26th July
After weeks of planning, we set off on a sunny Tuesday morning to travel to Stansted for our flight to Nuremburg to begin our involvement in the Wipfel Rauschen (Rustling Treetops) East meets West festival in Thuringia in Germany.
Any concerns I had about the complexities of getting our array of instruments through security at Stansted in these times of heightened security all turned out to exist solely in my imagination. Everything went smoothly and no-one freaked out at our carrying a collection of big music cases through the airport and the guys on the security machines were completely matter of fact about it all. Indeed, they admired the subtle packing of the guitar cases with fresh underwear for the week ahead.
Although it was a bit of a struggle to get the instruments on board and belted up for the journey, the flight itself was uneventful with one exception. As we approached Nuremberg, a storm was just passing over the airport, so we needed to effect a rather bumpy circle for a while. However, with a few wobbles and rolls, we made an excellent landing and we were quickly though the baggage lounge and passport control where we met one of the festival organisers, the wonderful Jan Greiner.
After months of correspondence, it was nice to finally meet Jan face-to-face. Jan had kindly travelled two hours over from Erfurt to pick us up and take us to our hotel in Neuhaus am Rennweg where we would be staying for the next three nights.
Over the next couple of hours and a truly splendid meal in a restaurant in Coburg serving local Thuringian dishes along with beer brewed on site, we got to know each other a bit better and clarified some of the finer details of how the festival was going to pan out over the coming days.
About 9:00pm-ish, we arrived at our very nice hotel in Neuhaus (the Schieferhof or ‘Slate Yard’), checked in and said our thanks and goodbyes to Jan. After quickly unpacking, Rob and I then had a nightcap in the bar and went off to our rooms for some sleep
27th July
With Jan hard at work on festival organisation and us with a morning at leisure, we took a walk around the small town of Neuhaus. Like the hotel, pretty much all the buildings in the town were decorated and protected externally by slate coverings done in intricate patterns - very fetching.
After stopping off for a (pretty mighty) sandwich for lunch, we returned to the hotel to await Jan who was taking us on to the first engagement of our trip to Germany, a workshop with students and members of the Goethe school in Lausche.
Lausche was a centre of glass making in the days before the Berlin Wall came down. It is still a centre for ornamental glassmaking (including, so I am told, the Christmas decorations for the Queen's tree) but much of the industrial side of that business has sadly been lost to the Far East and to factories in western Germany. So, the town has seen happier days but is resolutely tying to find a successful way forward.
So, in an old school building, Rob set about teaching members of a local art collective songs and tunes from the world of Celtic music. In addition to singers, members of the group brought along an array of instruments including guitars, a bass guitar, a flute and a bandoneon. I had never seen a bandoneon before. To me it resembles a cross between a microwave and an accordion. It must take some muscles to play and the young man playing it certainly had those aplenty.
The idea behind the workshop was that members of the art collective would perform a brief pre-concert with us before our own concert in Goldisthal the next evening.
Everyone worked hard, especially Rob, and we had chance to run through a newly created brief set a couple of times before saying our goodbyes and being taken back to the hotel for a few beers and an evening meal.
Local reporter Doris Hein briefly interviewed us for local newspaper and the next day we saw the nice piece that she had written.
28th July
After another hearty breakfast, we were taken by one of the festival sponsors and a friend of ours on a tour of the nearby factory that he now manages - GB Neuhaus uses nanotechnology to coat halogen lamps for a wide variety of uses. Michael Petry not only organised a rehearsal room for us in the factory offices for the morning but also invited us to play to workers on the shop floor and, later, at a birthday party for a staff member. This was all great fun and a good rehearsal opportunity for our evening concert.
After a quick lunch in the hotel, Jan came to pick us up and take us over to the concert hall in Goldisthal (Kulturhaus). Here we meet one of the other festival organisers, Jan Donnerberg and his wife and son who were all hard at work to make the day in Goldisthal a success.
Goldisthal is a lovely village surrounded by wooded mountains and recently regenerated economically by the development of a hydroelectric power plant.
As we arrived the other act for the evening Zoltán and Mihail were just finishing their sound check. While they were completing what they had to do, Rob and I took the opportunity for a snack of wild boar sausage and salad before going in to do our sound check.
Sven and Martin, the sound technicians worked hard through the language barrier and fixed us up with a great sound and the magnificent little concert hall also had a wonderful acoustic itself which helped greatly.
We then did a very quick interview with the local area TV station.
With a little time to spare before the evening got underway, Rob and I took a tour of the village which by now was bathed in sunshine. Perhaps the festival organisers were going to avoid the storms that had been threatened by the weather forecasters after all.
As planned, on an open air stage in front of the Kulturhaus before the formal concert, we performed the set Rob and I had been teaching the day before with the art collective and students from the Goethe School collective in Lauscha. The students had obviously been working hard over night and gave a very polished performance of The Verdant Braes of Screen, a Strathspey and an Irish polka, and Asturian tune, Entemediu.
We then retired to the green room to prepare for the concert. We could hear the concert hall filling up and, by the time we went on after some introductory speeches, there was an audience of around 200 people.
Rob had prepared some introductions to songs and tunes in German. These were greatly appreciated - and I busked it with some very summarised introductions in English.
The hour long set went down extremely well. We were given plenty of whoops and had the audience clapping along on a lot of the faster tunes and songs and listening intently to the slow songs and airs. At the end of the performance, we had something of a standing ovation and were happy to return to the stage to provide an encore.
Throughout our performance the following act, Zoltán Orosz and Mihály Borbély from Hungary had done us the honour of standing in the wings and listening to our music. (No turning up with two minutes to go. This duo were highly professional.). Back in the green room, Zoltán and Mihály congratulated us and suggested that, once they had finished their performance, we all finish the night together for the last encore. We were delighted to oblige and settled on a song tune from both our traditions. For us it is Auld Lang Syne.
So, after a quick discussion on how we would perform it, we went in to the concert to meet some of the audience, seek a well earned beer and settle down to watch Zoltán and Mihály. They gave a bravura performance of accordion and woodwind music covering everything from Hungarian folk tunes to film themes. The virtuosity of both musicians was breathtaking. I can vouch that Zoltán really does only have four fingers and a thumb on each hand but it sounds as though he has double that number when he plays. The audience loved it.
They loved it even more when, to save the sound technicians having to make rapid stage changes, Zoltán and Mihály unplugged and came to the front of the stage and Rob and I joined them for a rendition of Auld Lang Syne which, with its connotations of friendship and meeting again, seemed ideal for a festival called East meets West. The joint performance was cheered to the rafters.
Once the excitement had died down and we had packed away our instruments, we then made our way back into the auditorium to chat with audience members and friends. All the feedback from the audience was positive and we were overwhelmed by the support shown for our music.
Eventually, the ever willing and astonishingly hard working Jan was on hand to return us to our hotel in Neuhaus, just as the rain began to fall. We certainly slept well after such a great day.....oh! And that final beer from the mini bar!
East meets West, Wipfel Rauschen Festival, Part 2: Forsthaus Willrode, 29th to 31st July 2016
29th July
Up early the next day for a transfer to Forsthaus Willrode. As he was throughout our stay, Jan was there to transport us two hours to a beautiful and newly restored hunting lodge on the outskirts of the town of Erfurt. The house is walled and circled by a moat meaning that the inside area forms a very natural open air auditorium.
We were taken directly to what was to be our accommodation for the remainder of our time in Germany, a lovely house on the edge of Erfurt in Egstedt near Forsthaus Willrode. We were met by the owner of the house, Uta, and shown to our room.
After unpacking, we were then taken over late morning to Forsthaus Willrode for a sound check. The stage had been set up the day before and we didn't have to wait long for sound technician, Jurg, to arrive.
Jurg is an excellent sound technician and the sound check went like a dream. Before long we were done. As we left the other act for the evening, Bubliczki were just arriving on site following a 500 km drive from Szczecin in Poland. This youthful seven piece band plus sound technician tumbled out of a transit van and was clearly full of beans.
Excellent musicians all, with instruments ranging from accordion to trumpets to violin to percussion and bass, these lads were certainly geared up for a very energentic evening. They had plenty of volume as well. Their sound check was an avant grade masterpiece in its own right.
Rob and I returned to Uta's house to pick up the last of what we needed for the evening and returned to the venue for the performance.
With Forsthaus Willrode being in the countryside, there was no nearby town to stroll around. So, instead, we sat and chatted with the staff who were busily putting the venue together. Sadly, the weather took a real turn for the worse around 6:00pm - a dangerous time, just when decisions are being made about whether to go to an event. We had had showers on all of the days so far since we arrived in Germany, and the uncertain weather looked like continuing through the evening.
In a lull in the rain, we were approached for an interview by the regional Thuringian television station who asked about our music and involvement in the festival. Given that Bubliczki had left the site to check into their hotel and didn’t return until quite late, we ended up with all the musical coverage on the final broadcast news item.
Our performance that evening was again well appreciated. For whatever reason, a large space had been left in front of the stage but, at our encouragement, families came close to the stage to watch and children danced....at least until the skies opened and torrential rain began to pour down. Naturally the audience took what shelter they could. Thankfully, we were protected and dry under the stage but it was a little odd playing to a now even more distant audience, swathed in raincoats or under umbrellas. Still, we could tell people were enjoying the set by the umbrellas bouncing up and down rhythmically with the foot tapping of their owners. Rob again did really well with his German introductions. Even I had a go...to less effect methinks.
Finally, towards the very end of the set, the rain eased. We were asked for an encore and duly obliged. Then it was time for beer, sausages and Bubliczki.
Now performing at about half the volume of their original sound check, this energetic seven piece provided a powerful 90 minute set. Imagine Bellowhead in full flow playing Klezmer style music and you begin to get the picture. Whether led by the brass section or the fiddle and accordion or singing a cappella, these energetic young men can really play and sing. Perhaps their sheer exuberance simply blew away the rain clouds. The rain stopped and, as the evening wore on, more and more of the audience came into the space in front of the stage and it was a great show.
30th July
After three pretty hectic days, Rob and I now had a day off. Fortunately, both of us have friends and former work colleagues living in the Erfurt area. In the morning, Rob and I were given a tour of the truly lovely city of Erfurt by my friends Thomas and Ingrid. Then, after leaving Rob to meet his friend Michael at the railway station just as a horde of exuberant and vocal football fans were arriving there for the first match of the season, Thomas and Ingrid took me on to the cultural pearl that is Weimar (with links to Goethe, Schiller, Liszt, Bach, Kranach and the Bauhaus movement to name but a few). We had lunch at the Schloss Belvedere overlooking the town before starting on a walking tour of Weimar. I regret to say I do not know Germany very well. However, seeing Erfurt and Weimar in the sunshine that day has seriously whetted my appetite to see more.
After the tour, Thomas and Ingrid dropped me back at Forsthaus Willrode just as preparations were underway for the evening concert. Not being involved, I could relax with more beer and sausages, talk with new friends and watch the show. Rob had had a full day with his friend in Erfurt and, arriving later back into Egstedt, had opted for a quiet night in.
The evening began with Prinz Chaos II. Having spoken with him in the early evening, Prinz Chaos is a radical activist singer songwriter who writes predominantly about contemporary German issues. His act is punctuated with political satire. Sadly, my German is virtually non-existent and, as such, I couldn’t understand the dialogue. However, it was clear that he was making many in the audience laugh a lot and I certainly enjoyed the songs he sang.
Prinz Chaos was followed by the mighty Zoltán Orosz and Mihály Borbély who had also made the trip to Forsthaus Willrode. I had enjoyed their performance in Goldisthal and I enjoyed it just as much this time. Zoltán had been given his first accordion at the age of 4 and watching him easily convinces you that he has played it every day since. That, plus the mellow tones of Mihály on saxophone and clarinet, made for a lush sound that the audience listened to intently and clearly respected enormously. The sight of two young people locked in a lengthy Argentine tango to the side of the stage was testament to just how much the music was being enjoyed.
After the show, there was further drinking and the only remaining challenge of the day was for me to get past Uta’s fierce sounding dog, Jabba, and get to bed. I am still intact so I must have succeeded.
31st July
Our last day in Germany was a very full one. After packing and getting everything ready for a hassle free return on the plane, the day began with breakfast in the green room at Forsthaus Willrode. On stage through the morning, as we breakfasted and filled in our forms for GEMA the German performing rights organisation, we were treated to the highly talented playing of Hallali, a three piece ensemble of horn players playing classical melodies and German folk tunes.
I am pleased to report that the sun was shining when we took the stage and for this performance the organisers had placed some benches closer in to the stage. Again, seeing couples swaying and lots of foot tapping going on, we sensed our set was going well and the repeated demands for (three) encores were a great honour to fulfil. Eventually, we left the stage and chatted with various audience members who had clearly enjoyed the set.
Then after a quick lunch with some of the festival organisation team, many of whom were from the same small town in the old East Germany, Sonneberg, we said our goodbyes. As we left, Uta was kind enough to give us both a bag of goodies from the forestry shop and they will doubtless make for excellent lunches for many weeks ahead.
Then, with the ever willing Jan, we set off towards the airport. However, there was one more treat in store. Jan was keen that before we left we should see the immensely pretty town of Bamberg and what a treat it was. We parked up, walked up the hill to the Cathedral where we saw the Bamberg horseman and then strolled back down through the busy streets to the river and eventually into the famous Schenkerla Inn for a last meal in Germany and to sample a little of the Rauchbier brewed on site. This was a great way to put a full stop on our trip to Germany.
After the meal we hightailed it to the airport and, thanks to great driving by Jan, got there in good time. We dropped off our one suitcase and eventually took our fond farewell from Jan who was there to help us all the way to the Security barriers.
The flight was full and manoeuvring instrument cases through the throng on board was difficult to say the least. However, the flight left and arrived on time. Stansted was unnecessarily stressful for midnight on a Sunday. Suffice it to say, we eventually made it to our car and, choosing a cross country route, made it home in the early hours of Monday morning.
So, we have had a great experience in Germany and for that we must thank a lot of people but, in particular, Michael Petry, Jan Donnerberg, Uta Krispin and Jan Greiner – the best roadie-cabbie-fixer ever! Many thanks also to Thomas and Ingrid for their excellent tour of Erfurt and Weimar. We sincerely hope to return to Germany in the not too distant future to renew our friendships with the team behind Wipfel Rauschen East meets West festival and we hope that having established a base, the festival will grow further in stature in the coming years.