Berlin Phil and all that brass!!!!

I have no words for how incredibly amazing the Berlin philharmonic was yesterday!!! Right now I'm sitting in the cave-like lounge of our hostel in Prague, and looking back on yesterday I can still hardly believe it happened. When we came into the Philharmonie, Dr. Powell got our tickets and we had an upgrade! I was last in the group to get tickets with Dr. Powell, and we had seats in a different part of the hall than the rest of the group. When we found our seats we could hardly believe our luck!!!! Instead of explaining I'll post a picture of my view:

I was about 10 feet from Zubin Mehta!!!

Coming into the concert I didn't really know what to expect of Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children. I listened to a recording and it was really weird to hear without seeing how the sounds were created. It was a bit of a surprise to me when the soprano just went over to the piano, stuck her head inside, and started singing and making crazy ethereal sounds to kick things off! The piece was really engaging to watch, especially because Dr. Powell and I could see the expressions on Zubin Mehta's face as he was conducting!!! Then came Bruckner 9!!!!!! I can't even describe how insanely together, in tune, and powerful the brass section was!!!! In the beginning when the horns came in (there were 8!!!) I couldn't believe it was possible to sound so good. And they hadn't even gotten started! 4 of the horns also doubled on Wagner tubas in the last movement, which was super cool!!! I want to play one of those someday!!

Another awesome thing about the Berlin Phil was that I could tell everyone in the ensemble was just having a blast every moment they were playing. Two of the violists exchanged excited smiles a few times while playing, and other members of the ensemble looked like they were having tons of fun. My mind was blown by this concert and I'm super excited to hear how the Vienna Philharmonic will compare!!!!!

This morning we headed off to Prague by train, and arrived in the afternoon! I'm already in love with this city-- it's beautiful! Right now it's raining, but hopefully tomorrow it will snow and be even more amazing! Tomorrow we're off to explore Prague and see Tosca at the Czech State Opera!!