New Year's

New Year’s in Dresden is very lovely. The city in the first place is so lovely and we stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the market square by the Frauenkirche. It was the most ideal spot. It had already been a favourite hotel in the 1800s for the Saxons and their visitors. The buildings in that area of course were all completely destroyed in February 1945. Now in the reconstruction of Dresden they have built a hotel back again in that same spot, the Steigenberger Hotel de Saxe. Very beautiful. I’ve been impressed in general with the way in which they’re rebuilding their city. There is a benefit to having waited so long to be able to rebuild. There is a distinct appreciation for historical roots, for preserving the historical integrity of an area, for researching and presenting the story.

The Frauenkirche for example is a marvel. Walking around in the area makes you think you've been sucked back into time yet the buildings have all been newly built. There is a steady stream of visitors to the Frauenkirche. The services are full. People are curious and interested and in awe. I wouldn't be surprised if this church will become a pilgrimage point, if it hasn't already. There is so much meaning here of healing and rebuilding and forgiveness. We visited the crypt one afternoon. Wow! They've completely redone it. The old stones have been reworked, the crypt rooms are small poignant chapels with contemporary stone sculptures, candles are lit creating beautiful light. Some grave markers have been restored and placed in inconspicuous but poignant places. They also work beautifully as art. I loved the communion table in the centre of the room. It is made of stone from Ireland. A huge clunker but the top of it is smooth as polished marble and in the centre is a big funnel type hole. I thought it kind of looked like a black whole. What it represents is left to the imagination. Above it hands a beautiful grey
3D stone perfectly symmetric. It had a compelling presence and wasn't going to get sucked into the black hole. It was so peaceful here. Something like a Taize service would work amazingly here. Apparently they hold ecumenical services here on Thursday evenings. But by Thursday of this week we'll already have moved on.

Back to New Year's. It is very lovely in Dresden. The warm lights though the air was cold. The busy streets and festive atmosphere. The bells. The concerts. We went to several concerts and services. Sunday service in the Frauenkirche included a little baroque orchester that also had a recorder player and we could hear the recorder all the way up to the second balcony. They played a little Bach concerto. We sang Christmas hymns and it was neat to know the liturgy having grown up in a Lutheran church, to sing and say it with a couple of thousand people. The organ's postlude of Bach's Toccata and Fugue was amazing. The way the notes whirled around the church and especially the deep ones reverberated around the dome was heavenly. We were filled up. We were able to get tickets for the Semperoper Sunday night to see La Boheme. Very cool. Especially being in one of those old romantic style opera houses. And the actual opera was interesting too. Monday was New Year's Eve.
In the afternoon we went to a New Year's Eve service at the Kreuzkirche with the Kreuzchor (a boy's choir ages 8-18) leading the service. It felt very Christmasy here. And they did the 4th cantata of the Christmas oratorio! The service was comprised mostly of beautiful music but it all told a story, a liturgical story with a message. We had a dinner at a lovely restaurant that we just happened upon. It was kind of a 1920s style place. They were setting up for a New Year's bash but we were there early enough. The duck liver pate balls were the best. Later at 9 we went back to the Kreuzkirche for a concert. 7 trumpets, 2 timpani and an organ. We sat right behind the musicians. The sound I'm sure wasn't the same as down on the main floor but it was very cool sitting right behind them. I didn't care so much for the only organ numbers. But anything with trumpet in it was wonderfully proclamatory and the unaccompanied timpani duet was very cool and the encore was the best because it was the Vom Himmel Hoch from the Oratorio. It was very exciting.
Then on New Year's Day we went to the Dresdener Philharmonic Concert. It was in the concert hall. A communist block style buiding that had it's own charm and musty smell. It told it's own story of a different era. The concert was light and fun. A pops style concert.


The New Year's Eve scene. Midnight. Travelling from the old to the new...so to speak. I'm not actually generally a New Year's Eve person. But it was fun to be in a different place and experience a different way of celebrating. First of all in Germany, it is celebrated in the streets with fireworks and firecrackers. Some eager people, teenagers I would guess, began with firecrackers some days earlier. And then the evening of as soon as it got dark they were being set off. From anywhere. In the middle of a street, or sidewalk or pedestrian zone people were lighting them. One really had to be careful. By the time midnight hit the whole city was outside. People who were at indoor parties came out to join the one on the street. Fireworks were everywhere. We were hanging out in the square by the Frauenkirche. There were less people there, and the bells at midnight ringing in the new year were extraordinary. And that was that. Fireworks seemed to last sporadically through the night. And then there was the mess to clean up in the morning.