Hey, guys!
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve made a blog post! I can hardly believe how unsuccessful
I’ve been with this thing, but in my defense, this has been an INSANELY busy
trip. I am going to attempt to
give you a recap of as many of the missed days as I can, focusing only on the
most important highlights (as if that’s going to be possible…).
Sunday the 20th was a special experience because
it marked the first time our group took an excursion outside of Vienna. We started the day with a discussion
about Haydn before venturing to Eisenstadt, a small town about two hours
outside of the city. In
particular, we visited Schloss Esterhàzy, the palace of a noble family and the
place where Haydn worked for nearly his entire life! The museum appeared to be fairly new and in development, but
it was nevertheless a fascinating experience. We also had the opportunity to enjoy local wine and gelato,
which was almost as fascinating as the museum! Later that day some of us headed
back to the Wiener Staatsoper to see an opera on the big TV screen outside the
building. It’s a cool place to
hang out, a bit like a drive-in movie theater, but much more classy!
PHOTO UPDATE!
Monday the 21st started with a discussion of
Schoenberg and Webern, two of the most important figures in the development of atonal
music. We listened to several
musical excerpts, and I was surprised by how much acceptance was shown by the
non-music majors in our class; it seems like most people typically cast atonal
music off as rubbish without giving it a second glance, but our students were
really respectful about it. After
our discussion, we headed to the apartment of Sigmund Freud, which had been
converted into a very interesting museum!
We saw several of Freud’s manuscripts and letters, which were simply awesome
to see in person. Even more
interesting were the more personal items, like his collection of ancient
artifacts, or rare family video footage; this added a sense of warmth to
Freud’s history that I hadn’t seen before. After the Freud museum, the day got a little bit
hectic. We ate a quick lunch at a
Thai restaurant that was surprisingly disappointing before heading off to
investigate two important Jewish sculptures/monuments near Stephansplatz. The monuments were quite interesting
but hard to figure out, so I’ll probably just add some pictures to let you
interpret them for yourselves.
That being said, it was a nice first-time experience for me since I’m
not an art major. During this time
we also got to return to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which was really cool
because we discovered that you could go to the top! It was a blast.
After that we scoped out a neat underground restaurant called the Zwölf
Apostelkeller (12 apostle’s cellar).
It was great but it made us late for a Schoenberg/Webern concert that
evening! It ended up okay though;
we made it to the concert and discovered that there was a lot more music than
just the atonal stuff, including a lot of jazzy pieces that were really fun. It was definitely a fun way to end the
day.
PHOTO UPDATE!
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| Freud's apartment building. |
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| Freud! |
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| Freud video footage. |
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| Freud's chess set. Somehow I don't think I would want to take him on. |
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| Freud's collection of ancient artifacts. |
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| Disappointing Thai restaurant... |
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| Monument Against War and Fascism. Yep, that's a birthing baby. Be terrified. |
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| On top of St. Stephen's! |
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| Jewish memorial in Judenplatz. The walls were sculpted books, with pages facing outward. The doors also had no hinges or doorknobs, and were just another part of the sculpture. We discussed the significance of this, but never came to a definite conclusion. I thought of it like this: the books are forever inaccessible, just like the lives that could have been lived by the countless jews that were murdered in the Holocaust. Their stories were cut short. |
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| Zwölf Apostelkeller! |
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| Inside Zwölf Apostelkeller |
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| Brahms Saal in the Musikverein. Notice Dr. Mansure bombing the picture with his lip balm. |
Tuesday the 22nd began with another class
discussion, this time about Beethoven.
In particular, we discussed his famous Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter
to his brothers in which he detailed his struggles with deafness for the first
time. We also listened to samples
of Beethoven’s music and talked about Gustav’s Klimt Beethoven Frieze, a visual work of art inspired by Beethoven’s last
symphony. After these discussions
we had lunch at the Naschmarkt and travelled to the Viennese Secession
building, a modern art museum with one permanent display… the Beethoven Frieze. The work is so important because it
came from the Viennese Secession, a movement characterized by a departure from
a long line of Viennese traditions.
It was interesting to see how Klimt interpreted Beethoven’s ninth. Very complex! After the Secession building we travelled to Heiligenstadt
to see the apartment where Beethoven wrote his famous testament, and then we
went to a concert by the virtuoso pianist Murray Perahia! It was spectacular; he played Chopin,
Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms, and he even gave three
encores! It was a huge, incredible
performance in one of the most beautiful concert halls I’ve ever seen, the
Wiener Konzerthaus. We tried to
get the pianist’s autograph, but apparently they don’t do that in Vienna, so we
made up for it by going out for coffee and dessert. Great way to end the day!
PHOTO UPDATE!
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| Sushi at Naschmarkt. |
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| Dr. Toub telling us about the Secession building. |
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| Dr. Mansure reading us the Heiligenstadt Testament in the courtyard of Beethoven's apartment building. |
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| Beethoven's hair. |
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| Beethoven's death mask. |
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| The ridiculously awesome hall where Murray Perahia played a ridiculously awesome concert. |
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| Three encores! Woohoo! |
Sorry to leave so abruptly, but I have to sleep again! More is on the way!
