Ludwig, Sweatshirts, and Lorin

Thursday, May 16 (Day 10)

Long post today, friends!  Lots to say.

Today was a big day! Lots of things happening today – all good and lots of fun.

I got to the institute at the normal time so that I could finish up my presentation for class today. I had prepared to present on the early years of Beethoven's life, from when he was born to shortly after the composition of his first symphony. I got to talk to boyfriend for a bit, which was nice.

At lunchtime, Abigail, Rebekah and I ran over to the Wiener Musikverein, the concert hall where the vienna philharmonic performs. We got standing-room tickets for the Münicher Philharmoniker concert that night, where they were to perform Wagner's Prelude and Venusberg-Bacchanal from “Tannhüauser”, Debussy's “La Mer”, and Stravinsky's “La Sacre du Printemps”. Hell of a program. To top it all off, the orchestra was going to be conducted by none other than Lorin Maazel. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the name, here's a link to his info page: http://www.mphil.de/en/persons/lorin-maazel.html and his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorin_Maazel. Read up.

After buying tickets, a group of us walked over to the Universität Wien (Vienna University) to buy sweatshirts. Which we did. In abundance. All kinds and colors.

I raced back to class in order to give my Beethoven presentation, which went very nicely. It was interesting to learn more about such a powerful and intriguing man, as well as the culture that influenced his music. We also had a guest speaker in class, named Christine, who was born in Taiwan, graduated from Northwestern, then received an internship in Vienna where she began studying with Dr. Reisinger. A well-accomplished young woman, clearly, and very sweet; she was happy to answer all of our questions and to share about her life.

After class, Abigail, Rebekah and I agreed to meet back at the institute so we could walk over to the concert hall together. I raced home to change and drop my backpack, giving myself just enough time to turn around and catch the next bus back to town. Crazy crazy Vienna.

The three of us walked over to the concert hall, where we were thrilled by the hall, which looks like this on the outside:

and this on the inside:

Pretty fabulous. Then the concert began.

Cons first:

1. Standing room is mostly standing, not roomy. Lots of people all crammed into one tiny area for a couple hours is not a fabulous situation.
2. Stupid tourists staling spots. No members of my group were guilty of this (obviously), but a very nice gentleman who stood behind us got his spot stolen by some bratty gal and her boyfriend. Lameski.

Pros next:

1. HOLY CRAP, THE MUNICH PHILHARMONIC IS AWESOME.
2. HOLY CRAP, I LOVE STRAVINSKY.
3. HOLY CRAP, LORIN FREAKING MAAZEL.

It was a pretty fabulous concert. As soon as Lorin Maazel walked out on stage, the patrons stood and applauded. Keep in mind that this is Vienna we're talking about, with people who smile sometimes and are generally kinda cranky. So Lorin's pretty impressive in that respect.

They knocked out the Wagner, through which I thought alternately between “wow, that's beautiful” and “I'd really like to sit down.” They also killed the Debussy, through which I thought alternately between “this piece is amazing” and “I'd like to sit please, my back is about to quit forever.”

Then we finally had a blessed intermission, where Abigail and I shared a juice and receive nasty looks from folks from higher social classes dressed in ball gowns and tails.

Then came Stravinsky.

Those who know me know that I'm a pretty big Stravinsky fan. Those who know music know the stories about the premier of “La Sacre du Printemps”, or “The Rite of Spring” in English. Long story short, Stravinsky premiered the Rite of Spring ballet in 1913 Paris. The piece is innovative in tonality, harmony, meter, rhythm, and overall sound. More simply, it changes time signatures rapidly, and contains a lot of, shall we say, “questionably tonal” chords. The music influenced many composers later in the 20^th century and is one of the most recorded works of classical music.

At the premier, people basically rioted. People began so distressed by the music so quickly that by the end of the introduction, you could no longer hear the music being performed. The performers persevered and finished the piece. Since then the piece has gotten considerably more popular, but it was clearly not so at the premier.

Anyway, the piece is intricately written and requires precision, which is to say that it's damn near impossible to perform perfectly for both the dancers and the musicians. The Munich Philharmonic just played the orchestral part, but wonderfully, and Maazel had the entire thing MEMORIZED. Incredible.

The audience erupted, myself included, and applauded until the director came out and had the orchestra play an encore, the finale from the L'arlesienne suite.

What a night! This will be certainly one of my favorite things to remember from Vienna.