Almost recovered!
Well, our bunch of weary, happy travelers returned to California Monday afternoon. We capped off our trip in Vienna with a Sunday of gorgeous music. Several of us skipped the morning walking tour and made our way to the Jesuit Church to hear Schubert's German Mass. It was quite a difficult decision, since great music was being performed in churches all around the city as part of their Advent celebrations. St. Stephen's had Haydn's Rorate Coeli, St Augustin had Monteverdi's Mass for 4 voices....we chose the Jesuit Church thinking it was off the beaten path and might be less crowded. Hrmph....the church was PACKED and we spent the whole service sitting on the marble steps of one of the side chapels. Not a problem, tho, the sound was glorious. It was the original version of Schubert's Mass, with wind ensemble. The sound of those instruments rising up thru that glorious old baroque church was thrilling. Sunday evening we had an intimate concert at the Mozart house. A beautiful little room, the walls were covered with delightful frescoes....it was like sitting under a tent made of lovely tapestries. Four musicians gathered around one light and played...a Mozart Divertimento, some Handel and Pachelbel, a Mozart Quartet and, my favorite, Haydn's Emperor Quartet. A truly magical way to end our musical tour of the cities of Mozart, Strauss, Schubert, Beethoven, Dvorak and Smetana.
