home

the past 3 weeks in vienna were pretty incredible and i will post about my concerts, my epic plague that lasted basically the entire time, the huge amounts of snow we got compared to new england, and the monteverdi marienvesper conducted by nicholas harnancourt that i saw. there is also going to be a post dedicated to the club scene in vienna.

but for the time being, i am home. last night we went first off to the 24 hour gas station at four corners and got iced coffee, doritoes, 25 jelly munchkins, and cape cod chips, went to my house and saw my family and my dogs for the first time in four months, and then went to see my dear friends.

the first big culture shock, seeing the 50 different kinds of gum at the checkout counter and thinking, whoa, there are usually only like 4...

it is good to be home.

Lack of motivation due to runny nose and holidays in three days

I've been attempting to take notes in my history lecture, which I usually just listen to online in my warm room because we've had such crazy weather the past few weeks. I felt like being a good dooby for my last week before going home for Christmas break, and Melissa and I are going to meet up after class, but now I'm feeling a bit like it was the hugest waste of time. Here are my detailed notes:

14.12.10

Zentrale Themen: Absolutismus, Aufklärung und aufgeklärter Absolutismus

Erste Phase

            -Osmanischen Probleme in Ungarn, Beginn in 1526

            -mitte 17Jhundert uandert sich

            -Osmanischen Reich

Konflikt zwischen zwei Kandidaten für Herrschafter: Osmanischen und Habsburger

Es ist so schwer immer ihn anzuhören. Achhhhh meine Naseeeeeee

Goldenen Apfeln mit Rome und auch mit Wien

Chrstlichemäche Europas

Bösen Osmanischen Feind

Je ne peut pas faire attention.

Je dois cette lecture noch einmal hören. Shit. I need to practice my French before I let myself go back to that country. Uhghhhh only 45 more minutes.

19 Jhundert Habsburg Monarchie hat ein ähnlicher Problem mit der Osmanischen Reich, Nationalismus

ICH WERDE STERBEN.

Französische Forstellung

Herrscher regiert ganz allein

Katholischer Herrschaft

„Vernewert“---ich weiß nicht warum das wichtig ist...

echt, ich werde sterben.

niesen-to sneeze

husten-to cough

verstopfte Nase- stuffy nose

die Halsentzündung, das Halsweh, der Halsschmerz -sore throat

trocken- dry

sich die Nase putzen, sich die Nase schnäuzen – to blow one’s nose

schläfrig – sleepy

elend, ärmlich, erbärmlich, unglücklich, jämmerlich – miserable/unhappy/wretched is how i feel right now sitting in this class

only 25 more minutes, I can do it.

At least i’ll feel like i accomplished something after going to this class. Even if I have to listen to the entire recording online.

Plan:

Buy card with melissa.

Coffee at kaffe küche with the money she owes me.

Hit supermarket on way home, white chocolate.

Go to H&M with ladies, slash, also exchange Jim’s present to be safe.

Oh my goodness only 15 more minutes. I can make it I can make it.

Confessional Absolutismus

            -im Anfangsphase sehr stark von der Kirche

1718-1790 (I don’t know what happened in that period of time)

joseph der zweiten, leopold der zweiten jünger Bruder

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 7 minutes.

Is it sad that I’m impressed that that kid just asked a question since I don’t even know what we’re talking about?

I hate when everyone laughs at something he says and I don’t laugh because I don’t know what the joke is. At all.

hey wait, class is over!!! yesssssss.

An affair to remember

This morning I got a brioche at my fav coffee place, Kaffee Küche, located in the Schottentor/Universität U-Bahn station, and it was filled with hot apricot jam. Later tonight I grabbed some apricot punch at my favorite crêpe stand in the old campus Christmas market, where I go at least weekly to practice my French with the guys who work there. They're from the Normandy area and one of them practices English with me, and then gives me the word when my brain thinks only in German. His English is accentless, which is impressive for a French guy, and he thinks my French is the same way (which is impressive to them for an American). I'm sad that after this week they will all be back home, and I won't have nice crêpe-making guys in striped sweaters to practice French with.
But back to the point. I go to the stand firstly to practice French, but secondly because they have the best apricot punch.
This weekend I made apricot dumplings (from the frozen food section...) and two weeks ago I invested in a jar of apricot jam to spread on my morning toast/roll. In restaurants, I will always go for the apricot dessert, whether it is crêpes filled with marmalade or a chocolate thing with apricot garnishes.

It's official.
I have fallen in love with apricots in Vienna and it is getting out of hand.

Stephansdom

Last night I sang there---check out the video on facebook, because blogspot always has issues uploading videos, it seems : http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1576220005713&saved

it was pretty incredible, and extremely cold.

Tupietastic

H&M

Store by the University that is wayyy to expensive but so so so pretty!

would have to not eat for a week if I found something worth it to buy.

New Title

Changed the title because it's been on my mind for a while.

It's the end of "Wilkommen und Abschied" by Goethe, and in my translation: "In my veins, what fire! in my heart, what fervor!"

That is what this year is about.

Orphée aux enfers

I did a presentation for my class on the Orpheus myth in music on Monday and just wanted to share this with everyone because even if you don't like opera, this is just such a good version of a whicked funny duet, which was in fact composed and premiered in 1858 in Paris. And it shocked even the Parisians. 
Just to prepare you for the scene, you're about to see Jupiter (Zeus) disguised as a fly seducing Euridice, who in this parody of the Orpheus myth, fell in love with Pluto, who was disguised as a shepherd and bee keeper, got bitten by a snake "by accident" and descended to Hades to be his girlfriend. Pluto made the mistake of leaving her alone for like 3 days while dealing with business in Mount Olympus, so that she  got bored enough to be turned on by a fly. Oh Offenbach, gotta love you.
 click here for a good time

For my other musicology class, I was originally going to present on piano Romances by Clara Schumann, but I wasn't there the night they discussed the dates of the extra block classes and apparently someone got confused and took my topic. I was going to switch to something else by either Chopin or Schumann, and then the professor told me today that whoever had had Schumann's "Carnaval" dropped it, so now it's mine!!!! yessssss.

The Perfect Day

I just wanted to post because today was AWESOME. I have a whole list of things to do before going home for Christmas next week, including finding a couple of articles and doing work in various libraries and today I was supposed to check some things off that list. Instead, I slept in by accident, had an awesome breakfast of berry yogurt with berry müesli, then proceeded to walk all around my neighborhood poking my head in literally every store I have been wanting to go into. There's an Italian style cafe around the corner where you just stand and drink your coffee, so I tried to the espresso there and then eventually made my way to Cafe Schwarzenberg, which is a really famous typical fancy Viennese Cafe where like Wagner ate lunch. I wanted to sit somewhere classy, have coffee and journal for a while before meeting up with Melissa to go to Demel, the fanciest chocolate shop in the city. We got cake and more espresso (!) and then bought a little Demel cake together for me to give to the Thomases of the German Department. I realized that the Monday after I get back is the last day of finals, so I need to make a coffee date with my fav professors :)

 Then I had an awesome class with presentations about the piano pedagogy of the 19th century, focusing on the innovations of Liszt and Chopin and then about Chopin's etudes. My original plan afterward was to visit the Christmas market at Spittelberg, but I realized I had no idea where it actually was, so I went to Mariahilferstraße to attempt to do some errands. I did  few errands, but most importantly, ending up deciding to buy these brown leather boots that I have been thinking about for about 3 weeks now.

I made tomato soup and grilled cheese (with a mix of random cheese and brie) and had a glass of whole milk for dinner, which is one of my favorite meals. I'm going to practice Lieder now on the piano downstairs, and really, I'm not quite sure that this day could get any better. Good food, good coffee, great music. Oh, and it snowed while I was walking on Kohlmarkt, which is a street in the very center of Vienna that has Christmas lights strung like a wall of light overhead = magic.

Beware: Magistrat 35

I meant to post about this a long time ago, but it's never too late in the blog world. Namely, getting our visas was a ridiculous ordeal, something that I feel even Hercules or any other Greek hero would have had major problems completing successfully. The picture below is from the day Melissa and I, along with Sarah, waited at the scary place called "Magistrat 35" for four hours, just to hand in some additional documents. We're standing in front of a huge poster basically saying "don't try to bribe the staff to get your visa". Sad part is, the two guys trying to bribe the fair-skinned brown-haired Austrian woman are portayed as most likely Turkish or Iranian in origin. Just a little racist? Thanks Magistrat 35, for expressing how you really feel.

Thankfully, we both eventually got our visas before December 1st, when technically we would have been kicked out of the country. I've decided that it was the biggest hassle of my life to date. But I won't go into details because then that would probably make you reconsider spending an extended period of time in this beautiful, culturally rich country.

Some things just don't change

By Sunday, I will have performed in six concerts, not counting little Christmas concerts with my internship. LOVE IT.

SO MANY PEOPLE for Beethoven's 9th. It's AWESOME.

My internship

 Just started Wednesday and I am in love with this place. The students are from 5-highschool aged and come here for lessons and rehearsals after school starting at 2 PM. The school is in the 19th district, which is pretty far away from where I live, but really easy to get to from the university. I got there super early, so I had some time to walk around the neighborhood and it's pretty cute.

The head of the school took me around and introduced me to all of the teachers, and by the third person we got to I was already booked to sing in a concert the next day. People are excited that I am going to around until June and want to do anything, from teaching some flute lessons to schlepping instruments around, to turning pages for the harpsichord player (they were desperate for someone, and the page turns were really brutal!). And whenever they have things I'm just interested in, I'll just come and chill. In my first week I already completed 10 hours...I'm definitely going to go way over the hours I need!

The flute teacher is French and has some wonderful students. I sat in on some of the lessons, and a few students are preparing repertoire for this big competition in February, so the teacher, Sylvie, is excited to have me around to be another set of ears and to do extra practice/coaching with the young students. One girl is this tiny Hungarian thing and she pipes out a HUGE sound. so exciting.

I also sat in on a recorder lesson with Johanna, the teacher in charge of the Barock and period music. The student was a maybe 13-year old kid wearing construction boots and the classic skinny jeans and hoody. His music was all kinds of frumpled and messy, which we joked about, he said he had only made it "prettier"---but then his playing was pretty darn serious. Reminded me of a young Joe Lewnard, only missing a scarf. 

I will definitely be helping out with the beginner classes. 5 and 6 year olds do a music "carousel" their first year, where they try piano, violin, and something else for 6 weeks to see how they like it. Eva, who will be teaching a group piano, is SO HAPPY to have a helper. She also directs a flute choir, but since she's not a flute player herself, hopes I can be of use there as well. 

The guitar teacher is also excited to have me around, after hearing from someone else that I also mentioned how I play a little guitar.....basically I am always going to be needed somewhere and will get to work with just about everyone! And when there is really nothing going on, I'll either go to the staff room and make coffee for myself (we all tally it up and at the end of the month contribute), or I'll visit Abraham the Egyptian's oboe lessons. He's an ancient and wonderful man, who will apparently talk your ear off, which is why my boss took me to his room last on our tour! He said that if I didn't know how to play oboe, I ought to come and learn. We'll have to see what happens.

It's also just sweet to get to know so many musicians in the area. After turning pages for the harpsichord player in a concert of French baroque music on Thursday night, I was invited out to dinner with all of them, ended up talking with the conductor later and got invited to sing with his choir next semester. They're doing stuff by Monteverdi, so I was like, yes please please!

The courtyard of the music school, where they have concerts year round (but it's nicer in spring and summer, can't wait!)

Beethoven's 9th

to those of you who don't know:

I auditioned on flute for the UniWien orchestra in the fall, but because flute is the best instrument and evryone knows it, I didn't make the cut, as the rest of the zillion auditionees are studying in Vienna full time life and I'm only here a year and the conductor wants to build a community in the wind section.
So:
I was however, then asked if I would be interested in playing percussion, possibly triangle? To which I OF COURSE responded, yes.

This is how I found myself for the first time ever learning what it is to be percussion in the orchestra, which is namely, to wait, try to make your entrance correctly, and then laugh at the kid on bass drum to my right and the one on cymbals to my left who keep screwing everything up. (I had practiced the triangle part with Johnny before he left, so I was on the money). With flute, I'm used to being in the middle of everything, but this, this was something else. Especially since I don't even play in the first three movements, and even in my fourth movement I have at least 300 measures of rest. I got to watch EVERYONE. The baritone and tenor soloists were there for the rehearsal and the baritone is a real character. He keep studying his score and mouthing the words really huge, which was entertaining. I have a friend in the cello section so, I kept checking in over there. The fourth movement is a beast for the cellos, they are sawing away like mad. Then I would glance over the violin section and see who was rocking the most intense vibrato and casually make way to the the winds to check out the flutists hand position and intonation. The oboe players move around like crazy, but the clarinets are my favorites. The conductor, who is also my choir conductor, is the kind of guy who hops a lot and jerks around when he conducts, so that's fun.

And then suddenly, it's time for me to play and I get to ring my triangle like it's the end of the world.

We have either 3 or 4 more performances, so I'm excited to get to know this piece inside and out, and to have fun kicking it at the back of the orchestra. I've been asked if I want to play next semester for Tchaik 5 and Borodin Polynesian Dances, and I might just have to say yes. Pourquoi pas?

The city I would live in if I were a princess

It's making the rhythm of my blog a bit repetative right now to keep posting series of pictures, but Prague is way too beautiful not too, and quite frankly, with 7 concerts in the next week.5 and actual schoolwork due next week, pictures aren't going to be uploaded to facebook anytime soon.

PRINCESS CASTLE! PRINCESS CASTLE! I WANT TO LIVE THERE!

The Hogwarts towers church by night

and by day.

Carmen at the Prague State Opera!

yes we waited until everyone left, just to get these sick pictures.

The awesome clock, we just missed the chiming of the hour, when the top windows open to reveal one of the twelve Apostles. The window closed right as we ran into view.

My favorite stained-glass window in the church in the Hofburg. It's of Pentecost, and a droplet-shaped bead of fire is descending upon each disciple.

Our tour guide Saturday morning explained that the churches in Prague have two towers that symbolize Adam and Eve. I did not notice until she pointed it out, but the left tower, Eve,  is slightly thinner, taller, and more graceful overall than the right tower, which is stocky Adam. Our tour guide was also an amazing lady from Prague who can speak "8 languages well and 2 poorly". sheesh!

All of the bridges gave the city a very romantic Parisian feel. Although I guess anywhere I go I find excuses for it to seem romantic. It's hard not to be, in Europe.

On the bridge, still laughing about the street performer we passed singing Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Under the Bridge" with a huge grin on his face.

Only 2 days in Prague, but enough to fall completely in love with the city. The Czechs also make a lovely dark brewed beer, I liked it more than Guinness.

Double the Bergins

John came to visit for the week of Thanksgiving, just left this past Sunday. We basically lived on US time, sleeping late and then staying up whicked late, so now that he's gone my sleep schedule is all kinds of messed up, and it's 2 AM and I'm feeling the most awake I've felt all day. Kind of a bummer. But we had a lot of fun, hit up some concert action, went to museums, had a Thanksgiving dinner with my program, went to a ton of Christmas markets, and even squeezed in HP 7.1.

Intermission at the Musikverein. We were sitting in the way back of the balcony so that we could lean our heads back on the wall=we both dozed off for a good chunk of the Brahms 2.

John doesn't like getting his picture taken (which makes me feel incredibly vain for LOVING having my picture taken). He's on the steps outside of the Albertina Museum.

Our sad faces after the ending of HP 7.1. We both cried.

Walking around the center of Vienna at night is beautiful because there are tons of lights strung overhead. I wanted cute pictures of us, but by accident kept sabotaging John trying to take pictures of cute couples walking under the lights. hoopla!

My attempts to take pictures of us just keeps ending in failure.

John is trying to survive off of four hours of sleep and some coffee on Thanksgiving morning, after having been up very late skyping. Note, the eggnog latte in Vienna=not that good. Will have to hit that up during Christmas break.

Taking apart the turkey after a wildly successful Thanksgiving dinner!!

Chilling in the cafe near the UniWien with the pretty courtyard that it's too cold outside for now. John, looking suave stretching and thinking in stripes, with a new blue moleskin.

The only good pictures of us taken by other people were taken by the Doleschels during our visit to Schönbrun, saved the best for last <3

An open letter to the couple in the airport

Dear couple in the airport,

As I was waiting anxiously for my brother to appear through the doors of the waiting area in the Vienna International Airport last Sunday, I could not help but notice you two. I had been up late watching operas, trying to get as much preparation done as possible for a presentation, and had slept until noon. I didn't have time for breakfast in order to catch the schnellbahn to the airport, so once I got there I bought myself a huge coffee (yes, they do exist in Europe) and the whole time I was drinking it I got more and more nervous that John's plane would have landed and he would walk out and not see anyone standing there waiting for him, holding a sign that could have been bigger had I planned ahead and bought a posterboard, but one that I nonetheless still considered pretty sweet because of my artistic use of the green highlighter I found in the library last week. (which was about the extent of my art supplies here, until I splurged just last week and bought a set of stabilos....). Because for me, flying and airports, travelling in general has always been a very romantic thing, and will hopefully always remain so. Trains are now, since being in Austria, a new addition to the romantic travel idea.
So I chugged the really hot, huge melange, felt a little gross, and ran back over to the entry door to confirm that no, johnny's plane hadn't even landed. Even once the blinky green lights came on to signal the landing, I must've waited for another thirty minutes.
So by the time I noticed you there waiting, and then glanced to see a nice girl come walking through the doors, burst into a huge, wild smile, and walk briskly (not run) right over to where you were, I was a little bit over-caffeinated and under-fed and went a little insane. Don't get me wrong, I had started to feel nostalgic and a bit emotional even just with the families waiting for their mom with balloons and flowers, and little girls with curls running to meet her and being twirled around. But that was nothing compared to you guys standing in the middle of a crowd of people just like smiling and giggling and kissing, to the point where I literally checked my watch in awe of how long your "Wiedersehen" was taking. The term "sickeningly sweet" can hardly capture the essence of it.
So I dunno, just wanted you guys to know that. I didn't mean to stare, and it was more like recurring glances than staring anyway. But you made me very happy to know that I get to have my own "Wiedersehen", in now only less than the three weeks. But probably with less pda, cuz it's America and let's get serious, we keep it clean in our parks, compared to all the shenanigans I've been an unwilling witness to in this country.

Your truly,
Lucy

ps more to come soon on Prague and Johnny's visit

oh, art history

Apollo

 There are so many awesome student deals on museums here (and I get reimbursed by my program whenever I do something cultural anyway...) that I have been trying to take full advantage of the wealth of the art collections in Vienna. Definitely making up hardcore for not having taken art history at Wellesley yet and having so many friends who do...

I have a year pass to the set of Art History museums (which is about 9 different museums, including the huge impressive art history one at Mariatheresianplatz) and have been lately going through the huge art history museum section by section. Last week I explored the Greek and Roman wings and LOVED it. Maybe it's because I read the Percy Jackson books this summer...but something about the faces of the various interpretations of the Greek and Roman gods struck me. I found Apollo and Zeus' faces the most striking. 

Zeus

This afternoon I attended a lunchtime museum tour of the Hans von Aachen exhibit, which is presently the featured exhibit in the picture galleries. The museums has free 30 or 60 minute tours weekly during lunchtime, mid-afternoon, and early evening. They're in German, so I thought I would start going to them every so often to experience a lecture in German on art. The paintings were beautiful, and the lecture informative and challenging, lots of vocab I didn't know. Hans was the court painter of Emporer Rudolf II in Prague starting in 1592, and his painting technique was innovative in that it combined Dutch, Venetian, and Roman styles to produce stunningly elegant compositions. He achieved this beautiful glow on his subject's skin that is apparently characteristic for his work. The funny thing I realized during that tour was that I was definitely the only one there under say 40 and one of maybe 5 that doesn't have grandchildren. I kept feeling like they were all checking me out, like what is that young thing doing here? tee hee, I love museums.

Christmastime is here

 Saturday November 13th was opening day for the Christmas Markets at the University Campus and at the Rathaus. The pictures that follow are all of the rathaus market, which is lovely and so much fun!

The Rathaus is one of my favorite buildings in Vienna.

I am SO getting the jelly filled pastries next time, last night I had already eaten too much by the time I saw them.

there is even a meat stand...you can also taste the traditional Austrian snack the woman is grabbing inthe photo, black bread with sliced meat (here ham), mustard, and shaved

entire bananas covered in chocolate, along with every other fruit imaginable. But instead, I went for the meter long sour cream filled straws. One blue, one pink, one green, all AWESOME, as you can see in the picture below.

not a day older than 7. I also think it's funny how the chocolate covered fruit comes on a stick kinda like shishkabobs.

"send me your heart" and "greetings from vienna"

om nom nom

far too many flavors of punsch!  another stand had tequila punch and apple cinnamon punch...

Our gingerbread houses with the tissue box form just can't compare...

The festivities will only continue and spread through the city, as somewhere around 10 different Christmas markets open throughout the course of this week and the next. I'm excited to have a full month to try every flavor of punch and limit myself to one treat per visit. Or at least try to.

An open letter* to the young man on the U-Bahn who stole my heart today

Dear young man who stole my heart on the U-Bahn,

I won't deny that though the moment we shared today on the subway was brief, it was special. I was only riding the one stop from Museumsquartier to Karlsplatz, heading home after a visit to the Dutch, German, and Flemish paintings wing of the Kunsthistorischesmuseum. My head was filled with the colors and faces of the Rembrandt, Albrecht Altdorfer and Jan van Goyen paintings and I expected to spend the two minute ride just thinking more about them. From my seat I noticed the lovely tones of your voice, and when you turned around in your seat to look right at me, I smiled, as I am apt to do when suddenly looked at by a stranger in the eyes. To my surprise, your entire face transformed into the largest of smiles, even crinkling around your eyes, and you cocked your head to the left, in delight. I smiled wider, and we both beamed at the adventure of smiling at each other.

Just when I thought my heart would explode, you turned around to let your father zip up your coat, check the laces of your little red hiking boots and secure your hat before following him out of the subway with your tricycle in tow.

You probably get suckers like me all the time with that smile and tilting of the head, but I can't blame you and I'm not even mad about it.  Three year-olds can't help being incredibly sweet, especially ones wearing red boots. So just do me a favor, and please smile every day at girls like me and don't outgrow the cuteness.

And let my sister know I want nieces and nephews to buy cute things for, like red boots.

Sincerely,
Lucy

*I decided to write my own open letters, inspired by the "open letters" section on Dave Egger's website, but just include them as blog posts. To read some awesome open letters, or to send your own to the website, click here.

A Week in the Life

Monday-choir practice
Tuesday- Romantic Art Song masterclass at the Musikverien taught by Peter Schreier with singers from the University of Music
Wednesday- Die Heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe at the Burgtheater
Thursday- Werner Güra singing Schubert's "Winterreise" at the Musikverein
Friday- Puccini's Tosca at the State Opera
Saturday- choir singing to open the University's Christmas market

I may have done hardly any homework this week, but damn I still feel productive!

"What's that?" "It's delicious."

After spending about 5 days in Freiburg, Germany with Steffen, I feel like I don't need to eat for a week. I'll write more about the trip once I get home (currently in the Baden Baden airport, drinking a beer), but for now I'm going to highlight each day with a picture of the food. 

Friday

Steffen had cordon bleu with scrumptios potatoes, I had deer stew with Spätzle, Preiselbeer preserves and cabbage.

Saturday

I took this picture after we had devoured quite a lot. Imagine the fruit torte about 3X as big, and more than half in the picture was free. The woman who owns the bakery on the ground floor of Steffen's apartment building brings them free stuff every day, saying it "has to be eaten that day or it'll go bad". What a hard life.

Incredible pasta with a real wine sauce, devoured around 5 AM Halloween night. (I was only allowed to chop some veggies) My face is saying something like: "I am ridiculously tired and nothing has ever tasted better in my life".

 Monday

Unbelievable got chocolate and cake at a cafe in Augustinerplatz. We slept too late to get real All Saint's Day cake, so this was our substitute.

 Tuesday

The IKEA swedish meatballs. I really hope IKEA in the states has this.

Tuesday night we also had dinner cooked by Steffen's friend Franzi (very delicious schnitzle and fries with gravy, which they call "sauce"), but I didn't get a very good picture. Oh, and Steffen and I also made pancakes, crepes, scrambled eggs, eggs in a window, and lots of toast with apricot marmalade and nutella. I may never recover...

Two Month Count

Museums visited: 8 (seems like a small number, but they were all seemingly big ones...)

Concerts attended: 7 (plus one ballet)

Trips out of the city: 4

visitors: 2

 Pictures taken: 1429

chocolate and coffee consumed: too much

Freiburg!

I left at 5:37 this morning, took a train, a plane, a bus, and another train and at 12:09 in the afternoon found myself in sunny, beautiful Freiburg, Deutschland.

Steffen&Lucy--that's right Westford folks, be jealous!

City-Wide Student Protest

City-wide student protests started last Tuesday to speak up against the Austrian governments proposed plan to lessen university funding in the new budget. In Austria, students pay very little for a college education because the universities have always been strongly supported by governmental money. I think the average student pays something around 300 euros per semester, which seems absolutely ridiculous to me, coming from the American system of paying anywhere from 5-17 thousand for state universities and astronomically high numbers for private universities. However, the universities in Vienna are overcrowded by students and are beginning to lack to facility to maintain so many people. There can be twenty professors to one desk. So the system needs more money, but the government wants it to come from the pockets of the students.

During Tuesday's protest, students gathered in the Ringstraße in front of the University and marched down the street to meet masses gathered in front of Parliament. It was a festive affair, with balloons, lots of beer, and loud music. My favorite slogan was "Reiche Eltern für alle", which means "rich parents for all". 

Sunday night after going to the opera, Briana, Emma, and I wandered toward Stephansplatz trying to find a place to get a drink, and found students gathering in front of the church to protest. After our drinks&dessert we headed back to Stephansplatz to catch the subway and were met with a roaring crowd of people. This protest was still festive, but from farther away sounded pretty angry.

Juwelen der Neuen Welt

Sunday night I attended my first performance at the Staatsoper, and the experience was a dream.

A friend from home, Briana Brown, is studying abroad in Milan this semester and planned to travel this week through Prague, Vienna, London and Edinborough with a friend from her college. The two arrived Sunday, I met them at their hostel around 5, expecting just to take them to dinner and walk through some of the city, but then they mentioned someone else at the hostel asking about a ballet. I had previously checked the programs of all of the concert houses looking for something interesting, but hadn't thought there was anything. After asking at the hostel desk, we decided to do standing room and just see what happened, having no idea what the ballet was actually called.

SUCH a good decision.
We grabbed kebab sandwiches and got to the standing room entrance exactly an hour and a half before the performance, bought 4 euro tickets to stand on the first level and ended up witnessing the premiere performance of some magnificent dancing.
The theme of the performance was the "contribution of American dancing to the twentieth century dance", to quote the program. There were four pieces, entitled as follows:

Theme and Variation, to Tchaik's Orchestra Suite No. 3, with choreo by Balanchine
Variations on a Theme from Haydn, music by Brahms, with choreo by Twyla Tharp
The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, to Schubert's Symphony in C-Major D 944, 4th mvt, choreo by     William Forsythe
Rubies, to Stravinski's Capriccio for piano and orchestra, choreo by Balanchine
The order was stylistically chronological. The first Theme and Variation was lovely classical ballet repertoire with tutus and pale yellows, and then the Brahms had a chocolate brown backdrop and flowy simple tunic costumes in cappucino tans and foam white. One of the duet pieces within this ballet captured the essence of sweet, simple love, not cutesy or over the top, just real. The Forsythe ballet had costumes in neon green and purple, just too close to the Teletubbies for me to handle, but the choreo was interestingly modern enough to take my mind off of the strange children's show, thank goodness. Rubies had flashes of jazzy hands and musical theater-esque head movements and attitudes, and the costumes were sultry crimson studded with crystals and sparkles. I bet up close they look incredible, because under the light there were just a million things glittering.

Wowed by the performance and completely dehydrated, the three of us wandered around to find a place to get some drinks and maybe dessert, and ended the evening with Radlers (the girl beer of Austria--40% beer, 60% lemonade, and only 2% alcohol...) and a dessert that the waiter himself described to me as a "dream".

Liederabend

Tonight was slightly heartbreaking. Marija Vidovic, soprano performed an evening of art song with Maria de los Angeles Rubio, piano, and guest Shkelzen Doli, violin from the Vienna Philharmonic. I was eager to attend this concert, as it would be my first in the Brahms Saal, in which Clara Schumann had given the opening concert, and because Robert Schumann's song cycle "Frauenliebe und -leben" was on the program and I am currently working on this cycle. I am also very much in love with it.

The sad part is that I was a few minutes late to the concert. I had cooked a lot and had laundry in the dryer, so as my 7 pm should-be-leaving-time crept closer and closer I was scrambling to get everything done and had to run. The Schumann song cycle was first on the program, and they were just at the end of the first song when I arrived, but since the audience was holding applause until the end of the 8 songs, I had to wait outside until the entire piece was over.  The woman working at the bar wasn't allowed to turn the volume of the live-screen of the concert up, so I could only barely hear what was going on. A couple of songs she took wayyyy slower than I would, but I couldn't really hear her voice very well. I had to wait in agony through the next seven songs of my favorite song cycle before I was let in.


What killed me is that for every other song cycle on the program, the audience started clapping in between movements, even though it was very clear that applause should have been held until the very end. If only they had done this for the Schumann! I have also found that concerts start exactly on time here, to the minute, which is very different from where I come from...

However, the part of the concert I sat through is also worth noting, as the rest of selections were beautiful and interesting pieces. She sang my favorite Strauss song, "Morgen". This is often performed with violin, but I've never liked it much that way. The opening has the violin ascending in half notes while the piano has ascending, beautiful arpeggios that tend to get covered up by the violin holding its one note and not going anywhere. But tonight the balance was perfect, and it made me want to perform this with John. (hint). Marija Vidovic also sang Cantilena from Bachiana brasileira No. 5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos, which I have only ever heard as soprano with eight cellos. It was slightly different with piano and violin, but still lovely, and as that combination is generally easier to come by, I'm going to put this piece back on my list of chamber music possibilities (with John).

to rap up: first concert at the Brahms Saal, pretty soprano in a deep blue dress I would wear in a heartbeat, got some new ideas for stuff to sing with John when we're famous (or just at Christmas), and don't be late to concerts in punctual countries like Austria. All in all, quite the educational experience.

The Acies Quartett

Friday night (22.10.10) I went to hear the Acies Quartett in the Gläserner Saal at the Musikverein. This quartet is made up of four young Austrian men, and they played quite splendidly. The violist was the first man I've seen in this city wearing his long hair in a way that I found nice, even attractive. There are too many guys with ill-kept hair in scraggly ponytails in this city.

The program included the Haydn String quartet in G Major, Hob 111:81, Schubert Quartettsatz in c-Minor, D. 703, and the Shosty Stringquartet No. 5 in B-Major, opus 92. Then we were treated to an encore of a Polka by Shostakovitch, which was the highlight of the evening for me.

Watching the Acies Quartett perform gave me high hopes for my younger brother's future career. Not only would he be splendid in a quartet like this, but he also would greatly increase the level of good-looks, and thus improve publicity. Seriously, he blows each of these guys out of the water. This thought crossed my mind just about as soon as they sat down to the Haydn.

Cooking Lessons

I've been picking up a lot of different food ideas, since I have to feed myself here. There's no lazy-going to the dining hall and complaining when the food is bad--if I'm complaining about the food being bad, it would be my own fault. So. While I wish I were learning to cook myself incredibly fast, gourmet meals every night, it's more like I'm learning tricks to get by with, and then I try to cook a lot of something one day and eat that for a while. Tomorrow morning will be that day (I bought the special pan and am going to make Käsespätzle, my new favorite food)

So I wouldn't quite call what I'm learning recipes, because I never actually get a recipe, just a simple way of combing things that radically changes my world.

the first: My roommate from September ate tuna fish on brown bread with slices of cucumber on top almost every day. To me it was a little strange, because I was only used to the tuna fish taste being completely dulled down by mayonnaise. She offered me some one day and I was actually pleasantly surprised by how good tuna fish tastes all on its own. And a can is only 69 cents, so tuna/cucumber sandwiches are pretty much my fall back these days. I got a toaster oven from my program, so I also can make a mean open-face grilled-whatever-is-in-my-fridge sandwich.

the second: My current roommate (who I will be living with for the remainder of my year here) cooked me dinner one night the very first week we were here, and she wanted to make the dessert she would always make with her friends. At the supermarket you can find rolled up sheets of dough, which to me are like store-bought pie crust, except sweeter and rectangular. We cut it into squares, place a square of chocolate in the center of each, and fold the dough over the sides of the chocolate, making a nice little package. Bake them for fifteen minutes, and you've got lovely little chocolate pastries for dessert...and breakfast.

Some of my hallmates from Bulgaria made cookies last night and offered me some and then kept making me eat more (saying no is always in vain here), and they happened to be in the kitchen right when I went in to bake the leftover sheet of dough, so I made them eat--I mean offered--them some. They also said how I could do this with meat and cheese and make savory snack/lunch versions. Wow. I am overwhelmed by how delicious and (nutritious?) easy that would be. And how soon it's going to happen.

p.s. important update: I now like tomatoes. I don't know how this happened. Maybe just because people offered me tomatoes and wouldn't let me refuse. The first time I liked a raw tomato was at Kimball's when I had to make BLTs all the time. But now I can somehow just eat. a. tomato. and enjoy it.

so there's hope for the world after all.

The killer mass

I attended my third concert at the Musikverein on Sunday night. Nikolaus Harnoncourt directed the Concertus Musicus of Vienna with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and five wonderful soloists in a stunning performance of J.S. Bach's B-minor Mass, BWV 232. I had never before heard the mass live, and I wasn't even very familiar with most of it before this concert. The B-minor Mass had always held this place of weighty importance in my musical associations, and now I understand why.

It was beautiful. I was captured in the music and carried through the liturgy of the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. The texts take the believer on a journey through asking for mercy, praising God, stating the Christian beliefs, and then once again giving praise and asking for mercy and peace.

Concertus Musicus uses period instruments and I loved the sound. The beautiful baroque flute just floated, especially during the tenor's aria in the Sanctus where the two have an interweaving duet. All five of the soloists were great, but I found the alto, Bernarda Fink, to be the most compelling. She had this rich, round sound, and she sang with humble authority. With the nature of the text, the performance is so not about the performer, for me. The performer is the vessel through which the music is joined with the sacred text and I feel like you have to leave your ego out of it. Fink was so not ego, she was all about the meaning of the text, which is all about the glory of God. She sang the final solo of the entire piece during the Agnus Dei, and I was left breathless.

It was an inspiring concert, and it took me a week to write about it because I have just been thinking and thinking and thinking about it. 

Thank goodness you can order it online

 My roommate Johanna is from Gmunden in Oberösterreich, which is about a 2.5 hour train ride west of Vienna. She invited me to visit her, in order to see a completely different side of Austria and I spent this past weekend with her and her family.

It was so refreshing to visit a small town with lots of land, mountains, trees, and a gorgeous lake. Saturday morning I went hiking with Johanna's sister and their neighbor, and then Saturday afternoon Johanna showed me the town and took me to Gmunden Keramik. This pottery is unique to Gmunden, and every piece is hand-painted. The original pattern is the green swirly one on the plates, which I am completely in love with. Not to mention green is my favorite color (to be precise, all shades of green).

There were two sales rooms, one for pieces with slight mistakes (and lower prices) and the other for perfect and top notch pieces. There were also a few more intricate patterns in the more expensive room, but it was hard to tell the difference between the pottery otherwise. The mug I fell in love with was only available in the more expensive room. typical.

I could definitely see myself one day buying a whole set of Gmunden dishes. Seriously. Drinking tea out of my mug the past two days has made me so happy, just think what a lifetime of eating off of these plates and using this deviled egg dish could be like?