selenak: (Sternennacht - Lefaym)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2010-07-26 11:54 am
Entry tags:

Händel, Palace, Fireworks: A Baroque Night

A few kilometres away, we have a music festival in summer, taking place in Schloß Weißenstein (village of Pommersfelden). One of the prince bishops who was really into spending the cash on houses, palaces and paintings, Franz von Schönborn, built his residence there (which happens to still be shared between the family and the state), and the current count of Schönborn organizes a festival for exceptionally talented musicians from all of Europe there each year. Which makes for splendid concerts, and also one evening with fireworks, which happened to be last night. Listening to Händel while sitting in the courtyard of a baroque palace with fireworks going on makes you feel very ancient regime (and in fact this particular palace like most German palaces at the time was built with the "we really dig Versailles!" motto in mind), and of course prince bishops should have spent the money on charity rather than on building residences, but, you know: cultural heritage. My aged parent didn't mutter "get rid of them" even once while admiring the music and the fireworks.



Weißenstein from different angles.

Weissenstein2

Weissenstein1

Somewhat later in the evening.

DaemmerungWeissenstein

Weissensteinzentral

The orchestra:

Orchester

The conductor, Dorian Keilhack (who was splendid and kept involving the audience):

Dirigent

On to the highlights of the evening:

Zinnober

Feuerwerksmusik

Feuerwerk2

RoterNebel

Detailfeuerwerk

DirigentFeuerwerk

OrchesterFeuerwerk

It was fiendishly difficult to capture the individual fireworks, but here's a try:

Feuerrad

On to the big finale:

Rot

Raketen

FeuerwerkOrchester

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