BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Vienna's Monday morning news reported a train strike in Hungary. Fortunately for the touring Pittsburgh Symphony, the orchestra bused from Vienna to Budapest, arriving safely in Hungary's capital in time for the evening appearance here, the first in Budapest since 1964.

Activity on the streets bustled invitingly as PSO buses wended through town to the hotel, but to our chagrin there were only about three hours left to explore the city. Players with enough energy rushed out to see one or two sights, the small window of time demanding precise planning for sightseeing success.

On the way to the hall at the end of the afternoon, members encouraged PSO librarian Joann Vosburgh to follow through on her promise to compile a travel guide especially tailored for our hectic schedule: "Cities of the World in Under 4 Hours a Day"!

The view of the Bela Bartok National Concert Hall was spectacular. In the dark night, the hall rose from the Danube's bank in an ethereal mix of glass and concrete, the stone completely illuminated with cobalt light, the exterior lines of the building ever so slightly skewed. The architecture seemed to be a reflection of Bartok's musical style, with its surprising yet sophisticated twists of traditional melody, rhythm and harmony.

The hall was oversold for the PSO's concert, and seat backs disappeared behind a sea of concert-goers. Before the concert began, there was a short speech from the stage by April Foley, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. Ambassador Foley delivered her text in English, with each phrase being read again in Hungarian by the translator at her side. Her gracious remarks touched upon the PSO's highly regarded status among the world's orchestras, as well as upon the orchestra's outreach and education concerts in the Pittsburgh area.

The evening's program contained material not heard before on this tour, including two works by Beethoven -- the "Egmont Overture" and his fourth piano concerto, Opus 58, with soloist Nikolai Lugansky, who performed the work with the PSO earlier this season. After intermission, the orchestra played Brahms' Fourth Symphony and two of his "Hungarian Dances" as encores. As has been consistently the case during this tour, audience response grew more energetic with each work played. When we launched into the final encore, there was actually applause and laughter of recognition at the familiar strains of the Dance No. 1 in G minor.

Over the years, PSO musicians have received all kinds of enthusiastic applause, both unorganized and rhythmic. Of the rhythmic variety, many audiences have kept a steady beat, and players remember concerts in Spain when the applause was in fast triplets.

The Budapest applause was even more remarkable, the even beat getting steadily faster until suddenly every other beat was soft, and then gone, leaving a slow tempo again, a rhythmic device often found in Hungarian folk song literature.

Orchestra members were delighted, smiles lighting up all over the stage at the amazing demonstration of appreciation from this audience. And as has been the case on this tour, the applause only stopped when Marek Janowski gave a final wave to the audience and concertmaster Andres Cardenes followed the conductor off the stage.

After packing instruments and wardrobes for the next-to-last time on the tour, the orchestra headed back to the hotel for a party hosted by conductor Janowski. After everyone had a chance to graze the wonderful Hungarian buffet, the maestro rose to thank us for the collaboration of the past two weeks. And, of course, we thanked him back, using the great Hungarian-style applause we had just learned from our audience.

Yesterday morning we flew to Zagreb, Croatia, for our last concert of the tour, repeating the same program presented in Budapest. Scheduled to attend this concert were not only the U.S. ambassador to Croatia, Robert Bradke, but Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader as well.

And very early today, the Pittsburgh Symphony heads home, flying through three airports and six time zones. We are looking forward to seeing Pittsburgh's familiar skyline bloom magically as we come out of the Fort Pitt Tunnel, and to seeing our wonderful audiences at Heinz Hall.