Chram sv.Mikulase
Jul. 8th, 2008 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranOne of the things I'm disappointed about is that after I heard the Mozart Requiem at the St Nicholas Cathedral, I happened to see some of the musicians on the street outside afterwards and I didn't try to talk to them. It was my first day in Prague and I was tired, but I should have done better. Even if they didn't speak English, I at least knew how to say "thank you" and "beautiful" in Czech. If I only I hadn't been so shy.
The St Nicholas Cathedral in Mala Strana is one of two churches dedicated to St Nicholas in the city centre. Like most of the churches, they put on evening concerts for tourists, and on the day I arrived, they just happened to be doing the Mozart Requiem. The cathedral did seem to have a higher standard of concerts than the other churches (which tend to favour "classical hits" programmes), but I was lucky in that I happened to be in town on the one day that month they did the Requiem.
Compared with the opera the performance clearly was second tier, but the building was real star. The cathedral was absolutely stunning inside and the sound just echoed and echoed until it seemed like the golden statues were doing the singing. The loudest notes rang from the very top of the dome and seemed to take an age to die away (there may have been some musical slight of hand here, because the organ notes were also blending with the choir and may have been held for longer).
The main organ here was built in 1746 and was played by Mozart, although as often happens it was later "improved" and then "restored" several times.
The singers and musicians were good enough to make it a memorable night. The performance didn't quite have the element of pure anguish that it can sometimes have, but I don't think anyone in the cathedral went home unsatisfied. The bass was especially good.
One funny aspect was that some of the latecomers ended up being seated in an alcove off to one side (I don't know the formal term for it), but they didn't realize that the acoustics there amplified every sound they made. This meant that the front rows were treated to the sound of someone loudly sucking on a lozenge at regular intervals, to the annoyance of some of the people in front of me. I was too absorbed in the performance to be really annoyed.
I don't have a good picture of the outside of the cathedral, but here's one taken from a distance.
The cathedral is the green-domed building with twin spires at the other end of the Charles Bridge. To the right, you can see the Prague Castle, doing a nice line in Gothic Looming.
Finally, another memory of my first day in Prague - a hot chocolate from Cafe Louvre, where Kafka used to write and Einstein liked to visit.
The photo is pretty blurry, not doubt due to gravitational distortion caused by the density of the chocolate. As hot chocolates go, it's going to take a lot to top that one...
The St Nicholas Cathedral in Mala Strana is one of two churches dedicated to St Nicholas in the city centre. Like most of the churches, they put on evening concerts for tourists, and on the day I arrived, they just happened to be doing the Mozart Requiem. The cathedral did seem to have a higher standard of concerts than the other churches (which tend to favour "classical hits" programmes), but I was lucky in that I happened to be in town on the one day that month they did the Requiem.
Compared with the opera the performance clearly was second tier, but the building was real star. The cathedral was absolutely stunning inside and the sound just echoed and echoed until it seemed like the golden statues were doing the singing. The loudest notes rang from the very top of the dome and seemed to take an age to die away (there may have been some musical slight of hand here, because the organ notes were also blending with the choir and may have been held for longer).
The main organ here was built in 1746 and was played by Mozart, although as often happens it was later "improved" and then "restored" several times.
The singers and musicians were good enough to make it a memorable night. The performance didn't quite have the element of pure anguish that it can sometimes have, but I don't think anyone in the cathedral went home unsatisfied. The bass was especially good.
One funny aspect was that some of the latecomers ended up being seated in an alcove off to one side (I don't know the formal term for it), but they didn't realize that the acoustics there amplified every sound they made. This meant that the front rows were treated to the sound of someone loudly sucking on a lozenge at regular intervals, to the annoyance of some of the people in front of me. I was too absorbed in the performance to be really annoyed.
I don't have a good picture of the outside of the cathedral, but here's one taken from a distance.
The cathedral is the green-domed building with twin spires at the other end of the Charles Bridge. To the right, you can see the Prague Castle, doing a nice line in Gothic Looming.
Finally, another memory of my first day in Prague - a hot chocolate from Cafe Louvre, where Kafka used to write and Einstein liked to visit.
The photo is pretty blurry, not doubt due to gravitational distortion caused by the density of the chocolate. As hot chocolates go, it's going to take a lot to top that one...
