Music, music, music....

Wow, what a second week! I regret that I wasn’t able to write you anything until now but I’m sure this next couple of posts will be completely worth it! ☺

The actual week was really quite the adventure. We had our second week of classes as well as our midterm exams. I had a test in both my Form and History classes. I think they went pretty well but I am still waiting to hear back… I can’t really even believe we are already at midterms, I feel like we have just started classes! I don’t feel like any time has passed while I have been here, and yet at the same time I have done so much.

One of the great assets of Salzburg is the Mozarteum University. The history of the Mozarteum University goes back to the year 1841 and is characterised by the work and teaching of outstanding personalities such as Bernhard Paumgartner, Clemens Krauss, Paul Hindemith, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Carl Orff and Sándor Végh. People come from all over the world to study at this school. Being in the same town as this university ensures that there is a plentitude of concerts being held throughout the week. During the week I attended three different concerts. The first concert that I attended was an orchestra concert with a flute soloist. The main reason that we went was to hear the flute soloist. She ended up playing a Mozart Flute Concerto in G major. It was absolutely phenomenal. The sound of the orchestra just filled every crevice of the auditorium and blended like they were made to perform together. Hearing music played so well was just good for the soul. It was also just all to perfect to hear a Mozart flute concerto, in the birthplace of music. The performers on the stage were just absolutely wonderful to watch; they were completely absorbed in the music. I think that there is just something about watching an ensemble that is completely enthralled in the music to make it such an experience.

The second concert that we attended was a blöckflote recital. My friend and I were not entirely sure what we were getting ourselves into because it seemed to be a pretty low-key event but we were excited all the same. When we arrived we realized what we were about to witness was a recorder studio recital! Just imagine attending a university where they actually had a studio, which just played the recorder with professors who were there solely to teach recorder. When we sat down we realized that other that one other guy sitting in the back row, we were the only ones attending who were not performing. This was all cool but made the recital much more intimate. The program was very interesting because all of the pieces (with the exception of one) were played traditionally with the harpsichord. It was interesting with the one piece that was played with piano ended up being my least favorite, not that the performer wasn’t phenomenal, but it was just surprising how differently the two combinations sounded. It was such a different kind of recital than I was accustomed to hearing but it was so very good at the same time.

On Friday night a group of us ventured to Vienna to hear the renowned Vienna Philharmonic. We had done some research and found some rather cheap tickets. We weren’t really sure where they were but we decided to just go and enjoy the concert! We hit a few bumps in the road on the way but once we got there, tickets in hand, everything was worth it. We were taken to our seats and we came to a quick realization that our seats were much more, interesting, than we had thought. Our seats were actually on the stage right next to the orchestra! Sitting there felt like I was in the orchestra. It was one of the greatest feelings ever. We could see the reactions on all of the faces of the performers and the conductors’. The last piece was Shostakovich's Symphony # 10. It was truly amazing. While sitting on the stage you could feel the energy and power of the piece that they players were undoubtedly feeling; players were completely enthralled in their music. This entire experience is almost indescribable. After the concert we hopped back on a train and traveled back to Salzburg.

On Saturday and Sunday we were to use the time to make up for class hours that we were going to be missing for our extended stay in Paris. After classes and such I experienced a non-musical adventure in a foreign country… laundry. Things went fairly smoothly except for figuring out what to do about getting soap and how to insert money in the machine to make it work. The draw back to this endeavor was the cost. It cost me 7€ just to complete one load (wash and dry). And I thought that it was expensive to do laundry in the dorms. Ha!

The next phase of my journey led me to the beautiful city of Paris, France, which, I believe deems its own entry. ☺

Until then,

Auf Wiedersehen!!