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selenakWhile I've visited Mozart's birthtown (which he couldn't get away from fast enough) a couple of times, it's been over a decade at least since I last got tickets for the Salzburg Festival. Until this year. Yesterday was the last day of the festival, and lo and behold, I got tickets for a matinee (tenor Jonas Kaufmann and pianist Helmut Deutsch presenting songs from Liszt, Benjamin Britten and Richard Strauss) and for the very last presentation, the Berliner Philharmoniker under Simon Rattle playing Haydn's Seasons. In between, I made a short trip to the Salzburgian countryside to visit an acquaintance. And you know what this means? Pictures!
The Salzburger Feste, one of the symbols of the city.
The cathedral, in front of which they play Jederman - Everyman the play written by Hugo von Hofmannstahl and originally produced by the legendary Max Reinhardt, which kicked off the Salzburg Festival as an institution, every year.
Mozart's birthplace in the most touristy street of the city, for obvious reasons:
And while we're talking music, I had heard Jonas Kaufmann in July as Lohengrin in Munich, but while he was good in the part, the production, sad to say, was horrible. Not musically - the other singers were good, too - but the staging made no sense whatsover. Everyone was busy building a house, the scenery was a construction site, and what this had to do with the action of Lohengrin was anyone's guess. Anyway, this time, there was no distracting production, and Mr. Kaufmann - who hails from Munich - btw - was in fine form, presenting those songs just beautifully. Sad to say, some idiots had left their cell phones on, and there were, count them, FIVE of them ringing during the concert. If it had been someone next to me, I might have forgotten my pacifist principles and become physically violent. Mr. Kaufmann took it with good humor and said "there is just one more song, but I'd still be grateful if you checked your cell phones again". Here he is, taking his bow with the pianist, Helmut Deutsch:
As for my in between concerts trip to the countryside: it meant I did something I hadn't done for at least twentyfive years. I wore a Dirndl. (It was the dresscode, you might say.) Now technically speaking I don't have one, but my aged parent does, and while she's ten centimetres shorter than me, this did not matter for the Dirndl. So, here I am with a new friend in the Alps:
Back to Salzburg. Thankfully Simon Rattle and friends were not interrupted by cell phones. I had never been to a concert presentation of Haydn's Seasons before and found it a gorgeous work wonderfully played. I also had the chance to walk some more through the city before the concert started, so I conclude my short Salzburg pic spam with these two pictures:
The Salzburger Feste, one of the symbols of the city.
The cathedral, in front of which they play Jederman - Everyman the play written by Hugo von Hofmannstahl and originally produced by the legendary Max Reinhardt, which kicked off the Salzburg Festival as an institution, every year.
Mozart's birthplace in the most touristy street of the city, for obvious reasons:
And while we're talking music, I had heard Jonas Kaufmann in July as Lohengrin in Munich, but while he was good in the part, the production, sad to say, was horrible. Not musically - the other singers were good, too - but the staging made no sense whatsover. Everyone was busy building a house, the scenery was a construction site, and what this had to do with the action of Lohengrin was anyone's guess. Anyway, this time, there was no distracting production, and Mr. Kaufmann - who hails from Munich - btw - was in fine form, presenting those songs just beautifully. Sad to say, some idiots had left their cell phones on, and there were, count them, FIVE of them ringing during the concert. If it had been someone next to me, I might have forgotten my pacifist principles and become physically violent. Mr. Kaufmann took it with good humor and said "there is just one more song, but I'd still be grateful if you checked your cell phones again". Here he is, taking his bow with the pianist, Helmut Deutsch:
As for my in between concerts trip to the countryside: it meant I did something I hadn't done for at least twentyfive years. I wore a Dirndl. (It was the dresscode, you might say.) Now technically speaking I don't have one, but my aged parent does, and while she's ten centimetres shorter than me, this did not matter for the Dirndl. So, here I am with a new friend in the Alps:
Back to Salzburg. Thankfully Simon Rattle and friends were not interrupted by cell phones. I had never been to a concert presentation of Haydn's Seasons before and found it a gorgeous work wonderfully played. I also had the chance to walk some more through the city before the concert started, so I conclude my short Salzburg pic spam with these two pictures:
