another music day in Salzburg

Well we had quite a day today, first the weather, turned out sunny and warm despite all predictions that it would rain all day.
The crowds came out everywhere in the squares and all along the river banks of the Salzach. Our morning concert at the Mozartheum was very beautiful, though the concert hall tends to be very warm due to poor air circulation. I also noticed a naked statue of Mozart in the lobby, he appears under the form of Apollo, god of music. We had lunch in a very good Japanese restaurant, not surprised given the number of Japanese here. I discovered that Kirin Ichiban Beer is owned by Heineken and made in Russia under licence. We then went to Demel for coffee and pastries. The late afternoon we saw the opera Piramo and Tisbe by Johann Adolph Hasse composed around 1768 is an obscure piece and maybe it should stay that way. We left after the first act, pretty music but boring, it is the old theme along the lines of the Romeo and Juliette story. We returned to the hotel for dinner and Gunther our barman, who we believe to be the best barman in the world, served us dinner, Will chose from the Austrian Imperial menu, which are favorite foods of the Kaiser Franz Josef, wiener schnitzel and I had veal cutlets in morel sauce with white asparagus. To start we had goose liver paté, a personal favorite with a coulis of red pimento and strawberry.

We then went to the movies, as part of the Festival this year they had a 1927 silent movie called Naples is a song, accompanied with techno music. The movie was great, it had a scene shot at the top of the Vesuvius, which was smoking with a huge plume back in those days. The street scenes of Naples were very interesting and funny.

We came back around midnight and Gunther the Bar man had night caps for us.
Tomorrow we have a concert at 11 am and then we are free. We will probably go to the Goldener Hirsch (golden stag) for dinner.
It is one of the best hotels in the world and their restaurant is very nice. Hopefully tomorrow which is Pentecost and a major holiday here in this very Catholic country, we will have sunny weather again.