Dear Journal,
I should have been writing a lot this past month. I think my Styria trip is covered in my Blogger post. Let me work backwards, or at least start with this trip. I am on my way to Berlin, on a train somewhere between Passau and Nürnberg.
Last night I went to see the French National Orchestra perform Beethoven 6 and Rite of Spring. Oliver, Katy, Elianna, Chris LaRosa, Rochelle, Ben, and Daniel were there. It was a good concert but I wasn't that impressed. Beethoven was slow and lackluster, and the Stravinsky didn't have enough passion for me, although it was very precise. The rude French people crowding us in Stehplatz didn't make it any better.
Afterward we all (minus Elianna) went back to Daniel and Chris' place. We hung out for a few hours. I left just before 1 a.m. It took a while to get back and then I remembered that I needed to register for spring semester. I had actually talked to Chris who mentioned to his Mayfield the possibility of me replacing Laura Bouffard in the Mayfield when she goes abroad to Australia. They like the idea so I hope to live there.
I picked classes (despite some internet failure) and was pleased with my schedule.
Violin (4), Orch. (1), Senior Recital (1), Studio (0), German 103 (3 - provided I take a placement test, I assume), Opera (3), and General Logic (3). Only Opera on Thursdays! Anyway I finished picking after "sleep" from 2:30 -5:15, when the internet came back on. I ran out the door, forgetting my microtrack, hostel number, and most importantly, my passport.
After getting checked for my ticket I didn't think much of it, having asked Oliver to bring my microtrack. He asked if I had my passport and he took it with him when I told him I had forgotten it. God bless the guy. So I was sleeping when German police came to ask for my passport. I didn't have it and my social security card wasn't good enough.
They took my credit cards and at Plattling we got off and returned to (my favorite place) Passau. I called Oliver to see if his train also went through Passau. Thank God it did.
We couldn't just wait at Plattling for some reason and took a slower train back to Passau, missing Oliver's train by a good 10 minutes. Oliver gave my passport to another police officer at the station and then got back on his train. I'm glad I didn't make him late. After his train there was no way for me to get to Berlin on time. I tried many combinations. I am scheduled to take a train from Nürnberg to Berlin and arrive at 8:15. I can only hope 'A Survivor in Warsaw' is a long piece and I can get in during intermission. *sigh* I left at 6:40, 2 hours before Oliver, and will arrive 2 hours after he does. So stupid. Anyway they made a copy of my passport for paperwork at the police station and let me go.
Passau Police Station
So there is a ton to talk about now. I need to catch up on my blogging because it's faster to journal that way.
I finally got new shoes! Charlotte and I went shopping last week, the day of our first IES concert. She forgot to pack concert clothes somehow. My Adidas were literally falling apart.
We went to Mariahhilferstraße and looked for a dress for her first. Then we found a big shoe place and each got shoes. I am really happy with my new shoes. They are brown, which I don't normally like (for shoes) but Charlotte noticed that I wear a lot of Earth tones, which is true.
Actually we tried to go shopping between classes. I was in the computer lab and she found me and called from the doorway: "Pssst! Austin! Austin!" It made me smile. We went to a store on Kärtnerstraße but didn't find anything before we had to go to our respective classes at 1:30.
Over the past week I have been obsessed with Die Zauberflöte, since I bought the Reclam book libretto. I later went back and found the Der Freischütz libretto and the fairy tale Undine at OBV (Austrian bookstore). I have plenty to translate. I am listening to the Magic Flute CD I just purchased on iTunes the other night (with Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau). I was going to start translating on the train but had to record my journey so far. Next I will pick a version of Der Freischütz.
Oliver and Katy and I watched The Red Violin a few nights ago and I followed the German decently. The last time I watched the movie I didn't have any German experience. Katy hadn't seen the movie before but basically guessed all the plot twists throughout the movie. She said at home she's not allowed to talk during movies, haha! Also, Oliver pointed out the connection between the Pope scenes and the China scenes - the servant. I had never noticed that before, or had forgotten. We stayed up until almost 3 just talking, it was a lot of fun.
So I am planning on participating in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Rochelle and I will be among the many trying to crank out a 50,000 word novel during November. Obviously, music comes first, and I still have a ton to experience of Wien with my friends. But why not? As long as I keep my priorities straight there's no real harm.
Also, I really want to compose chamber music while here. I definitely want to learn about the clarinet and horn from Charlotte and Oliver. I need to ask for my Schubert Octet score back from Charlotte; I loaned it to her a while ago. She gave me a great recording of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players performing it. I think it's better than the Berlin Philharmonic Octet recording I have.
I really want to get a few more scores, in particular Mendelssohn quartets (I'm listening to them now) and Dvorak Serenade for Strings, but I know that I will already have a weight problem when I pack my bags in December. And like I said earlier, I would love to buy 50 more Reclam books. They are so wonderful and cheap. In addition to the 3 I mentioned earlier that I bought recently, I also got some Grimm's Fairy Tales and Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Kafka I may never be able to read, but it's one of my favorite German short stories so it is my somewhat lofty goal to be able to read it someday.
So I guess there isn't a lot to say about midterms. I thought they went well. I threw something together, which I thought was okay, for philosophy. The midterm (3 one page essays to prompts) was due on the 18th, before any other midterm, so it was easy and nice to get out of the way. German was Saturday. I was worried but I felt it was fair and pretty easy. The fairy tale I wrote the night before was probably all kinds of wrong.
Mahler studying was mainly limited to going over notes and rereading the last article (by McGrath) because it summed up everything we have talked about in the class pretty nicely. The Classical Symphony midterm was the hardest to prepare for because no one really knows how to analyze a piece like we need to. The best I got was looking for instrumentation (1749 was the earliest use of Clarinet in a symphony... or maybe when it was invented?) The treatment of winds / brass and bass instruments is the most telling. If winds mainly double the strings, it's probably an earlier work. Also, it wasn't until later that composers wrote different bass lines for the celli, basses, and bassoons.
So Sunday I saw the Wiener Philharmoniker for the first time (I also went to a rehearsal the week before). They performed some Mozart Symphony (I don't know which one), Thomasi trombone concerto (very cool) and Dvorak 9 "New World." It was a very good concert.
On Monday I went to the Oper to see L'Elisir D'Amore (the elixir of love) by Donizetti, with tenor Juan Diego Florez. The entire cast was very strong. The story is adorable and they played it up. Unfortunately there was no encore that night (Juan Diego Florez had given an encore of an aria the opening night). I went with Zan, Siena, and Jeremy. I arrived for Stehplatz at 4. I finally finished reading Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning." That book deserves its own blog about it. I thoroughly enjoyed the opera, though I think I prefer the lower standing room places instead of the galerie.
This week has been a lot of fun and I am still hoping to be able to cap it all off with Mahler 2 with the Berlin Philharmonic. However, we just left Leipzig half an hour ago, which means we are 20 minutes late. I think I should arrive at 8:35. I told Oliver to call me at intermission. I am very annoyed, but it was my fault for forgetting. I'm glad to not be in jail.
Last week, after the German midterm, I decided to go out to the Wienerwald. It is close, and I knew I couldn't go to Hallstatt because I needed to prepare for my Mahler midterm Monday. It was so pretty, with all the leaves having changed!
On Tuesday it was the Austrian independence day, so a lot of museums were free to the public. Rochelle wanted to go to some museums so we planned to meet in front of the Parliament building. The most fun part was taking pictures with the "National Holiday: Redefined" sign Rochelle brought from IES. In particular, we found some little Pokemon like creatures, which I guess were supposed to make government fun for kids. One had glasses that we dubbed "Austin Jr." haha.
Okay, hopefully we are close to Berlin. Will write more later!
I got out at the Hauptbahnhof at 8:20, only 5 minutes late. I ran to Washingtonplatz and got a cab to take me to the Philharmonia. I came in and asked the lady at the info desk if I could go in during intermission. She told me there was no intermission. So close and yet so far! I can hear the ff sections from the lobby. I am very disappointed.
Oh well, like I told Chelsea when she called, I'm just glad to not be stuck in jail, in Passau. What consoles me is the fact that I can come back one day in the future. Oh, they are done already! I guess I should look for Oliver, Westrey and Chelsea.
* Then we went to a cool wine bar and hung out at Westrey and Chelsea's couchsurfing place. Oliver and I went to our hostels. I had a hard time finding mine but wound up by Checkpoint Charlie. Sunday I woke up early and wandered all over the place, meeting Oliver for an early lunch somewhere near the zoo.
Walking through the Tiergarten
My German teacher (from Vandy) called and we met up at the Museum island and went through the Pergamonmuseum, which was really awesome. It was great to see her.
The Ishtar Gate
Then I went to the DDR museum, which was about life in East Berlin. Finally we a bunch of us met up and got dinner, then I went to bed because we had a 6:40 flight.
Yesterday, instead of sleeping as soon as we got back, I took a shower and then went out to practice. After a while I wasn't being productive so it was perfect timing when Katy texted about going to Zentrumfriedhof (the big cemetery where Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Gluck, J. Strauss, and Schoenberg are all buried).
Beethoven's grave
My feet were killing me so after a drink at 1516 they went to hear the Verdi requiem and I went home to finish practicing. I wish I could have gone but Stehplatz would have killed me. Instead of practicing I went to bed at like 8 and slept around 12 hours. I felt horrible this morning and skipped my classes. I feel a lot better now.
I think that's as close to caught up as I'll ever be. Tschüss!
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