Today began by moving from the city of Salzburg back to Vienna where we will end our class and eventually return home. The Eurorail system is pretty easy to navigate even without knowing the main language of the country one is currently in. The train itself was pretty clean and the seats were comfortable unless you were trying to sleep. About an hour into my nap I woke with a crick in my neck. The view out the window was nice, lots of snow and mountains.
The only other noteworthy part of today was the concert at the Musikverein in Vienna. The building itself looks very opulent from far away. However upon closer inspection the illusion is nulled. The seats our class got were so close to the stage that from my passion in the center I could have reached up and grabbed the ankle of the conductor if I had really wanted to. Being that close to the stage allowed me to see how scratched and ragged the stage actually looked. At one point they rearranged the stage to accommodate a piano and I got sprayed with little wood splinters. This also put the piano within touching distance. My seat position also meant that when looking straight forward I could the edge of the stage and the shoes of the conductor. When the piano was on stage I could look up and see the innards reflected on the highly polished lid.
The music itself was well done. My favorite was the first piece they played. It was beautiful and evoked emotions. Most importantly it was distinctly memorable. During the second piece, when we were right next to the piano, the piano became the only thing I could hear when it was playing. This made the contrast between the piano and the orchestra seem almost disjointed. The piece itself was not one I would go out of my way to see again. I did not really like all of the embellishing notes that were played, especially by the piano. To me it made it hard to find the actual melody line. This made the piece seem like one big harmonic jumble that kind of resembled a song.
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