Day 076: Sunday walks and music
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 76
— Sunday walks and music
17-October-1971
(Sun.)
TRANSCRIPT
Wiener Singeknäben — Bruckner’s
“Grosse Messe in E Moll.” [Bruckner’s
Grand Mass in E minor sung by the Vienna
singer-boys—Vienna Boys' Choir.] I didn’t enjoy it
quite as much as I could have. Too many people
[attending the mass]. Had a very enjoyable talk with
an American and his wife (young). Exchanged ideas on
what our experiences were doing to us.
Richard Strauss—Horn Concerto No. 2—played by Hermann Baumann (German hornist) with the Jugendesorchestra. Really an excellent job. (Not perfect, but who expects it to be). Can make the horn sing. The concerto itself is a real virtuoso piece. We made a cassette tape of the concerto. It came out fairly good, even though we were extremely far back. Especially enjoyed it. Also on tape—Stravinsky Pulcinella suite.
On the way back home, Mike G. (friend, organist, from Canada) masterminded a tape called “The Sounds of Vienna.” To use up the tape, and to remember Vienna with. Really hilarious. I was dying with laughter all the while we were making it—you can hear it on the tape. Contains such items as Barry’s, strassebahn, opera, Mozart, etc. What a memory.
REFLECTIONS
Baumann plays Strauss. Hermann Baumann is another of the world's best known virtuoso horn players. Others include Barry Tuckwell and Dennis Brain. As stated, Baumann gave an incredible performance. Richard Strauss is not the composer who does waltzes. (That’s Johann Jr.) Richard Strauss is a late-Romantic composer known for his rich chromatic harmony and full orchestrations. Strauss is also widely known for his operas and “tone poems”—programmatic orchestral works that supposedly tell a story. Till Eugenspiegel is perhaps the most famous of tone poems. R. Strauss is known, in French-horn circles, for his famous horn concertos (or, concerti, if you prefer), technically much more difficult than the Mozart horn concertos.
Although I don't write about it, I am almost always going to the music concerts and operas with a group of friends from the Academy of Music, and probably my roommate Pavel. It sounds like my friend Mike and I made a tape of that concert and later made a “fun” tape on the way home. Obviously, Mike is the comedian. What is Barry’s? I suspect it must be a place to have dinner, those famous Viennese pastries, or drinks.
Till (Eugenspiel) tomorrow.
John
- - - -
