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.




  

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.

On our way to Salzburg

This morning we took the train from Munchen to Salzburg, a direct OBB Railjet doing the liaison from Munich to Budapest. After Salzburg the train becomes more regional and will make several stops as it goes Eastward towards Hungary, stopping in Linz and Vienna. Though we cross 2 borders there are no inspection or stops for immigration anymore, the Shengen Treaty Zone means that when we arrived in Frankfurt we entered the zone and went through the only immigration custom control for Shengen Zone, several EU countries are signatory to the Treaty.

Our hotel in Munich the Eden Hotel Wolff in front of the train station was very nice, clean and quiet. Lots of businessmen stay there because it is central to everything, the train, the connection airport bus, all attraction of the old centre of the City. The food at the hotel restaurant was very good with a menu of Bavarian Specialties and great wine selection. The Hotel is not new, built in 1900 by Mr. Wolff it was completely rebuilt in 1950 after suffering devastating bombings by the Allies at the end of WWII. The hotel is said to be ''Die Gute Adresse im Munchen'', its true.

So now we are on the road or rail, going East crossing vast green meadows, dark green pine forests, brooks and rivers. Just after crossing the Austrian border we approach the Tyrol mountain range which are smaller mountains than the Alps beyond which we can see the snow cap peaks. To get to Salzburg from Munich there are no mountain range to cross. This sort of puts the lie to the final scene of the Sound of Music saga when you see the Von Trapp climbing mountains, where are they going? Unless they are going south to Innsbruck towards the Brenner Pass into Italy. But still a very long distance from their home on foot, not credible for 1938. Interesting to note that in Salzburg they are seen more as a fairytale story which makes a good musical or movie.

The OBB has a restaurant car and also for the first class passenger a service at your seat. The menu is quite extensive and all of it is served on real china, no paper cups here please and all for the same price as in Canada on Soviet Style service VIA RAIL. You have to wonder how they do it.

Sidd on the train to Salzburg

We are also traveling with our friend Sidd, he is a gnome and has gone around the world. Will takes him with us and he has been to Amsterdam, London, sailed the Baltic and Russia, now he is going to Austria. He has previously been to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lybia, South Africa and many other places, lucky little gnome. He even gets to sit in the cockpit of planes with the Captain. Funny how a gnome will make you popular with people.

Sidd in our suite at the Bristol amongst the fruit basket.

The scenery on this 90 minute train ride is quite lovely, beautiful churches, old castles, mountains, valleys and forests, cows with those big bells around their necks and peasants driving BMW and Audi.

The railway station in Salzburg is completing a total refit, rebuilt and renovated, very modern, its stands just outside the City as not to disturb the historical beauty of this small town. Only the historical mean hall and entrance of the old station in Art Nouveau style has been kept with its mosaic murals of the countryside of Salzburg.

Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo soprano, director of the Whitsun Music Festival Salzburg

We arrived at Hotel Bristol and were met my the owner Theodor Magrutsch and staff, this is how it is done here at the Bristol, a family run hotel. It is just as lovely as ever and we got our old suite the Tuscany which we love. The Maitre d'hôtel Mr. Peter is still here and a new barman Mr. Gabor. They also have new elevators but just as elegant as the old ones with silk damask panels. Mr. Christian Lackner the manager and cousin is also here. This hotel is quite special and unlike any other I have ever stayed at. I note that their dining room in now in the Gault et Millau. 

While Will took a nap I went looking around, I went to Schubert next to the hotel to buy some socks and bought 2 shirts also. The selection is unbeliveable, the most beautiful stuff, ties and bow ties too, its a very small shop, but the quality. Came back to the hotel and had tea in the Sketch Bar which is very well prepared using mountain stream water that is super hot with quality tea served in beautiful porcelaine. Their strudel is also wonderful made fresh everyday by the pastry chef and served warm with real whipped cream.

Love black marble and mirrors

Around 7pm we walked to Café Bazar and had a drink and then the weather being so nice and sitting by the river looking at the Castle and the old city as the sun was setting we decided to have dinner. The food of the Café Bazar is quite good and reasonably priced. They also have a good wine list of Austria and German wines.

Laurent with Proseco

Today Thursday is a quiet day, the Festival starts tomorrow.

View of old Salzburg from the Café Bazar