Unlike the rest of our class, I woke up really early this morning, to make it on time for the Budapest Festival Orchestra rehearsal in the Palace of Music. I had contacted the orchestra administration beforehand and they got permission from the conductor, Andras Schiff, that I can attend the rehearsal.

BFO at the Palace of Music

The hall at the Palace of Music was something! It is new, modern and beautiful and sounded marvelous too. I will add a picture later where you can see it in all its glory.

Maestro_Schiff_conducts.jpg Maestro Andras Schiff

The orchestra was really fantastic also. The program was Haydn, Schubert and Mozart, and with the modern strings and woodwinds they used natural horns and natural trumpets. They sounded really good in this music. Maestro Schiff told me he is a bit afraid for the horns, who clam a high note easily, but in my humble opinion that is the price you have to pay to have a great brass sound for music of the classical era!

When I came back to our own rehearsal hall for our master class, it seemed everyone was in need of a break (even though we supposedly had a holiday yesterday). The class was full of drowsy people who could not pay attention to what maestro Simonov was teaching. Hopefully tomorrow people are better rested!