A tale of two sounds
A lesser known fact about George Orwell is that he was a war correspondent for many years. On the 27th May 1945 Orwell wrote an article in the Observer, for whom he wrote regularly, about the obstacles facing the West with regards joint rule in Germany and who should govern Austria. In it he pontificates the unresolvable nature of such a situation and one that would lead to another East / West War. How prophetic he was, disturbingly so in fact given his masterpiece '1984'. Still, with Germany's economy booming, I was interested to see the journey the next country on my list had made, Austria, a country with all German efficiency and arguably even more culture, certainly when it comes to music.
My new host Julia showed me round the apartment and explained sadly that opera was still on hold for the Summer but if I looked around there would be recitals to go and listen to, something I very much wanted to do. She also explained that there was an electronic street party not far away which wasn't exactly what I had been expecting but intrigued me nonetheless. It was around 10am and I was exhausted so I lay down on the bed to do some reading. There was a book already on the bed side table. It was called 'George Orwell: the Observer Years'.
My new, and unexpected, chosen topic for Mastermind is 'makes of Eastern European umbrella'.
It was raining as I spent the afternoon walking round Vienna, but I hugely entertained myself by videoing myself in front of famous Viennese landmarks, introducing them and then revealing the building by removing my umbrella from view (see below). Next stop on my list was the Freud Museum. I don't love museums so much but Sigmund Freud himself does fascinate me. I'm a strong believer in mind over matter and so wanted to find out more about his psychoanalytical techniques. Sadly, the museum is more of a step by step history of his life rather than a commentary of his work so I didn't test the carpets too long there. One fact I thought was interesting, is that he was the first man to really attempt delving deep into people's minds as so often, if there is torment in someone's life, a natural reaction is to bury it as deep as possible. Freud's goal was to dig it out. His secret was to make the patient as comfortable as possible, and so he made all his patients lie flat on a couch and close their eyes. A technique still used to this very day.
St Stephen's Cathedral is colossal. This ecclesiastical monolith sits right in the middle of the city and towers over onlookers in a square that seems too small for it. Outside I noticed a sign which greatly excited me. I think I was 16 when Mum first bought me a 'music system'; it was made by Kenwood and could hold 3 CDs at once. In its day, this was borderline futuristic. Whether by accident or design, one CD made its way into the machine and remained there semi permanently over the last 2 years of my time at school, Wellington College. It was Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and while I am a self-proclaimed philistine when it comes to classical music, I loved these four pieces very much and if I ever were to make it onto Desert Island Discs, then one of the seasons would be coming with me. There Kirsty, you heard it here first. The sign read that soloists from the Vienna orchestra were doing a full recital tonight in the Cathedral. I bought front row tickets instantly.
Antonio Vivaldi was born and raised in Venice in the late 17th century but, like so many of the finest composers of the time, he eventually made his way to Vienna (as did Mozart, Bach, Beethoven). Sadly Vivaldi had been plagued by illness most of his life, and tragically he died in 1741 only a few years after arriving in Vienna at the age of 63. As I rushed back to the apartment to change for the evening, the street party was in full swing and bus loads of house (music genre not structure of domesticity) DJs were blasting out music across the city. The streets were, a la Notting Hill carnival, filled with dancers holding cans of beer and dancing with backpacks. It was quite the spectacle and I wondered for a second if in 400 years time, these youngsters behind the decks would be considered the Vivaldi's of the 21 century. As a large girl flashed a guy urinating in a bush, I thought probably not.
I was back at St Stephen's just after 8pm and saw the queue already going in. It was magnificent. The cathedral was as vast a chamber as I have ever entered and with front row seats I sat excitedly for the soloists to appear. There were to be 5 musicians: 4 violinists and a cellist. The next hour was just fabulous. The setting was as perfect as you could imagine in the home of Baroque music, the musicians were sublime and I could not have been happier. Watch a sample here. After the concerto I went home, again through the music festival which ordinarily I would have thrown myself into, but not after Vivaldi. No, I just couldn't.
I would be sad to leave Vienna as despite the poor weather, I found it clean, cultured, friendly and just a pleasure to walk around. Before I went to sleep I found myself wanting to read a little more about George Orwell, or should I say, Eric Blair as he was before he changed his name. It turns out the bugger went to the same school as me, but only for a term as he was then offered a King's scholarship to Eton. Yeah, but you didn't have a Kenwood 3 CD multi-level music system, did you?
See ya later Eric.