Dark brooding castles in the Allgau.

The Wittelsbach Royal Family ruled in Bavaria for several centuries until 1918 when the German Republic was proclaimed. They are part of the Swabia Royal families. The Hapsbourg of Austria are their cousins and also started out in Swabia as their other cousins the Hohenzollern who ruled Prussia and then as German Kaisers until 1918. They too have some fantastic castles in this part of Bavaria.

This morning we got up and after breakfast took the bus to the Castles, on a good sunny day I would have walked it, the surrounding scenery is perfect for walking. But since it was raining pretty hard we took the bus for only 5 minutes. There are many mountain stream fed lakes in this area, the water has that strange glacier colour combined with the green of the forest is quite beautiful.

At the Visitor centre all is well organised and despite the crowds, we got our tickets in hand in a few minutes. You have a choice of visiting one or both castles at a pre-set time with a guide, all visits are guided and very regimented. We first went to Hohenschwangau, the old summer residence of the Wittelsbach family, they have owned this castle for 6 centuries. It was previously the seat of the Knights of Schwangau (the Swan) who controlled this border area between Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland. It is a dark and brooding place, full of heavy dark wood furniture and wall paintings telling stories of Tannhauser, Parsifal, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde. Richard Wagner was a friend of the family and they supported him financially for many years. It is difficult to imagine anyone living in such emotionally charged castle with its dark rooms and gothic architecture.

It is at Hohenschwangau that Ludwig and his brother Otto grew up. Their father King Maximillian II of Bavaria was married to Princess Mary of Prussia. At the age of 19 Ludwig becomes king and he goes on a mad spending spree building several palaces and having plans for several more, all more and more elaborate in size and architecture, costing basically the entire national treasury of Bavaria. Ludwig appears to have been a strange man, he was deeply religious and his Catholicism was a mixture of Arthurian Legends, Knights in shining armour, Holy Crusades and Christ Lord of the World. It appears that Ludwig thought he was Lohengrin mix in with St-George, his family patron Saint.

Hohenschwangau will remain his mother's Queen Mary home until her death in 1889. His uncle Prince Luitpold will live there until his death in 1913. Because the staff of Hohenschwangau work for the Wittelsbach family, they are very circumspect on what happened to Ludwig and his brother Otto. The only answer you get is that this family tragedy is all a mystery.

Ludwig II behaviour alarmed his uncles and the family, Prince Luitpold in particular will try to advise him to no avail.  After visiting this depressing castle we went up the hill, way up, above the lake to Neuschwanstein, what you see today took 17 years to build and is incomplete. You can visit 3 floors where the rooms are complete with furniture and interior decoration.

Neuschwanstein is even darker than Hohenschwangau, the Gothic decor is oppressive, heavy and full of mythical dragons and gargoyles starring at you in the semi-darkness. Heavy drapes of gold and silver thread, enormous chandeliers of gilded bronze with semi-precious stones and coloured glass. Rooms look like Byzantine cathedrals, again the legends of the Knights and Christianity painted on the walls everywhere you look. Everything is massive, the bedroom of Ludwig II took 4 years to decorate. The canopied bed alone is in Oak with 9 Gothic spire sculpted as its roof. The wash basin is also uncased in
Oak and the water spout is a solid silver Swan. The water for the castle comes from a stream 150 meters above the castle. What is interesting in the castle is the servants quarters, beautiful furniture and very pleasantly appointed rooms with views of the mountains.

 Neuschwanstein Castle

The throne room and the Singer's Hall are both spectacular by the wealth of the decor and the multitude of symbols recalling King Arthur. To say that Neuschwanstein is the result of an obsessive mind, is an understatement. Even photos of Ludwig in his thirties show a man with a wild look in his eyes, there is something not quite right with him.

He will be arrested and deposed in June 1886 in his bedroom at Neuschwanstein. His Uncle Prince Luitpold realizing the precarious state of Governmental affairs and the drain on the treasury the palace building program has created, will arrange for a quiet Palace coup. However another more powerful hand is at play, the German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck has a strong dislike for both brothers, they are not playing along in his plans for a strong German Empire ruled by the Kaiser in Berlin. It is believed that Bismarck supported the removal of Ludwig II and the internment of his brother Otto, they were seen as too critical of the Kaiser, thus undermining the Empire.

Ludwig is told that he is insane, no one will ever examine him and no doctor will ever have a chance to observe if he is or not insane. The only medical document that does exist was signed by a medical doctor at gun point. This doctor will later declare that he did not know anything about Ludwig state of mind. Ludwig will then be escorted to a palace just outside Munich under very heavy guard. He is more or less a prisoner of his uncle. Only three days later he is found drowned in a lake nearby with another doctor who was a friend. Immediately all construction projects are stopped and Neuschwanstein is opened as a museum. It will never be completed.

Otto the younger brother of Ludwig is proclaimed King of Bavaria, however he too will be declared insane,  the doctors will write that he suffers from melancholy and is depressive. Today we would say that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress syndrome, he had an active military career and after the Franco-Prussian War 1871, he is showing signs of distress. He will spend the next 26 years in a palace sanatorium under heavy guard, often sedated for his own good. Prince Luitpold is declared Regent and will govern Bavaria for many decades until his own death in 1912. Otto will live on until 1916 but unable to assume the throne. His cousin Ludwig III will take charge until 1918 when all kingdoms and principality in Germany are dissolved.

After all this melancholy we went for lunch. A beautiful place but such sadness.

Füssen, Bavaria, Germany

We have been going through very green country side as we travel from Munich to the southern border with Austria and Switzerland. Lots of nice farms, pastures full of horses and cows, dark pine forests, mountains, streams and a healthy smell of manure.

Füssen is a very old small town, it was during the first century AD under the reign of Emperor Claudius a garrison town and the Via Claudia Augusta was as is today the main street. Roman Legions could easily come up from Italy by passing by the Brenner pass which is open all year round over the Alps and from Innsbruck came to what would then have been the border of the Roman Empire in the North with all those dark forests full of German barbarians.

Füssen, Via Claudia-Augusta

Hotel Sonne, Fussen

From Munich 104 Km away it is a regional train so many stops in many small villages, all very picturesque.
We had some very nice pastries and tea on arrival, difficult to find a bad pastry in Germany or Austria.
We are staying at Hotel Sonne in the middle of Füssen, a nice hotel with charm.

Füssen is somewhat like the Benidorm (Spain) of Germany, population 14K swells to 3 million in the summer with crazy tourists who only come here to see one castle, Neuschwanstein (New Swan Rock).
The other castle Hohenschwangau just below and still owned by the Wittelsbach family who operates it now as a museum since 1913 is not that popular, though has a very old history going back to the 12th century. Neuschwanstein on the other hand is fairly new and incomplete, partly furnished since contruction stopped in 1886, though the architecture is more spectacular.

 Hohenschwangau, the Wittelsback Family Summer Residence

The unfinished Neuschwanstein Castle in the morning mist at 850 meters in altitude.

Disaster struck tonight, we had made reservations for dinner at the hotel Sonne restaurant. As we approached the dining room you could here a lot of screaming and loud laughter. I thought, oh they must be full tonight, when we walked in we saw a large group of Chinese tourists. The language Mandarin, screaming for more beer, yes I was back in Beijing all over again, their guide was encouraging them to be raucous in a demented approach to what they thought beer gardens in Germany c.1938 must have looked like. I was dumbfounded and had a sinking feeling that we were in the wrong place, we had a drink and left promptly. We ended up in a bar restaurant across the street, the food was good and so was the service. It is raining a lot and the clouds have swallowed up the mountains. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better and we can steer clear of the maddening Chinese crowds.

On the train to border area between Austria and Germany

Dienstag, Tuesday

Train Station in Salzburg.

Travelling this morning on DB from Salzburg to Munich en route to Füssen to see the castles of Ludwig II of Bavaria. We hope for good weather, so far it is sunny but it looks like in Füssen the weather is much colder around 15C and a mix of sun and clouds. Füssen is on the border with Austria and near the border with Switzerland. The Ski Station of Garmish-Partenkirche is only a few kilometers away.

It was a wonderful Festival in Salzburg, we had a great time. Said our goodbyes to Mr. Lackner the manager of the Hotel Bristol and sent our good wishes to his mother, who we know, and is now retired and living in Vienna. We are considering coming back in May 2014 for the next edition of the Music Festival which will be dedicated to the composer Rossini. The Festival starts a day earlier on Thursday and of course we will return to the Bristol. Some clients like Dr. Malkin who has been coming for years as told us that he has already booked his tickets. The tickets for next year's festival are going on sale today and like in the past, I suspect that most tickets will be sold by next week. Cecilia Bartoli is bringing many big opera names, many retired, but the mere fact that they will be there for a Charity Gala evening to help local children in the Salzburg region, is most likely to attract people. Some of the artists are Teresa Berganza, Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Rugero Raimondi, Erwin Shrott and many more. The Gala dinner is catered by one of the best restaurants in the world, Arzak which has 3 Michelins Stars to its name. The chef Elena Arzak will prepare dishes associated with Rossini.

They are presenting 3 operas, La Cenerentola and Otello with Bartoli and Il Barbiere di Siviglia which will be at the Marionette Theater. Petite Messe Solennelle, a Lied Matinee and many other offerings, including a Kino (cinema) of Rossini Opera movies by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle featuring rare footage of Tito Gobbi. A good diverse program. See the link for the Festival, http://www.salzburgfestival.at/

entrance lobby of the Grosses Festspiele Haus, Salzburg.

back of the University Church, Salzburg under renovation still.

Salzburg old town.

Great Festival in Salzburg

Well today was Pentecost Monday and it is the last day of the Pfingstfestspiele in Salzburg under the direction of Cecilia Bartolia. A brilliant success, we saw some wonderful performances by great artists, orchestras and great conductors.

Today was started the day at 11am with a concert with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre orchestra, violinist Vadim Repin in a piece by Sofia Gubaidulina composed in 1981 Offertorium, we listened to her revised version of 1986. Program Notes were prepared by our friend David Nice a broadcaster and lectured on BBC Music Magazine and on the Arts Desk. Thank you David for those helpful and interesting notes on this work.

Vadim Repin violinist and Maestro Valery Gergiev

The second piece played at the Felsenreitschule was Dimitri Shostakovitch Symphonie no.13 Babi Yar with bass Mikhail Petrenko and the chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre. A powerful piece heavy in criticism of the USSR based on poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. It was wonderful a stunning piece, very moving. Sung in Russian by Petrenko, such a voice.

Mikhail Petrenko, basso

I will pass on the afternoon offering with the Hagen Quartet and Alfred Brendel, boring is all I can say of this piece The Seven Last Words by Haydn. Very poor indeed.

This evening we went to the Grosses Festspielhaus to listen to the Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms with the chorus Wiener Singverein and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a creation of Maestro Daniel Barenboim. Soloist Cecilia Bartoli and René Pape.  A beautiful work, very well done.
The funny moment in this rather serious work was when it became quite apparent to us in the front rows that Maestro Barenboim was loosing his pants. He was trying to tug them up desperately at one point he said something to Cecilia Bartoli and she gave him a funny smile. Something had gone wrong with his suspenders. In the end all ended well and no ones dignity was damaged. The Wiener Singverein a choir of about 100 members first performed this work on its debut in 1869.

Cecilia Bartoli, René Pape and Maestro Daniel Barenboim in Salzburg.


A standing ovation was given for this great work and the artists involved.

We returned to the Bristol for dinner in the Sketch Bar.

Sketch Bar at Hotel Bristol Salzburg.

Czar fillet of Salmon with tomato emulsion, salted chocolate square and balsamic vinegar

Leek tart with bouquet of salad and garlic cream and chives.

Filet mignon with pan seared goose liver paté and black truffles in an emulsion of Balsamic vinegar and red onions sautéed in red wine.

Decaf espresso

We had an excellent Austrian Red Wine by Zull,  Cuvée Schrattenthal 9.

Tomorrow we take the train to Fussen in Germany, it appears that rain is in the forecast.




  

Beautiful Sunday in Salzburg

Another wonderful day of music and great artists. It all started this morning when we went downstairs to the breakfast room of the hotel which is all about mirrors, pine wood paneling and crystal chandeliers, very Sud Tyrol.  They have the nicest breakfast, they will make fresh egg dishes for you in the kitchen so as not to bother other guests with smelly smells. Even their potato pancakes are made fresh with yellow potatoes. Beautiful cheese selection and cold meats, fresh fruits and pastries. Wonderful coffee served individually in silver pots with hot milk. Afterwards we walked around the Mirabel gardens (see movie) to the Mozarteum to listen to Niccolo Jomelli 1742 oratorio Isacco figura del Redentore, or Isaac's sacrifice, taken from the Biblical story.  This baroque piece continues with the theme of this year's festival of Sacrifice, Offering and sacrificial victim, in this story we have Abraham ordered by the God of the Old Testament to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham obeys God All Mighty but his rewarded by a lamb as a substitute. The twist in this musical piece is at the end, Abraham has a vision of his son Isaac being spared while God the Father sacrifices his own son Christ. Don't forget this was written in Italy in 1742 Rome.  Diego Fasolis, conductor, the orchestra was I Barocchisti, chorus of the Swiss Radio, Lugano, the tenor Javier Camarena (Abraham), Roberta Invernizzi as Sarah, Franco Faggioli as Isaac (a counter-tenor role).

I was afraid the Mozarteum would be too warm and it was around 30C inside the room, at intermission we went out into the garden for fresh air, at the back of the garden Will pointed out something quite wonderful, the wood house where Mozart composed the score of the Magic Flute around 1791. I did not know anything about this little house, it is a simple one room house made of wood. Originally it was in Vienna, Mozart would meet singers in this house. Then it was moved to Salzburg and was located in the Gnome garden of the Mirabell gardens next to the Bristol Hotel, it was moved again to the Capucin Monastery and finally after suffering damage due to bombings at the end of WWII  it was moved to its present location at the Mozarteum after the WWII. Imagine walking into this original building where Mozart composed one of his most famous operas, the Magic Flute.

This is what I love about Salzburg, such surprises, totally unexpected. Again the people attending the Festival are people who love music and are here for it, a baroque piece like Isaac's sacrifice by Jomelli is an acquired taste and you will not find your average tourist. What was also nice was to hear it sung in Italian by Italians, the diction and pronunciation was perfect. Camarena who sung Abraham, is from Mexico and he is staying at our Hotel, we met him in the lobby and had a nice chat, he told us that he was singing this role for the first time, he usually sings Bel Canto roles in Opera. We also met Fagioli and Lepore it was nice to speak with them outside the performance and this is what happens here in Salzburg.

We had a very short time for lunch, just 60 minutes, so we had a quick bite at the Sketch Bar and I changed suits for the afternoon presentation at the Grosses Festspielhaus built for Herbert Von Karajan 40 years ago. We saw the 3 ballet by Igor Stravinsky in their original set and costume design.

 Les Noces (1923) with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and costume by Natalia Gontcharova.
This is a sad ballet, a young women is forced into an arranged marriage, her long hair locks are a symbol of the ties that bind her to her husband and her role is to procreate for the survival of the tribe. A theme common to our human condition but not one feminist would support.

Le Sacre du Printemps (tableaux de la Russie Paienne) (1913), choreographie by Vaslav Nijinsky, costume by Nicolas Roerich. This piece is about Spring, sowing crops, hunting animals and gathering food and in the end Virgin Sacrifice to appease the Gods. Again a very human history in pagan Russia but also true elsewhere.

L'oiseaux de feu (1910), choreography by Michel Fokine and costumes by Alexander Golovin and Leon Bakst.

The orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre under the baton of Maestro Valery Gergiev with the corps de ballet of the Mariinsky (Kirov). Interesting to note that the Mariinsky II opened last week in St-Petersburg, this new theatre which stands next to the old Imperial Mariinsky Theatre was designed and conceived by a Canadian Architect from Toronto.

Gergiev is superb and so was the orchestra, it was also wonderful to see such classic works by Igor Stravinsky in their original setting and costume. After seeing it I am of the opinion that Russians are not Europeans but more an Asiatic people. I formed this opinion 14 years ago when we lived in Poland, though a Slavic people, the Russians have this Asian element to their personality, strange and exotic all in one.

We had dinner at Herzl which is part of the Goldener Hirsh (golden stag) Hotel in Salzburg, excellent cuisine in a Tyrol style restaurant, Herzl has been around for at least 100 years and the quality is tops.
The cuisine is Austrian favourite dishes.

Upon returning to the Bristol we decided to go to the Sketch Bar to wait for the guests returning from this evening performance of Norma to compare notes on what they saw. It was great fun to meet fellow Festival goers and talk about what we had seen in the last 2 days. Tomorrow Monday is the last day of the Festival, we have 3 concerts to attend.

The program for the Festival 2014 is out and it will be a Rossini Festival with all the big opera names you can possibly imagine coming to Salzburg, I was incredulous just reading the list of opera stars who will be here. We are already planning next year.



     

Day Two of the Festival.

Mozarteum in Salzburg


This morning we had a piano concert with Andras Schiff at the Mozarteum. He played on a 1921 Bechstein-Flugel piano, a beautiful instrument. We heard J.S.Bach Ricercare a 3 and Ricercare a 6, composed for Frederick II of Prussia around 1747. His son C.P.E. Bach worked at the Court of the King of Prussia for many years.

Mozarteum concert hall

We also heard Mozart's Fantasie c-Moll KV475 (1785) and the Klavier sonate c-Moll KV457, not my cup of tea, I would say to many pretty notes. I am suffering of over exposure to Mozart's music which is on the radio all the time.

Finally we heard Beethoven Klavier sonate c-Moll opus 111 (1821), I am not a big fan of Beethoven but this work I had not heard for a long time and Schiff is such a master on the piano that I was seduced by it. As an encore he played a piece by Schubert.

Schiff is a Hungarian Citizen but will no longer play in his native land in protest over the ultra-Nationalist policies of the current government. In the audience today was also Maestro Daniel Barenboim. This is what is nice about Sazlburg you meet everyone eventually during the Festival.

The concert ended around 1pm lunch time so we walked over to the Sacher Hotel to their Salzbach Grill which has a lovely terrace on the river. We could not find a table and a very nice older couple invited us to sit with them. This is what you do here, often if you occupy a table and there is room you can invite someone to sit at your table, it is very common at mealtimes. It turns out that they too had just seen Schiff play at the Mozarteum and also had been to the Opera Norma the day before. In the course of our lunch we discovered that their son Benjamin Schmid is a well known musician. This couple is from the region around Salzburg. It was a very pleasant lunch, very civilized.

We then went on to walk in the old town around St-Peter's Church and its cemetery which appears in one scene of that movie ''The Sound of Muzak'' with Julie Andrews. Michael Haydn the brother of Josef Haydn is buried there as is Nannerl Mozart, the sister of... The Haydn-Mozart were friends and knew each other well.

St-Peter's Cemetery and Funeral chapel next to the Church itself.

Tonight we are having dinner at the Peter's Keller which is said to be one of the oldest restaurants in Europe, apparently opened in 803 AD. http://www.stpeter-stiftskeller.at

This being Saturday all shops close at 5pm and will remain close now until Tuesday morning. Sunday is a day of rest and Monday is Pentecost and this despite the crowds of tourists in town.

Opening night Salzburg

We got dressed in our formal wear and walked over to the concert hall know as the Haus fur Mozart, it is part of the complex housing also the Riding School which is today another concert hall.

Though there is no dress code in Salzburg going to the festival means dressing up and arriving in style, the parade of S class Mercedes Benz and BMW 750 is a spectacle in itself, all perfectly aligned, Austrian are big on courtesy and protocol. Upon entering the hall we went to the Karl Böhm room for a drink, in the early renaissance time was a jousting room, the frescoes ceiling show Turkish prisoners loosing their heads to chivalrous knights carrying them on their swords. The enormous room is in beautiful dark panel wood and stone.

We then went to take our seat in the festival hall. The crowd is dressed in either black tie, Austrian formal wear or dark business suits, the ladies have the most beautiful outfits and jewellery.  The production this evening for the opening was the opera Norma by Bellini.  A Gaul priestess is in love with a Roman ProConsul and trouble ensues, Rome of course will prevail, we all know that. This production was set in occupied France 1940. Though the occupiers in the story are Italians (Romans) not Germans, a call to the original story by Bellini. The 1940 setting worked, it was fantastic, I was on the edge of my seat the whole evening, I cannot recall saying that of many operas I have seen, but this production by the gay couple Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier is riveting. Cecilia Bartoli who makes her home in Zurich and sang the title role of Norma is also the Festival Director. This opera production is a great success and received a thunderous standing ovation of 40 minutes. I do hope that it will be toured around the world. What I liked most was the fact that Bartoli as Norma was highly believable and you could see the terrible emotions causing her so much pain in her body language and facial expressions, it was not just a string of lovely arias.

Program cover of Norma

The end is spectacular, an enormous fire, real flames on stage, I was looking at the Exit sign, I was not sure if this was just a little too real. Norma and her lover the Roman Proconsul Pollione are burned alive in a house set on fire by the Gauls, (memories of Bosnian war ?), there was so much smoke that you could hardly see the singers and chorus at curtain call. This dramatic ending let's the spectator know that a terrible revenge will fall on the Gauls once the Romans realise that the Proconsul of Rome has been killed, no one will survive. Thus in modern times think of Bosnia and Serbia or Hungary 1956 or Czechoslovakia 1967, occupying armies always create havoc and horror for the civilians. Again both Will and I were moved close to tears by the drama and intensity of the delivery by John Osborn, Cecilia Bartoli and the Chorus. You can well understand why the audience gave them such a rousing ovation.

We walked back to the Bristol, only about 5 minutes from the concert hall, we had made a reservation at the Sketch Bar of the Bristol for a 10:30pm dinner. Our favourite table was waiting for us as always.
We had proseco to start and then ordered dinner, Will had asparagus soup and I had a variation on trout and salmon with horseradish and salad bouquet. Followed by fillet of trout for Will and I chose Kaiser Franz Jozef favourite dish, boiled beef with horseradish and potato. Dessert was sorbet and home made apple strudel.

Will reading the menu of the Sketch Bar. It really is the menu of the dining room.

Two types of Salmon (Czar and Scottish) and fresh lake Trout.

Apple strudel made fresh by the Chef daily. The best I have ever had.


The bar pianist played well and we really enjoyed his medley of songs,  no Andrew Lloyd Weber, we sent him some red wine as a thank you.

What a great opening night for the Festival. Tomorrow morning at 11am we go to hear Andras Shiff at the Mozarteum just around the corner from our hotel, in a piano concert of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.