Music for beer parlors in the Basilica of the Eberbach Monastery

The Alehouse Session – the basilica of the Eberbach Monastery an unusual location for the show/Photo: Ansgar Klostermann

The performance of “The Alehouse Session” at Eberbach Monastery should have taken place in the cloister of the monastery, weather permitting. But rain had prevented that and so it took place in the basilica. Somewhat unusual for the place,  that percussion and drum perfectionist Helge Andreas Norbakken at  first and as a start of the show took a sip from his beer bottle.

But thank goodness Continue reading “Music for beer parlors in the Basilica of the Eberbach Monastery”

The Rheingau Music Festival 2021 has started

2nd opening concert of the Rheingau Music Festival 2021 on June 27, 2021/Photo: Ansgar Klostermann

 

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s concert overture “The Hebrides”, his Reformation Symphony No. 5, and Jean Sibelius Concerto for Violin and Orchestra were on the program of the two opening concerts of the Rheingau Music Festival 2021. At the first sounds of the concert overture “The Hebrides”, my thoughts wander quite spontaneously to the Scottish, green-brown, romantic, melancholy island landscape of the Hebrides. It is June 27, 2021, but the place of action is the Rheingau, the medieval basilica of Eberbach Abbey near Eltville on the Rhine, which Bernard of Clairvaux founded almost 900 years ago. Continue reading “The Rheingau Music Festival 2021 has started”

Lufthansa takes off with polar explorers to a 13,700-kilometer Nonstop Journey

Routing Hamburg-Falkland Islands/Image: Lufthansa

On Sunday, January 31, 2021, a Lufthansa Airbus A350-900 will take off for the longest nonstop flight in Lufthansa history: 13,700 kilometers from Hamburg to the military base Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. On board there will be scientists and crew members of the research vessel “Polarstern”.

At 9:30 p.m., it’s “Ready for take-off” for 16 crew members and 92 passengers. On board the special flight are Continue reading “Lufthansa takes off with polar explorers to a 13,700-kilometer Nonstop Journey”

Enjoy the digital Rheingau Music Festival 2020 at home

The Eberbach Monastery complex/Photo: RMF

The prelude to the digital concert series 2020 is the concert “All about Mozart” at Eberbach Monastery.  A rousing program unfolds in the Eberbach Monastery complex, showing the great genius of Viennese Classicism in all its facets. The soloists are Ana de la Vega, Bomsori Kim, Nils Mönkemeyer and Sarah Willis, the Cuban band Sarahbanda and the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under the direction of Benjamin Reiners.

For the second concert, the US-American organist Cameron Carpenter Continue reading “Enjoy the digital Rheingau Music Festival 2020 at home”

The Ischgl Protocol – A party location infects half of Europe

The party is over/Foto: blog.tirol

The winter sports village Ischgl in Tyrol was known for its parties. Then it became the hub of the corona virus – out of unscrupulousness and greed. A team of reporters reconstructed the case.

From: Der Spiegel  on 27.03.2020

“Home of Madness”

By Jürgen Dahlkamp, Hauke Goos, Roman Höfner, Felix Hutt, Gunther Latsch, Timo Lehmann, Walter Mayr, Max Polonyi and Jonathan Stock.

Ischgl in Tyrol is a mountain village in the Paznaun valley at an altitude of 1377 metres. It has a parish church and a chapel for the dead, about 1600 inhabitants and 11,800 guest beds, 239 kilometres of ski slopes, 1000 snow cannons, 45 lifts. There is the disco “Kuhstall” and the après ski bar “Kitzloch”. In Ischgl you can ski and party all night long at Jägermeister-Red Bull. Ischgl is a brand like Ibiza, Sylt or the Oktoberfest. Millions of tourists meet here every year. They come from Dublin, Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Helsinki, from Bavaria, Hamburg and Neuss. The tourism industry in the valley has a turnover of 250 million euros a year. Continue reading “The Ischgl Protocol – A party location infects half of Europe”

Established aviation companies must keep pace with innovative ideas from start ups

the development of environmentally friendly mobility concepts will be one of the central challenges of the coming decades/Foto: Dassault Systemes

The development of environmentally friendly mobility concepts will be one of the central challenges of the coming decades. An interesting exhibitor in this field at this year’s Paris Air Show was “Dassault Aviation”, a subsidiary of the multinational software development company “Dassault Systemes”. “Established aviation companies must keep pace with innovative ideas from start-ups that are entering the market”, says CEO David Ziegler. Continue reading “Established aviation companies must keep pace with innovative ideas from start ups”

Ruinous price war in the sky – Airlines serve greed and irresponsibility of consumers

Quickly and cheaply jetting somewhere has serious consequences/photo: tz.de, Munich Airport, Terminal 2

 

Serving the irresponsibility and the greed of consumers for ever cheaper ticket offers, to quickly jet somewhere at the weekend, to fly domestic routes, has further dramatic not only ecological but also economic consequences for the airlines itselves.

On the morning of 30 July, the Lufthansa share fell by up to seven per cent to its lowest level for two years. The discount battle with airline tickets Continue reading “Ruinous price war in the sky – Airlines serve greed and irresponsibility of consumers”

Current situation of global air traffic

Global Aviation Monitor (GAM) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) shows decline in air traffic/photo: tagesschau.de

 

After many years of growth in global air traffic with increasing flights, passengers and flight connections, a slowdown in development is currently becoming apparent. Global passenger flight movements increased by only 1.5 percent in June, from 3.3 million in June 2018 to just under 3.4 million in June of this year. Continue reading “Current situation of global air traffic”

Music and stories of a border crosser

Norbert Brandtner (styrian harmonica), Johanna Holzner (harp), Manuel Haitzmann (tuba)/Foto: Johanna Wenninger-Muhr

Without his “Zugin”, the Styrian harmonica, Norbert Brandtner does not go anywhere. In the last six years, the Pinzgauer from Unken, with around 700 sheep and a dog, mostly a Bordercollie, moved through the Swiss Alps from May to September as a shepherd during his time off from university.

Continue reading “Music and stories of a border crosser”

Today’s communication between pilots and air traffic controllers: stone-age?

The work of air traffic controllers will in future be gradually replaced by artificial intelligence says Carl-Herbert Rokitansky/Photo: FlickR

The computer scientist Carl-Herbert Rokitansky speaks of “Stone Age´” when one considers that the communication between air traffic controllers and pilots is still analogous today. Rokitansky, who was involved in the development of the Internet as a young researcher at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), now heads the Aerospace Research Group at the University of Salzburg, after working on the development of mobile radio networks and the construction of automatic truck tolling systems on motorways. Continue reading “Today’s communication between pilots and air traffic controllers: stone-age?”