Here Comes Treble: Music In The City Of Salt
Isabel Bradley visits Salzburg, birth place of the great and incomparable Mozart, and explores the magical musical heart of the city.
Salzburg - the “City of Salt” – was founded by the Church on the riches gained from mining the salt in the surrounding mountains. It is better known as the city where Mozart was born.
Surrounded by mountains, bisected by a cold and fast-flowing river, it is picturesque, old, and a holiday centre for many Europeans, offering skiing, water-sports, and hiking. It is the place where Julie Andrews and a helicopter made film history with the opening scene of The Sound of Music, the town where Maria von Trapp still resides, and where the last of the Hapsburgs owns a vast, wooded estate.
It was one of the magical stopping places that we made on a truly magical tour of some of Europe’s musical cities.
A tour of the salt mines, high in the mountains, is a treat not to be missed. It includes a stomach-swooping ride down a hundred metre slide into the depths. Ambling through the cobbled streets and squares lined with shops that glow with goods; eating soups in the cosy restaurants; gazing at the house where Mozart was born; marvelling at a church in which there are FIVE organs, all tuned so that they can be played together – there is enough to be done in Salzburg to keep a visitor happy for days, or even weeks. We sat at the world famous Tomaselli’s, sipping wine and delighting in the antics of numerous little girls all dressed in bridal beauty after celebrating their first communion.
We also managed to buy tickets to a dinner and concert at the Helbrunn Castle, high on the hill, overlooking the city.
The way to the castle was by funicular railway to the lower courtyard. From there, steep stone stairways led upwards to a door in the castle wall. Dinner was in a low room with arched ceilings, looking out through leaded windows over the valley and the river. The room was full, seating about a hundred people.
After dinner everyone filed out into the cool evening air, up a cobble-stoned hill into a hallway, off which led a staircase. Up we went. And up, and up, and up – there must have been eight flights of stairs, each consisting of about twenty-four steps. We seemed to climb forever, finally arriving at the top of the castle, soaring above the top of the mountain, huffing and puffing.
The concert was held in what had once been the Knights’ Room. It was paneled, ceilinged and floored in wood, with huge, arched wooden doorways, closed by heavy studded doors. A window right-at-the-top-of-the-castle-at-the-top-of-the-mountain looked out across the lovely dusky town with its silver river and its pewter sky to the plains beyond.
We were treated to an evening of the most exquisite music. Eight young string players – two first violins, two second violins, two violas, a ‘cello and a double bass – formed the Mozart Kammerorchester Salzburg. They were, in fact, eight soloists playing together as one, with such verve and fire that we were carried away to a place of magic by their version of that jaded Mozart standby, the “Eine Kleine Natchtmusiek”. It was as if this was its first performance, the ink still wet on the pages and each note a miraculous new discovery. The discerning audience gave Mozart a standing ovation.
After the Mozart came a lovely rendition of a Haydn Piano Concerto – one of those pieces of music that we all know but, somehow, don’t know that we know…
At interval, people clumped across the rocky wooden floor into the foyer to enjoy drinks and snacks, or stood in clusters, chatting quietly. The final work was an incredibly beautiful performance of the Mendelssohn Serenade for Strings.
Each member of this small orchestra had a mastery of their instrument that was incredible; a musicality that was delicious, delightful and “de-lovely”, as the old song says; their ensemble work was amazing. The leader was a passionate young woman whose curtain of dark hair gleamed and swayed in time with her body to each nuance of the music. She was passionately involved in each note, totally aware of every member of her small chamber orchestra, completely in control of the music. The second viola-player, an attractive blonde, and the inside-second violin, an equally attractive young man, shared flirty looks and silent laughs as well as delight in the music. The ‘cellist was a show all on his own – fingers flying , bow flourishing, eyes closed in ecstasy or flashing with passion and laughter.
Those who live in Europe are privileged to hear world-class musicians such as these in their own home towns. We, who live far away in South Africa, are doubly privileged – to be able to visit the beautiful cities and towns of Europe, to experience that feeling of history that breathes throughout the Continent, and – more than anything else – to enjoy that same world-class music with feelings of wonder and delight.
Until next week – look out, “here comes Treble!”
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