Duna String Orchestra and travel plans

Okay, I don't know about you, but when I hear "Orchestra," I imagine a large group of people with string instruments.  The Duna String Orchestra consisted of only 7 people, which initially surprised me.  However, the acoustics in St. Ishtvan Basilika (St. Stephen's Basilica) were such that this small group's sound filled the entire HUGE Greek-cross-shaped room during tonight's concert.

It was shocking, the extent to which sound traveled in there.  A person's cough would reverberate quite a while after it happened, which sometimes resulted in the orchestra pausing a bit longer before their next song, which I found amusing.

It was so cold that between almost every other song, the musicians had to re-tune their instruments.  By the end of the concert, Rhaelyn, Dani, Julie, Laura, and I were quite cold.  My fingers were almost too numb to button up my coat as we left.

It was worth it, though, because the concert was amazing.  We ended up getting a student admission rate, too, so we only paid $25 to hear over an hour of beautiful live music.

This was the program (* denoting my favorites):
Air - J. S. Bach *
Rejoice from Oratorio Messiah - G. F. Haendel (accompanied by vocal soloist)
Adagio - T. Albinoni *
Winter from The Four Seasons - A. Vivaldi
When I am Laid in Earth from Dido and Aeneas - H. Purcell
Ave Maria - Ch. Gounod
Largo from Xerces - G. F. Haendel *
Ave Maria - F. Schubert (accompanied by a vocal soloist)
Violin Concerto in G Major - A. Vivaldi
Pani Angelicus - C. Franck
Impromtu - J. Sibelius
Thais Meditation - J. Massenet *
Lacrimosa from Requiem - W. A. Mozart *
Alleluja from Exsultate, Jubilate - W. A. Mozart (accompanied by vocal soloist)

My First Year Seminar (FYS) class was Music and Words as a Quest for Meaning and Expression, and I think it definitely helped me out with this concert, because as stuff was happening, I noticed little musical things of importance, and I felt educated.  It was wonderful.

Thanks to all of my sister's orchestra concerts and violin recitals, I also knew that you aren't supposed to clap in between movements.  Combined with my FYS knowledge that a concerto has three movements, I was one of the only people not clapping whenever the orchestra paused between movements when they played Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in G Major.  The first violinist looked a bit peeved at the audience, and from then on, he began to overly emphasize when they were done to blatantly hint when it was appropriate to clap.  I thought it was funny.

On a side note, the website listed on the program informed me that in March there will be a performance of Mozart's Requiem!! I NEED TO ATTEND!  It's happening, even if I have to go alone.

After the concert, Laura decided that we were going to go to McDonald's.  There is a rather fancy one at Nyugati train station, which is where we got off the metro on our way home from the concert.  I was really hungry and ate a cheeseburger, but I was more focused on how gorgeous the McDonald's was, which is a very strange thing to say, I must admit.  Suddenly, a bunch of other McDaniel study abroad people showed up and joined us, and we chatted for a while until it was decided that we needed to get back to do homework.

So, I made my best effort to get my work done, but my Internet has been so awful lately that it took me forever to finish the bare minimum.  It's rather unfortunate, especially because I need to access my email to collaborate with people for newspaper articles and to communicate with my parents and stuff.  I've been typing up my blog entries on Microsoft Word and pasting them into Blogger whenever I get a stable Internet connection long enough to post something.

It just occurred to me that I did stuff today before the concert and neglected to mention it, so here it is-

Dani and I met up with Laura and Rhaelyn to go buy the concert tickets.  Laura went home, and then the rest of us went to the little bakery that we live by (Rhaelyn lives a block and a half away from Dani and me).  They had no Csoki Torta, which is my favorite thing I've tried there so far, so I bought a cookie that appeared to be gingerbread, but ended up tasting quite like Pfefferneuse (sorry if I spelled that incorrectly).  It was amazing.  We were supposed to meet up with Olga for lunch, but Olga forgot, so the three of us instead went to a Turkish "etterem."  That means restaurant in Hungarian! Or so I assume.  Anyways, I got some rice stuff that was basically Glar quality, but the Turkish cheese pizza thing was good.  I don't know what it technically was called, but it was basically sauceless pizza with some kind of seasoning.  We stayed and talked for quite a while.  One of the main topics was where we want to travel while we're here.  It seems like Rhaelyn and I want to go to many of the same places, so it may end up that we become travel buddies.  She's up for going to Prague together, at least.  Additionally, she really wants to go to Paris, and my mom wants me to go to Paris, and I'd love to go to Paris if it's affordable, so that's a possibility.  I also found out that a group of people are doing a Sound of Music tour in Salzberg, so I may try to tag along for that.  It'll be the first 2 days Spring Break, so it'll only actually happen if Dani goes too, because she and I are going to Berlin together for Spring Break and therefore need to stay together.

Well, I have an 8:30 class tomorrow, so I need to get going to bed soon.  Tomorrow's classes are Marketing, Journalism, and Organizational Communication.  After that, it is likely that Dani and I will be accompanying Rhaelyn and Caitlin to Tesco, because they have found one in Pest (which is where we live, in case you didn't know).  Oh, and Tacos Locos is having a 50% off Valentine's Day special, so hopefully I can convince Dani to try it out with me tomorrow.  Goodnight!