We love Mozart! Or at least the people of Salzburg do. Every concert we went to was about Mozart which was so totally awesome and groovy. I think a lot of people got pretty tired of Mozart about halfway through, just because of the lack of variety. But it was still special to be there on his birth week, where there were so many concerts happening. Speaking of birth, there was no cake, which was possibly the most devastating part of the entire journey. But even without cake, the festivities were abundant. Mozart balls were everywhere. I never tried one, because I don’t love chocolate, and I was already very satisfied with the purple chocolate bars I had been finding in grocery stores and vending machines in Austria.
If you’re willing to fight through the sea of elderly people, and pay one arm and a couple toes for coat check, the Mozart week concerts are pretty nice. In the great hall of the Mozarteum, the wooden seats are actually some of the most comfortable I had sat in, even though they didn’t have a cushion on the bottom. The great hall, though a bit smaller than the name suggests, was very beautiful. There was a lot of gold, and a lot of nice musical instrument imagery. Though Mozart isn’t my favorite, I did greatly appreciate the instrumental music representation in the Mozart week concerts. I did my presentation on the first Mozarteum concert, which included Mozart’s first and last concertos. Interestingly enough, he died immediately after completing his last one.
One of my best buddies’ goals on the trip was to “get high” in every city; this actually meant for her to go up to a high place. That goal was definitely achieved in Salzburg. We went up high to the fortress that overlooked the town, and then later, up high on a whole mountain. Other than the plane rides, that was the most up high we got, and she was very excited. There were too many people to squeeze onto the gondola with the rest of the class, so our little adventure squad got one almost all to ourselves. There was a short period where we were in the clouds, but when we came out it felt like we could see the whole world. We did a little too much hiking over a few large hills, which ended up being worth it, not just for the destination, but the journey. The journey back down the hills, actually, sliding on our butts. It would have gone better with sleds, but as jazz musicians often do, we had to improvise.
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