Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Vienna, Vienna, Vienna!!!

The past few days in Vienna have been quite a whirlwind experience. We went to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra concert, which was quite fantastic. Their performance of Beethoven's Egmont Overture was SUPERB. Their take on Beethoven's 7th was interesting, going quite faster than I expected, but maybe I was holding higher expectations after hearing the Vienna Philharmonic perform it just a couple days before in the same hall...

We also visited the Zentralfriedhoff yesterday and visited the graves of some of the most famous composers ever, which included my favorites: Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. WHOOP WHOOP!!

And last night, we went to The Barber of Seville at the Volksoper. I wish I could say it was super funny, but I had no idea what they were saying since there wasn't any subtitles...but the acting was amazing and at least through that, I could understand what was going on. Nevertheless, it was extremely well done, and I liked their take, where the setting was somewhere in the 1940s or so...I don't think they had motorcycles in Rossini's time.

And finally, today. We went to the Haus der Musik and I wish I could have spent all the time in the world in there. It was so much fun, like creating your own Viennese waltz, or doing "Namadeus" (creating your own Mozart piece using your name). I even got a gig conducting the Vienna Philharmonic! (Simulator, but it's okay, I think I did an amazing job anyways)

Lastly, tonight we went to the Szymanowski string quartet concert. I have to admit, I have never appreciated quartet music more. Their take on Haydn's quartet in F Minor blew me away. It wasn't played in the baroque style like I thought it would, but more movement and more in the romantic style, which actually worked very well. They also did an encore piece, which I don't know the name of, only that it's by a Ukranian composer and it brought me to tears. It was so beautiful and I was visualizing a peaceful field filled with flowers and the sun shining and wind blowing in my hair. It was just GORGEOUS.

Tomorrow is the last day, and I think it's time to explore and get lost as possible in the city!!!!!

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