didn't recognise a newly built stretch of highway, and I tried to outsmart the electronic lady. A good piece of advice: don't do that!
Alright, this report has gone on for far too long. I had a wonderful time, and I send all of you, Sabsi especially, and Jim, and all the others my "thank you" for the great weekend! And, I could have stayed until Tuesday, I found out that our studies for Tuesday were cancelled. Pity.
Next year will be amazing!
Greetings,
Georg
I wanted to send you a report about last weekend last night already, but I had just arrived in Munich, and was pretty tired (never get lost on Switzerland's roads, some of them are dark and small ...).
I arrived in Lucerne by car Friday afternoon, and it was a very pleasant drive, not just because the landscape is breathtaking, but also because I live in Munich now and the trip to Lucerne is now considerably shorter! The weather was pretty poor - I was hoping for snow and sunshine, or at least sunshine, but we got rain and NO sunshine. I checked into good old Pickwick, all was well, until I went to pick up my tickets. I was so absolutely 100% sure I had bought tickets for at least Friday or Saturday, so the shock was pretty huge when I found out I had only made a reservation for Monday. I went back to the hotel and was quite depressed, until I remembered what mothers like to say: "if you want something, just ask." So, back to the KKL, and indeed, they had one (!) ticket left for Friday night. Sometimes you just have to believe in fate ;)
Since there was precious little time left, I dressed up - with my "I love HS" button of course - and bumped right into Sabsi, Babsi and Jim, who stood in the middle of the Foyer; and that is an achievement, considering we weren't that lucky with our meet-ups recently.
The pre-concert lecture I found more interesting than last year's. You can actually see Howard Shore blossoming when he is talking about his music, which I find brilliant! I was sitting pretty close to the orchestra, which I actually love, just the choir was a bit low, but that had to do with my seat, since both Jim and Sabsi heard them perfectly. What can you say about the concert? I can't find superlatives anymore, so I won't even try. Sabsi thought Friday's performance was the "weakest" of them, but I couldn't hear much of a difference compared to the other two I attended on Sunday, even though they completely missed the sync point of Sam's arm entering the screen before his fight with Shelob.
At his last count, Jim found 38 additions, but I'm sure he can shed light on this himself. There really are some considerable additions, especially in the first third of the film. For instance, the whole Isengard/Palantir scene has now music, not just new music, but also known music newly placed. One bit I adored was an added choir to the Nature theme when the Rohirrim leave Edoras. With all the care that has gone into repolishing the music for the live performance, I find it an exceedingly odd decision to not put the Complete Recordings version of the Destruction Of Mordor piece back into the film. But that was indeed a minor blemish on an otherwise stellar performance.
After this premiere concert, there was a party on the second (or third?) floor with some singers and the orchestra. Howard Shore and his wife were there, as well as Kaitlyn Lusk and, surprisingly, Sir James Galway, who apparently lives near Lucerne. All four of us were to embarassed to ask for a group picture, so we took turns in taking pictures from a safe distance ... ;) Sabsi, however, got her photo with Kaitlyn Lusk, which lifted her above the clouds for the rest of the night.
Saturday morning, before the official Blog meet-up, I strolled through the town, which I've never actually done before. I can't get over the beauty of this town. But you could actually get lost in there, with all the small alleys. The meet-up later made me really miss last year's. We took a group photo at the lion monument, and sat for quite some time at the KKL's World Cafe (after I've led them to a dead end, sorry about that :)).
My original plan was to leave Sunday morning; after the group split up to get ready for the lecture, I asked whether they had tickets left for Sunday, and again, they had a ticket left for Sunday morning. That's strange, since Friday I was told there were two tickets left for Sunday evening, but they would only give them away together. Naturally, I took it.
Sunday was a bit of a crazy day. I checked out around 9.30, packed my bag into the car and walked back to the KKL for the concert. After that, we had a "healthy" meal at Burger King (Sabsi's first time ;)) and said goodbye to our friend. I mentioned to Sabsi how I was not sure whether I should stay for Sunday night's concert. She said if I really wanted, I could possibly get a ticket if we asked Mr. Zängerle. So I did what every rationally thinking person would do - I flipped a coin. And as I said, you can't fight fate ;)
So, I went back to the Pickwick and checked in again. Ironically, I got the same room. To kill the time before the performance, Sabsi and myself just aimlessly walked around Lucerne and talked a bit, until we found ourselves in a strange industrial area near the KKL, and Sabsi said she no longer felt authorised to be there :)
We met up with Jim again, who apparently overslept the entire last evening (good thing he didn't have a ticket ...), and indeed Sabsi could get me a ticket. I didn't have a good look at it, she just told me "oh, you're sitting right next to me", so I followed her. The ticket lady didn't seem to have any objection, so I thought that was my seat, second gallery, left side. I sat down, the concert started, and I had to go to the bathroom really badly. The ticket lady said it was okay, so I went quickly. When I came back, the door was locked, so I asked someone to let me back in. She glanced at my ticket and led me to the right side of the gallery. I glanced at the ticket, and indeed, the seat was the exact same seat, just on the other side. I tried to convince her to let me in on the other side again, since the seat was empty anyway, but no luck.
At the intermission, Sabsi told me she thought she had scared me away LOL
I thought Sunday's performance was pretty flawless. It started an hour earlier, so the three of us had a drink at the Pickwick afterwards, until 1 am, until they started to move the chairs, so that was obviously a sign to leave.
On Monday, Sabsi, Jim and myself met up again, we sat in Starbucks for almost three hours. Afterwards, Sabsi made the suggestion to visit the Glacier garden. It didn't look very spectacular at first, but the bizarre teddy bear exhibition was quite a looker. One scene, with around 50 bears in a medieval bedroom looked like it came out of a horror movie. Jim was fascinated by the museum's obsession with drunken teddy bears. Not sure what teddy bears have to do with glaciers, though.
Sabsi had the fabulous idea to send a postcard to Howard Shore, and she was indeed wracking her brain to come up with a comment that didn't make her (or US actually) look too much like an obsessive stalker. Not sure if the card will ever arrive ... not sure that's necessarily a bad thing ;) But she made a photo of it to as proof (or evidence ...)
We paid the post office a visit, and then I had to leave, sadly.
The trip back to Munich, as I said, took me on an unexpected route. Apparently, my navigation didn't recognise a newly built stretch of highway, and I tried to outsmart the electronic lady. A good piece of advice: don't do that!
Alright, this report has gone on for far too long. I had a wonderful time, and I send all of you, Sabsi especially, and Jim, and all the others my "thank you" for the great weekend! And, I could have stayed until Tuesday, I found out that our studies for Tuesday were cancelled. Pity.
Next year will be amazing!
Greetings,
