Week 2: Return to Warsaw

After 9 days in Wrocław, a city near the Czech and German border, I returned to Warsaw yesterday after a 7 hour train ride. It was a long ride, but my LDS friend and fellow Fulbrighter Ryan Boudwin and I, had a whole compartment to ourselves. We were able to stretch out and be quite comfortable. While in Wrocław we had full days of classes on Polish history, politics, and language mixed with touring. This orientation was sponsored by the US-Polish Fulbright Commission. Wrocław used to be part of Germany before WWII. We saw a castle, several old churches with beautiful organs (we even heard a short recital), multiple war monuments, and many other important historical sites. 

On of my favorite sites was where Johannes Brahms conducted the premier performance of his Academic Festival Overture. He was given an honorary doctorate and composed the piece for the graduation ceremony. Several other famous musicians of the day were also awarded doctorates in this hall. Their names are listed under this picture of Brahms: Hector Berlioz, Clara Schumann, Niccolo Paganini, etc.

An interesting monument is placed in the city center. It is a monument to Dietrich Bonhueffer, one of the only German-Lutheran ministers who openly apposed Hitler during the Third Reich. He was from Wrocław and was made a martyr for his defiance agains the Nazis. He bust is also present in the cities halls of famous Wrocław-ians.

Another of the busts in the hall of famous people is of Joseph von Eichendorff. He was a famous poet and interesting to me because Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms set many of his poems to music.

Wrocław is home to many bridges that cross the cities 2 rivers. The main bridge to Cathedral Island has been covered with pad locks. When I first saw these, I though they were meant to be a kind of memorial for the deceased. When I looked more closely, I saw that each one had some kind of love inscription written on it's face. Each day as we crossed the bridge on our way back to the dorms, we saw gaggles of young girls cooing over them and seemingly hoping for the day when they would lock their love on the bridge. It mad me miss my beautiful wife every time I crossed.

This morning I was finally able to attend the Warsaw 2nd branch of the LDS church. It was really wonderful. From what one of the 8 missionaries in the branch told me, it is the strongest and best attended branch in the country. There were around 80 people there today. We meet in a nice office building that has been transformed nicely into a chapel with several classrooms and offices. The branch president, a missionary who has been serving there with his wife for the past year, was released. They are being transfered to another city where the branch has only 12-15 active members. The new branch president is an American who is in Warsaw working for the US Embassy. He is one of 2 or 3 men in the branch who work for the Embassy and are here for a time with their families. All of the meetings are held in Polish and English as about 1/3 of the members are American. It was really enjoyable to get acquainted with the saints here.

This evening was my first Mass performance with the Musica Sacra choir at the Praga Cathedral in Warsaw. We perform in mass once a month. The cathedral was completely destroyed in WWII, with about 85% of Warsaw, and rebuilt in the following decades. It is a magnificent building in the New Gothic style with a very new romantic organ. The acoustics are quite amazing. Singing in that space made our good amateur choir sound much more professional. The most striking part of the experience was to observe the congregation. First of all, it was packed. There must have been over 300 people filling the pews with at least 40 more standing in the back for the entire duration of the hour long service. They all rose and sang together without hymn books on multiple occasions. I had heard how devout Poles were in the Catholic Church. It was really neat to witness it.

Tomorrow begins my first full week in Warsaw and my last week before school. It's time to crack the whip and get working. I have many pieces to write for commissions, competitions, my dissertation, and other projects. I also have another choir performance and will attend the rehearsals and premier of my teacher's first symphony. It is the first of many concerts of his work at the National Philharmonic where he is composer in residence this year.

I'm trying my best to stay busy working so I don't have to think about how much I miss my family. It doesn't help that my internet connection is pretty lousy. So far we have not been able to Skype very successfully. Hopefully I can get my service changed soon to remedy this.

Happy Sunday from Warsaw!!!