The Hills are Alive

Happy Thursday, everyone!  

I can't believe that so much has happened since the last time I posted!  I am happy to say that we are all falling into a bit more of a routine here, and I am feeling a bit more at home each day.  

I am especially glad that, since things have settled down a bit more this past week, I have been able to practice more regularly.  I had my first clarinet lesson last Friday, which went really well.  I am working on the Poulenc Sonata for Clarinet, and Matt and I are working on the Krommer Double Concerto.  Vienna is pretty much the best city in which to be a musician.  Everywhere you turn in the first district there seems to be someone with a cello strapped to his or her back or someone studying a score on the U-Bahn.  Last night, our teacher took me and Matt to a clarinet recital at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, a famous conservatory in Vienna.  I was absolutely awestruck by the talent of these students.  Their technical work was nearly flawless, and many of them captured a tone as beautiful as those I have heard in professional recordings.  At the end of the recital, the students brought their teacher, Peter Schmidl (principal clarinetist in the Vienna Philharmonic) onstage to perform a special work composed just for him.  This was particularly entertaining because the piece they performed quoted many staples of the traditional clarinet repertoire, such as the Mozart and Weber concertos and the Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream.  After the recital, the performers and audience members gathered in a hall for a champagne toast.  Matt and I stuck around with our teacher as he spoke in German with other attendees, and although we couldn't understand anything they were saying, we nonetheless enjoyed being somewhat of a part of a Viennese social gathering!

The other most memorable part of this past week was our overnight excursion to Salzburg this past weekend.  After a four-hour bus ride and a stop at the nicest rest area I have ever seen (pictures below), we arrived at a really nice hostel in Salzburg.  We then took a 2.5-hour walking tour through the city, including the house in which Mozart was born!  On Sunday, we attended the Salzburg Global Seminar, an annual conference in which scholars from various fields gather to discuss issues prevalent in modern society.  This year's conference focused on music, and we were lucky enough to be able to observe two of the morning sessions on Sunday.  The sessions, which took place in the house where part of "The Sound of Music" was filmed (hi Gwen!), focused on the relationship between musical performance and audience engagement as well as the relationship between music and the brain.  I was particularly fascinated by the lectures that focused on how to enhance the intensity of musical performances and the capacity for concerts to be life-changing events.  After the morning sessions, we were able to eat lunch with the conference participants, many of whom were renowned musicologists.  This seminar was perhaps my favorite part of the Salzburg excursion, as it brought to life many issues facing classical music today.  

The nicest rest stop ever.

Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg!

The girls at the Augustine Biergarten in Salzburg.

The view from the building in which the Salzburg Global Seminar took place.

Girls in front of some Alps!

"The Sound of Music" house!

Although each day in this city is memorable, two other particularly notable highlights occurred after we returned from Salzburg.  First, on Monday of this week, we took a tour of the Mozarthaus Vienna, the apartment in which Mozart wrote "The Marriage of Figaro" opera.  This museum was particularly well-designed, as each room showcased a particular one of Mozart's compositions and contained specific historical information pertaining to the context of each work.  I also found it particularly powerful to be able to stand in the rooms in which Mozart once lived and composed.  Second, yesterday, Matt and I tried the Sacher Torte from a little bakery near our classroom building.  It was absolutely delicious, and I now understand why this dessert has become one of the most renowned pastries in the city!

The Sacher torte!  Yum!

Me and Shivani at an adorable café - Café Aida - that we tried this morning.

Tonight, we are going to see the Gustav Mahler Jungendorchester perform Mahler's First Symphony, one of my favorite pieces ever.  This weekend is mostly free, so I am looking forward to exploring Vienna a little more.  I hope to visit a few of the museums in the city and of course try out some more cafés!

More soon!