Salzburg is one of the most beautiful cities I have seen: its old town has narrow, winding cobblestone streets and picturesque passageways through courtyards, and it is complete with a fortress on a hill and the beautiful alps surrounding it. On the first full day we had, Austin, Lydia, Will, Collin and I walked up to the monastery on the side of the river opposite of the castle right before sunset. The view was beautiful!
Our last day in Salzburg was Mozart's 260th birthday! We celebrated by getting a piece of Mozart's birthday cake and seeing the Vienna Philharmonic! They played Mozart's Haffner symphony, which was incredible. The Vienna philharmonic doesn't have a permanent principal conductor, they work with conductors from all around the world. This gives me the impression that they are absolutely in tune with how each other play and how they communicate across the ensemble- the conductor is not a necessary part of the group for an ensemble of the caliber of the Vienna Philharmonic and they would still do just fine without. That being said, the conductor we saw was incredible! He was incredibly musical to watch. The second piece they played was with a violin soloist, Renaud Capuçon. I saw him in Seattle in November playing the Brahms violin concerto, and he was phenomenal! It was interesting seeing him play a very traditional piece and then an extremely modern one. He gave the same energy to each performance, even though they were on opposite sides of the spectrum for violin solos!
Our seats were directly in front of the bass section, which was perfect for Mendelssohn's Italian symphony. The basses played every bit as fast and clean as the first violins! I played the bass in string lab, but compared to the Vienna basses saying that I actually played a bass is a joke! The Italian symphony was the most engaging out of the concert and it left me excited to hear more Mendelssohn in Vienna!
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