All Mozart

It's hard to believe this trip is almost over. The experiences we've had have been absolutely incredible, especially when we arrived in Salzburg. Mozart week, a full week to celebrate Mozart's birthday. To have some of the best playing one of the best composers. Salzburg itself was a gorgeous city and was very pleasant to be in because of the lack of tourists with the off-season. This was probably my favorite city for the music and the place itself. I was so sad that we had to leave because I could've spent an entire week there and not be bored.

The Mozart performances were absolutely incredible. The first one we went to was the Vienna philharmonic who played a horn concerto and a piano concerto. Those were absolutely jaw dropping. To have such a group perform an almost spotless performance was a gift in itself. The piano concerto, my favorite part of any compositional works, was amazing with the improved cadenzas to show off the player's talent. Especially being in the third row and on the left side I got to view the performer and how his hands moved with elegance and grace. Since I'm a pianist, I'm very partial to these performances because I absolutely love piano concertos.

Simple stage, but amazing music

Then a performance the next day was Mozart's Catholic mass in the church he used to play at. Also, a full, uncut version of the Marriage of Figaro. The singers were amazing and had such amazing stamina for the four hours of performance. Then on monday we went to a pretty unique chamber group performance because it was two different groups coming together to play Mozart quartets, quintets, etc. These performers took our breath away, to the point where some of us even cried.

A very intricate hall for the chamber groups

They were masters of their instruments and I was completely floored because of just how unexpected the level of skill was. It was another incredible performance. On the last day in Salzburg we say an early music performance where they played on remade historical instruments that were from Mozart's time. That night we also went to a Mozart dinner concert, where we were fed and listened to some extremely talented opera vocalists sing selections from some of Mozart's operas. That was also an incredible experience.

Salzburg was probably one of the hardest places to leave because even though we had so much free time to wander and explore, I still feel like there was so much more I could have seen. This was my favorite city and I hope I can come back one day and see more and do more and experience more.