- SZG Airport tour - 3 pm

We paid our meal tabs and waited to be herded by an official
airport guide, who showed up fairly promptly. We went down
to security, where szg and szg+1 issued our ragtag group
with visitor passes (which some of us managed to lose
immediately) and went through the checkpoint. monitor's
hardware caused some amusement, as he thought it would.

The operations manager met us and gave an overview of his
job and the airport's functions. Then, it was off to ATC
for the tour - half of us got to see the tower; the other
half watched approach control. An honor to be allowed to
watch the controllers and ask them questions as they worked.
A note: the main airport is named after W. A. Mozart; but
the general aviation terminal, in which the ATC facility is
located, is named after von Karajan - after all, he was a
famous and infallible Dirigent.

After this, we got to see the fire department (some of us
got to sit in the big fire engine with the foam pumper -
I forget who it was who started directing the foam nozzle
all around (perhaps weero), but we had a few anxious moments
here (tho no foam was foamed). And finally, a visit to airport
operations, after which it was well after 5 pm, so we were
denied the chance to watch baggage manhandling, and the tour
and the Do were declared closed. Thanks, goodbyes, and hugs
all round, and some of us went back to our hotels and others
to our flights, cars, or trains.

We got a big old taxivan to the Renaissance, where I planned
to take a nap before the concert. But as I was ready to head
into the welcoming sheets boxo came by for a friendly visit,
and I must say that seeing boxo one more time was as welcome
as bed would have been.

At 7 a few of us set off on foot for the concert site;
others took other modes of transportation, but we all got
there with plenty of time (it's a 10-15 minute walk).

This was the advertised concert at the Schloss Mirabell
Marmorsaal: "Lukas CHUN - Violin, Claudius TANSKI - Piano;
pieces by W.A. Mozart a.o." It didn't happen. What we
got instead was the Salzburger Solisten, led by Luz
Leskowitz in a mixed program:

Mozart duo in G for violin and viola

Beethoven Spring Sonata

Mozart piano quartet in Eb.

I was not thrilled thrilled by the performances, which
were competent but nothing I couldn't do myself, he said
modestly. The fault, I believe, lies in the leader, an old
guy even older than I whose music-loving days are perhaps
past. The others were young folk, probably recent Mozarteum
graduates, who were as competent as he but ever more
enthusiastic and perhaps less inclined to let their ego
overshadow the music.

The duo was a bit of a mess: Leskowitz (the violinist in all
the pieces) was inclined to go off on his own tempo, and the
violist, a young Russian girl, though a good player, wasn't
up to the task of keeping him in line. There were several
places where they were up to a couple beats off from each
other: not ensemble playing of a high order, although it was
in general a technically facile performance.

The pianist in the sonata was a young, forceful Japanese
woman who was able to keep the violinist in line most of
the time, though he did tend to wander off a bit. He also
was playing with a glazed look as though he were reliving
his senior recital fifty years ago. But the pianist saved
the day.

Leskowitz was by necessity more discreet in the quartet, as
he had to shepherd three others through a beautiful and
somewhat tricky score. This turned out to be a pretty good
performance all told, though tentative as if the three were
wondering if they were going to be able to keep up with
the old man.

After the concert, most of us opted to try to find supper,
which is a story that perhaps one of them will choose to
tell; but a few of us went straight back to the hotel as
we had an early day in the morning.

I stopped by the hotel to have a beer or three with
NewbieRunner. The bar has draft Gosser in two versions, the
regular, which is your run of the mill characterless
International lager, and the yeasty somewhat citrusy
unfiltered, which carries more interest. I finished off
with a clean, pleasant Reininghaus Pils, then off to bed.