Did I hear a single strain of music during the three days I was here?
Only from street kids trying to pick up a Euro. Oh, and in the Opera gift shop where I was purchasing, somewhat stupidly, a magnet with a picture of a slice of Sachertorte for my fridge.
I hadn’t planned on attending formal concerts, but I expected to encounter music informally, everywhere – in cafés, out of church doors, in hotel lobbies. None of it – I don't think I heard a single note.
Vienna seems to me to be a quiet kind of city. Maybe people would think it offensive to hear classics as background stuff.
Most certainly, they treat concert performances seriously: I have watched them pour out of the great theater halls late at night after a performance and they all were dressed as if there’s no tomorrow, far more formally than most attending a concert in New York, for example.
But no, I have no post nor photo illustrating my musical encounters. There were none. Amazing, isn’t it?
My nod toward the greats? Okay, here’s Mozart himself playing in the park. Oh, and a dude fishing along the canal, which so many assume is the Danube, because, you know, Vienna and the Danube are supposed to be like pb&j. Follow the canal long enough, and you get to the jam. And to the hills, alive, though not with music. That would be in Salzburg. Next time. Today I’m flying back to the States.
P.S. My parting shots though have to be from the last great moments of food and the full moon that followed us around late at night. Weird, because quite coincidentally, in the days we were here, we depleted the supply of the young white, Weissburgunder: Der Vollmondwein at our favorite eating spot (Wiebels Wirtshaus). Translation of the label: Vienna full moon.
avocado mousse with Austrian goat cheese and baby shrimp
venison over chanterelles with potato cakes
Viennese nights with Der Vollmondwein
chasing the moon
chasing the moon, 2
chasing the Sachertorte (at the Café Sacher)
Here’s to that final slice of Sachertorte. And to the little one back home.
I feel as though I were there! But that's not Mozart — Strauss probably.
ReplyDeleteLili
Looking into what can be done in terms of blogging I have found that you can blog via telephone now. I was at first interested in trying to combine voice recognotion and my PC to write out ideas that occur to me whenever they occur - which is often when I'm away from anything like a computer or even a notebook. But I thought I could mention it to you in case you were walking somewhere - like Vienna - and had a tape recorder with you. You could add an audio feature to your blog. I have seen the rudimentary facet of how it works in that nut, Tom Green's blog when he was getting his parrot to talk. I think it's an instrument that can be used for good as well as evil.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's Strauss. But he's in bad shape! He's gold plated normally and looks all sparkly! Vienna's a really conservative musical city, and I'm not surprised that you didn't hear any music there, especially if you were in the inner-ring. I have always found Vienna very lonely; in fact it was the place that made me decide to quit my life as a violinist. But your photos remind me that it is in fact quite beautiful. And the food is great! I visited the Hotel Sacher a couple of time!
ReplyDeleteThe funniest thing that happenned when I played a concert there was that everyone started clapping in unison. So unlike american audiences they do this rhythmic pounding clapping as a group. It's very weird to me, and was kinda intimidating.
Yesterday, we had a full moon here too. : )
ReplyDelete"But no, I have no post nor photo illustrating my musical encounters. There were none. Amazing, isn’t it?"
ReplyDeleteAmazing considering two days before there is a picture captioned while the band plays on. Nina, of course we know you were just checking to see if we are paying attention. We are.
That was so fabulous! If I were you I woulda stayed for the Austrian goat cheese and miss my flight chasing the moon. Welcome home!
ReplyDeleteThanks, all. And you are correct, it is Strauss. I mixed my photo files.
ReplyDeleteI always feel like I could have done so much more (in terms of walking, watching, seeing, photographing, writing, but not eating!) and it's always difficult to let go of a European city for me and recross the ocean.
In the end, my photos and texts truly reflect what I like most about travel: watching people go about their daily business, and eating local foods. And Vienna, for all its issues, some of which we've identified here, is richly photogenic and blogo-genic in these ways. I miss it already.