Eisenstadt

Sunday, June 28, 2015. Civilized Places and Events. After a morning touring Vienna, our bus took us out to Eisenstadt, the seat of the Esterházy family and the place where Haydn lived and worked, save for summers at the remote but grand Esterháza estate in Hungary. We first toured and sang at the Bergkirche. Here four of Haydn's late masses were premiered: the Heiligmesse (1796), the Theresienmesse (1799), the Schöpfungsmesse (1801) and the Harmoniemesse (1802). [The evidence is direct on the last 3, circumstantial on the first.] Beethoven's Mass in C, also an Esterházy commission, was premiered either in the Bergkirche or in the nearby Haydnsaal. The latter is in Schloss Esterházy just down the hill, which we toured after singing at the Bergkirche. Previous gallery. Next gallery.

Coming in, I thought this was a first view of the Bergkirche in Eisenstadt. Turns out it's not: it's the Pfarramt Kleinhöflein, the parish church in an adjacent (but now essentially contiguous) town.
Here we are.

Inside the Bergkirche: a wide-scale 6-photo composite. The Chorus prepared an informal recital but discovered this was not as active a tourist site as we expected. A few others wandered in, but the chorus sang mostly to family and friends on the tour.
The main altar.

A side altar.
Above the pulpit.

The organ is above the entry at the rear.
This gives a first video tour of the building ... accompanied by a few introductory comments from Lynne. Most of the wall detail is actually elaborately painted trompe l'oil. (0:34 video -- click to play.)

Singing now. Haydn's Ave Maria ... with a variety of views of the room. (3:43 video - click to play.)
The chamber choir singing Amazing Grace. This was all the more poignant because two days before President Obama sang Amazing Grace after delivering the eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney. He and eight others were killed in a racially-motivated rampage in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. (2:37 video - click to play.)

Lynne concluded the singing day by aligning various voices around the room and singing 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone'. The action moved around the space from tenors (left), to sopranos (back), to altos (right), and to basses (here, in the front). Lynn got into the photo act as the piece ended.
After the informal recital, we visited the Haydn Mausoleum by the back entry to the Bergkirche.

The Haydn Mausoleum.
The crypt.

When were done, Tiffany closed the door.
Almost.
Done.

The gravestone next to the crypt. Haydn: "Chori Musici Praefectus Celeberrimus".
A translation (with a few expansions) of the Gravestone's Latin inscription ... into German, of course.
On the other side of the building is the Kalvarienberg. Its depictions of the Stations Of The Cross might have been interesting to visit, but either I nor presumably no one else on the tour knew what was here at the time. It looks like *this* is the active tourist site.

A closer view of the entry to the Kalvarienberg.
On to Schloss Esterházy.

The Schloss Esterházy entrance led to a courtyard where we waited for our guides. Not too much question who this place is celebrating .. and it's not Prince Miklós József Esterházy, "The Magnificent". It's his servant.
Waiting in the courtyard. The sound of a violin was wafting from one of the sides.

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