I enjoyed Salzburg. We started with the Mozart aria dinner, where though the performance was spectacularly mediocre, the atmosphere was delightful, and I enjoyed it very much.
On the following day we had two tours, one of the general city areas and one of the Festung Hohensalzburg, the Salzburg Fortress. I particularly enjoyed the fortress tour, where I learned such things as that early versions of it date all the way back to the fourth century, that it features three layers of bastions, that the people of Salzburg once attacked it in an 18-week assault, and that it stored great quantities of grain and wine in case of a siege (though the French drank all the wine during their short tenure there). We ended the day with a most marvelous concert by the Vienna Philharmonic. I was certainly less-than-impressed with the pianist for the concerto, but the orchestra was quite fine and played Mozart just as I think Mozart should be played—naturally and without over-dramatization.
The next day we attended the Credo Mass (K. 257) in the Salzburg Cathedral, and afterward took the Untersberg tram into the alps. The trip to the mountains was a pleasant occasion, and I left feeling quite refreshed.
We heard three more concerts in the following days, all at the Großer Saal of the Mozarteum. It was fascinating to compare all of the Mozart performances that we heard: if I am to condense it egregiously, the Vienna philharmonic let the music speak for itself, the Camarata Salzburg was quite energetic though still moderately restrained (which fits exactly the energy that I expected from Ton Koopman, the conductor, whom I much admire for his organ recordings), and the Mozarteum Orchestra was very lively and enthusiastic, which made for a riveting, albeit slightly too pushed, performance.
It has been a treasure to hear so much Mozart, and my own performances of his music will be significantly impacted by this experience.
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