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.
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.
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.
like wow!
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