Sunday, Flörsheim-am-Main

Vineyards seen through the bus window on the way to Florsheim-am-Main, and solar panels on the roof of a house. We saw solar panels on many buildings, still more evidence of Germany's commitment to developing environmentally benign sources of energy.

Our four star hotel's automated tv greeting system welcomed us in each room as Mrs. or Mr. Sinfonia Toronto!







The concert venue, St. Gallus-Kirche, is named for a devoted monk who tended city residents during the Black Death in the 15th Century and finally died of the Plague himself.

The church is close to the Main River, a short two-block stroll through a historic residential neighbourhood.

The interior of the church is an elaborate testament to faith.

The many marble surfaces reflect sound so vibrantly that carpet must be laid down to cover the altar floor for most concerts, to allow soft passages to be heard as composers intended. The carpet for our concert was put in during the rehearsal break, and it made a big difference. With the carpet in place the acoustics were superb.

No one minded taking a longer break than usual during the rehearsal while the carpet was put down, because the manager of the series, Ms. Haidi Schilling, had organized an amazing buffet of tea, coffee, juices, fruit and traditional German Christmas sweets for us.
Ms. Schilling kept every smallest detail meticulously on track all afternoon and evening in the most graceful yet apparently-effortless way imaginable.

With the checkerboard marble floor exposed during the first half of the rehearsal, then covered with grey carpet during the concert. The program: Janacek Suite, Schubert Rondo, MacMillan "Two Canadian Sketches," Dvorak Serenade.

In each city before, the orchestra received prolonged applause and had to play two encores. After the second encore here, the entire audience gave the orchestra a standing ovation, not a common event in Germany!

This year the church is celebrating the 300th anniversary of its beautiful organ with a whole season of special concerts, in addition to the regular Gallus-Konzerte series that featured our performance. The organ keyboard sits within an unusual double gallery at the rear of the nave, framed by musical bas-reliefs on the walls nearby.


When we went out to cross the courtyard to the parrish house for the reception after the concert, we found ourselves in a picturesque Christmas-card scene.








The concert took place from 5:30 to 7:30, so there was ample time afterwards to chat with concert sponsors and enjoy some wonderful hors d'oeuvres during the reception.
Nurhan with, from left, Herr Gunter Engelke of the Deutsch-Kanadische Gesellschaft, one of the Flörsheim sponsors, Diocesan Music Director and Gallus Konzerte programmer Martin Falk, District Magistrate Herr Berthold Gall, Prof. Michael Schneider, Sinfonia Toronto President Mig Migirdicyan.

Martin and Ani; Mary-Beth and Raffi

Agapi and Attila,
a friend of Raffi's and Nurhan's
who drove over from Coblenz
for the concert.

Back at the hotel, everyone had to pack one last time and get some sleep before boarding the bus at 9 am Monday morning to go to the airport, but no one wanted to finish the tour. We've been having such a great time together, everyone wanted it to keep going. We took over the garden room of the hotel bar, pushed all the tables together, and kept a circulation of people trading seats and floating in and out from upstairs long into the night...