Friday, May 27

Friday was art museum day! We had a tour through one of the great art museums of Europe, Vienna's Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum.

The museum is located at the edge of a large square, opposite which is the Natural History Museum. In the middle of the square is a huge statue of Empress Maria Theresa. Here is the group at the statue.

We arrived about fifteen minutes early, so we relaxed on the steps of the museum.

Once inside we met our tour guide and she took us up the grand staircase to the first item, a neo-Greco sculpture.

She pointed out some interesting ceiling paintings as well.

Once inside the painting galleries our guide took great care to explain each of the works she introduced to us.

In the one hour tour, we were introduced to the prizes of the museum's collection, including Titian, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Dürer, Raphael, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Bruegel.

Here our guide is talking about a famous Madonna by Titian.

Here we are in front of a famous self-portrait by Rembrandt.

Our guide ended our tour in the room with the Bruegel collection, the most extensive collection of Bruegels in the world. Here she explains the painting called "Peasant Wedding."

Our tour ended with the Bruegels, so the group was allowed to wander at their leisure through the rest of the museum. I heard from some students that they greatly enjoyed the Egyptian and Greek exhibits.

This ended the instructional part of the day, so the students were free to stay in the museum or have some free time.

Most of the group had decided to attend the production of Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II. This production was at the Volksoper, and I heard mostly positive comments from all. Here is the set for the ballroom scene in the second act.

Thursday, May 26

This morning we held class in our hotel. In the Vienna class we talked about Johannes Brahms and also Johann Strauss II, and the incredible popularity of the waltz in nineteenth century Vienna. Since it was the midpoint of our program, we also had a mid-term exam. We don't have any way to connect our laptops to printers, or access to copy machines, so our exam was an oral one. Everyone did very well. The students are really soaking up a lot of information here. In the Opera class we talked about Verdi and the popularity of his operas here in Vienna, although he never had a physical connection with the city. We also talked about the Verdi opera in production here during our stay, Simon Boccanegra. Since one of our group, Joseph Sanchez, had already seen the opera, his mid-term exam consisted of telling the class about the plot and his experience at the opera house.

Our afternoon excursion consisted of tracing the life of Franz Schubert, the only one of the great composers associated with this city to have actually been born here, lived his entire life here, and died here. We first visited the apartment in which he was born.

Here is the front of the building.

Inside are some artifacts and items associated with Schubert. Catt and Bobby are photographing an actual pair of Schubert's glasses (they were broken!).

Here are some of the students looking at the artifacts.

Joy is playing "air piano" on the instrument owned by Schubert's brother, so most likely played by Schubert.

After the "birth house" we jumped on the Straßenbahn and headed across town to the house in which Schubert died.

The apartment belonged to Schubert's brother, and when Schubert came down with his final illness (typhoid fever) he moved into this apartment. This is the actual room in which he died.

This is the entrance to the apartment.

And this is the courtyard in the middle of the building.

That concluded our tour of Schubert sites. The students were released from "class" and were free for the rest of the day.

Several of us went to the Musikverein that evening to hear the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. They performed Mahler's 5th Symphony. It was a very good concert and a very good orchestra, not quite the level of the Vienna Philharmonic, but any city would be proud to have such an orchestra as it's main orchestra. Here the Vienna Symphony is Vienna's "second orchestra." This is a photo of the orchestra just before the concert began.

After the concert we got to see the Musikverein for the first time at night. The lighting was beautiful.

Wednesday, May 25

On Wednesday our classroom was not the traditional one, but instead was held in two important museums in Vienna.

In the morning we had scheduled a guided tour for our group through the Collection of Ancient Instruments. This is one of the most important historical instrument collections in the world. It is especially important in it's quantity and variety of Renaissance instruments.

Our guide for this tour was perhaps our best one so far. His name is Roman List, and he brought along a tray of copies of old instruments and played them as we progressed through the museum. His specialty is the lute, but he played most of the Renaissance instruments quite well.

He even let our students play on some of his instruments. Here is Anubis and Ryan trying out the Cittern, a Renaissance cousin of the mandolin.

Roman ended his tour with a nice demonstration of the bagpipes.

The wealth of important instruments in this collection is truly astounding. From pianos played by Chopin, to ones owned by Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Of course there are multitudes of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments from all periods. One of the prizes of the collection is the famous "pretzel trumpet" made by Schnitzer in 1581 (of course I would have to show a trumpet!).

After our tour of the musical instrument collection we broke for lunch, after which we met up for a tour of the Hofburg palace of the Austrian emperors. The musical instrument museum was also in a wing of the Hofburg palace so we all looked for suitable lunch places nearby. My family picnicked in the Volksgarten ("People's Garden"), which before it was opened to the public in the nineteenth century, it was a private garden of the emperors. Today there is a famous statue of Mozart there.

The tour of the Hofburg palace was certainly eye-opening for the students. Although the opulent lifestyle of the Austrian emperors is far-removed from our lives today, it was important for the students to see how they lived because now they can understand how these wealthy music lovers attracted such important musicians to this city.

Unfortunately there were no photos or video allowed at all inside the palace, but here I am explaining a couple of things to the group in one of the courtyards.

Here are a few of the students on the massive statue in the middle of the courtyard.

After the tour of the Hofburg, our official "classroom" part of the day was over. The students had free time to explore the city and attend concerts in the evening.

Tuesday, May 24

This morning in the Vienna class we covered Franz Schubert and the Biedermeier Period in Vienna (the period between the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and the revolutions of 1848). Schubert was an appropriate topic because on Thursday we plan to visit both the house in which he was born and the house in which he died. The Biedermeier Period is important because it was during this time in which the Viennese waltz was born, through the efforts of Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss I. In the Opera Class we talked about Rossini and also a little about the Vienna State Opera House, because we will take a tour of the house in the afternoon after class. We also discussed Rossini's opera The Italian Girl in Algiers, which is playing at the opera house and which many of the students plan to see.

So after lunch, we headed back downtown on the U-Bahn (subway) to the Opera House for our tour.

At the opera house we met our guide, and first she took us up the grand staircase into one of the foyers on the side of the house, which in the old days was meant only for nobles but which today can be used by anyone who attends an opera.

She then showed us a peak at the Emperor's Tea Room, which is right behind the emperor's box and in which the Emperor would entertain guests back in the days of the Empire (late nineteenth century).

As our guide led us back downstairs to enter the main hall, we paused on the grand staircase for a short talk.

And another view:

Finally she led us into the auditorium and we all took seats at the front near the orchestra pit.

While she talked about the opera house, the sets that were on stage when we went into the hall began to move to the side and rear on rollers. Then another part of the set descended on what was obviously elevators to below stage level and soon the entire backstage area opened up for viewing.

From where we were sitting we also had a nice view of the Stehplatz area from which we viewed the Vienna Philharmonic concert on our first full day here.

After the tour, most of the group spent some time in the Opera House gift shop, where there were many interesting items, including many opera recordings.

The rest of the afternoon was free, and several students had planned to attend concerts in the evening.

Monday, May 23

After a nice weekend exploring Vienna, we all met again in our hotel breakfast area for morning classes. Today in the Music in Vienna class we talked about Haydn and Mozart. And in the Intro to Opera class we also talked about Mozart, but specifically about his operas. We also talked in depth about Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, as many of our group are planning to go see this opera this coming weekend at Vienna's Volksoper ("Folk Opera") theater.

After lunch we went into the very center of Vienna, just behind St. Stephen's Cathedral, where Mozart and his family lived for almost three years. It was when Mozart was most successful during his ten years in Vienna, and it was the most luxurious apartment he ever lived in. It was also one of his most productive times, as this was when he wrote the opera The Marriage of Figaro, and numerous other instrumental works. Unfortunately, photos were strictly forbidden inside the apartment, only on the stairwells and landings.

But we did get to take a group photo at the entrance to the apartment.

The streets outside the apartment have changed very little since Mozart's time.

After the apartment tour the students were on their own. Many decided to go by Doblinger's Music Store on the way back to our hotel. Doblinger's is a Vienna institution, the most respected music store in town, with much sheet music. Unfortunately, the students told me that their prices seemed to match their lofty reputation!

Friday, May 20

This morning we held our "indoor" classes in the breakfast room of the hotel. After breakfast the hotel staff cleaned up the room and made it ready for our class. By the way, I can't say enough about the helpful hotel staff here. They have gone out of their way to accommodate our group and make our stay as easy as possible. And always with a smile, even the staff members who speak only German.

In the Music in Vienna class we talked about Beethoven, in anticipation of our afternoon visit to one of his apartments. We discussed his career, his music and his life here in Vienna. In the Intro to Opera class we discussed Christoph Willibald Gluck, the 18th-century opera reformer who began and ended his career here in Vienna, and was a favorite of Empress Maria Theresa and her daughter Marie Antoinette.

After lunch we headed to the Inner City for a tour of the Musikverein concert hall. This is generally considered by experts to be one of the three concert halls with the best acoustics in the world. This is where several of us heard the Vienna Philharmonic rehearsal on Tuesday, and now all of us got to see it. Our tour guide showed us the entrance foyer, and then took us into the main hall ("Grosser Saal"), also known as the "Golden Hall," as you will see from the pictures.

This is our tour guide talking to our group in the Golden Hall:

We learned some of the reasons the acoustics are so good in this hall. For one thing there are empty spaces both under the floor (originally planned as storage space) and above the ceiling (it is actually not attached at the edges, but instead hung from the roof, creating an empty space between the roof and the ceiling). These spaces act as resonating chambers, kind of like the inside of a violin or guitar. In addition,  almost everything is made of wood, including the seats, all of the walls and decorations (they are faux marble, but made of wood) and the parquet floors. Finally there are many decorative statues and ornamental designs throughout the hall, making for ample reverberating surfaces.

As we were finishing our tour

 of the Golden Hall, the Vienna Philharmonic members were slowly gathering and warming up for a rehearsal. Here is our group in the Musikverein Golden Hall:

After the Golden Hall, our guide took us into the Brahms Hall. This is the hall for chamber music in the Musikverein. It was named after Johannes Brahms because he was a director of the Musikverein for several years during the late nineteenth century. The building was built in the 1870s and the Golden Hall and Brahms Hall were the two original halls in the structure. Today, they have added five more halls for a total of seven halls in the complex, several being underground, and some being mostly used as rehearsal halls. But we have noticed from our two visits here so far that the Vienna Philharmonic seems to always get the Golden Hall for their rehearsals!

This is a photo of a few of our students in the Brahms Hall:

And here is Ramiro and Anubis with the hall's namesake. By the way, that's not Ramiro or Anubis in the middle.

The Brahms Hall is famous for its premiere concert. The very first performance in this hall was a piano recital by none other than Clara Schumann. For this she gets a bust in a prominent position in the lobby of the Musikverein.

Finally, when we left the Musikverein, the group posed for a picture out front:

After the Musikverein tour, we all got on the U4 subway line and headed to the last station northwest of the city center, Heiligenstadt. Beethoven lovers will know this name from the famous document he wrote to his brothers describing the despair he felt over the knowledge of his oncoming deafness, the Heiligenstadt Testament. In the suburb of Heiligenstadt, there is a well-preserved apartment where Beethoven lived during this time in his life. There is not much to the apartment, a couple of rooms, a courtyard and a garden, but there are a few interesting artifacts inside, including Beethoven's death mask and a lock of his hair.

Here is Brittany and Anthony taking photos of a Beethoven manuscript:

The garden at the rear of the building:

Here is the group in the courtyard on the steps to the entrance of Beethoven's apartment:

The suburb of Heiligenstadt has several cobblestone streets near the Beethoven house that are virtually unchanged since Beethoven walked on them 200 years ago. Also, there is a small creek along which Beethoven walked each day when he lived in Heiligenstadt. It is said that this creek gave him the inspiration for many of the themes in his 6th Symphony, the "Pastoral" Symphony. Today there is a "Beethovengang," or "Beethoven Walk," next to this creek. And of course, we walked along the path.

This ended our day with the Musikverein and Beethoven. On our way back to the tram stop, we stopped for some refreshments at a typical Viennese Heuriger, which are country, family-owned wine gardens in the Vienna Woods, the easternmost extension of the Alpine mountain range. Heiligenstadt, although a Vienna suburb, is situated on the edge of the Vienna Woods, and has many Heuriger restaurants.

Many of the students had concerts to attend this evening so they rushed back to Vienna on the Strassenbahn (tram) to make the starting times.