36 Years Ago

36 Years Ago, Vienna 1971—A Student Journal

Day 020: Salzburg finale; Festung Hohensalzburg and the Schubert B-minor Mass

08/22/07 09:29 PM Filed in: Austria | sightseeing | music

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Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing & friends.


Day 20 — Day 020: Salzburg finale; Festung Hohensalzburg and the Schubert B-minor Mass
22-August-1971 (Sun.)


TRANSCRIPT

12_Slides_002r
Salzburg
Last day in Salzburg.

More sightseeing. Mozart’s Museum, Domplatz. The Castle (view was nice but not much else). Saw quite a bit – enjoyed it.

Schubert B-Minor Mass.
In the Cathedral at 10:00, with Mozarteum Orchestra, choir, and solists, organ—a real mass. I sat in the first row—watching the beautiful alter and listening—it was like I was in Heaven. A Mass really has an impact when it ‘s real. Beautiful. [Concert 04]

Train ride home – also stunk. But at least I had a seat.

Enjoyable weekend (could have spent less money).


REFLECTIONS

Mozart birthplace
Sightseeing. Final day in Salzburg was eventful. I did a bunch of sightseeing, including Mozart’s Museum (probably Mozart’s birthplace—Mozart’s Geburtshaus), the Domplatz (cathedral), and the Castle (Festung Hohensalzburg). I’ll have to read about these in my Dorling Kindersley Eye Witness travel book on Austria (I ordered it today).

Festung Hohensalzburg
As usual, I don’t write much detail about each sightseeing event. I wasn’t writing this as a novel or documentary. If I had known I was going to write about this 36 years later, I may have carried my journal with me and wrote “total” notes. I know that I’ll have pictures from some of these places, I only hope that I remember the detail of each slide. We’ll see.

I don't like my comments. I don’t like reading that I said something “stunk” (the train ride), or that there was “not much else” to the castle. Was I spoiled or snotty? No, I’m certain I wasn’t. I thought I was a pretty sensitive and normal guy. I think that perhaps when you’re younger, you make blanket assertions again without being sensitive to the entire picture. For example, the castle was probably a great castle but perhaps I wasn’t “into it” (thinking of history, architecture, construction, what life would be like in the castle centuries ago, the people of those times, and so on). On a trip to Switzerland a few years ago, we saw several castles and medieval fortresses/towns. I loved every bit of them, and they were certainly on a much smaller scale than Festung Hohensalzburg in Salzburg.

That’s why, one day, I have to go back to Austria, Vienna, Salzburg and my other adventures. I’ll take new notes in a new journal and compare them to this journal. Get those keys [to the city] ready.

Church alter
Schubert B-minor Mass. Well, now I’m back to normal because I remark that this Mass was like “being in Heaven.” That’s more like it, John. It was fascinating to see this Schubert Mass, normally performed in concert, actually performed as part of a Sunday Mass, in a cathedral, just the way that Schubert intended it to be performed—a real Mass.

Church organ
Summer Music Festival. As noted earlier, I was in Salzburg in the middle of a major international music festival. Although, I did not write about this in my journal, I remember that I attempted to get tickets for some events and was not able to get any; probably due to tickets not being available or being too expensive. As you see, I was fortunate and very glad to get into free concerts and today’s mass that were happening at the same time as the festival.

One music venue that I saw in Salzburg was a large outdoor concert area (amphitheater?) where operas by Mozart and others were performed in the evenings under the stars. That would have been something. Open sky, stars, live orchestra, opera singers. Wow!

Back to Vienna. Train back to Vienna; this time I’m sitting. A great weekend.

John

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