Rachel’s Interrail Adventures

Anyone who know me knows I like a good concert. And I’ve had three this week – well two and a half!

As I walked past a church earlier this week, a man handed me a flyer of a concert coming up that evening. ‘Oh no – I’m already attending a concert tonight’ I said. He told me the choir was from the US and had recently won a competition. Well, as people who know me will attest, I LOVE a good choir. I dropped my chamber music plan and decided to come here. And boy was that a good decision.

Mt. San Antonio College Chamber Singers turned out to be a world class choir. I couldn’t believe I was seeing them for free and would gladly have paid a lot of money for a ticket. They sang a diverse range of songs from different times/places/genres. My favourites were Bruckner’s ‘Christus Factus Es’ and ‘The Destruction’ – a piece about the power of wind – see excerpt below.

Innsbruck has a series of Promenade Concerts happening throughout July. At EU7 per ticket they are excellent value.

I have actually made it to two Promenade Concerts so far. The Military Band from Luxembourg yesterday was excellent and had an amazing 7 percussionists. They used lots of unusual instruments too like ocean drum, wind machine, bird whistles. There were also three alpine horns which were amazing!

The previous evening I had gone to the Brass Band concert but left after the first section when the drizzle turned to proper rain. Most people stayed though with macs and umbrella!

Tonight is my last night in Innsbruck and it is an award winning ‘Saxon Wind Philharmonic’. I met the conductor last night in passing and I can’t wait for the concert!

Concerts are on to the end of July – highly recommended!!