The Golden City welcomed us with streets full of life, and with a quite and peaceful church, in which we sang and listened to our fellows from the musical family, who were present during the first weekend of the Prague Advent Choral Meeting. We shared the scene, the joys, and the enthusiasm of spreading harmony, with Chor Vivace from Austria, Freier Chor Dresden from Germany, Frauenvokalensemble PH-Wert from Switzerland, Coro Val Genzana Massagno also from Switzerland, Arcadelt Kamarakorus Kaposvar from Hungary – amazing sound and craftsmanship, and Choeur Francophone de Zuerich.

We, for our part, had the not-so-common chance of meeting Austrian people living in Prague, thankful and touched to tears by the sound of advent songs from the distant home, that we presented as a preview of our soon-to-be Adventsingen in Brucknerhaus in Linz.

Speaking of our next concert, do not imagine that we spent the rest of the time at leisure in Prague. Of course, we visited the city, but early in the morning, or in the afternoon, and sometimes even late in the evening you could hear us in the big room of the hotel, busy-bees humming the songs that we try to bring close to perfection during our rehearsals.

The evening of the concert day, we went on a dinner cruise on Vltava. We shared the boat with the colleagues from Coro Val Genzana Massagno, but were restrained to completely separate rooms. Dining without singing? Not an option for Bachl Chor. We started, and soon we found ourselves engaged in a musical dialog with the choir at the other end of the boat. The music brought us together and, at the end of our river trip, we were all gathered in the bigger room, trying to find a common song. Nothing worked… until somebody came up with „Va, pensiero“. Of course! Everybody knows Verdi, who once again united people speaking different languages under the wings of music.