I've Just Been to Bonn and Vienna

[Michael]

Last week, I spent two days in Bonn and two in Vienna. As it was a holiday for the whole family, my Beethovenian activities could not possibly match those of other members of this forum. However, I got to visit the Beethoven Haus in Bonn (I went twice), the grave in Vienna and also walked along the Beethovengang in Heiligenstadt (mostly uphill which didn't help my arthritis). I also got to see the Beethon in Bonn and the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
I asked one of those costumed ticket-sellers that seem to be all over the place in Vienna, if there were any Beethoven concerts or recitals. The answer I got was: "Beethoven was a German". (I kid you not). I pointed out that the man spent about 35 years in Vienna whereupon I was informed that there "might be something in July". Plenty of Mozart and Strauss, though.
I deliberately didn't look for anything in advance on the internet as there were five of us and other interests had to be catered for.
This trip was not extensively planned and was all the better for it.
I always imagined what it would be like to stand at Beethoven's grave and when it happened it was like an out-of-the-body experience - strangely numb and unreal.
It was only when I got home that I felt the rush of emotion.

[Bonn1827]

Michael, I was moved by your comments about your recent visit to Bonn and Vienna. I too loved Vienna and will return next year to both places, hoping to spend a year in Austria. "He was German", yes they are ignorant but Austrians don't seem to like Germans - that's the message I got last year whilst in Salzburg. Yes, I can concur about the rush of emotion - my husband thought I was quite mad when, on a bus trip through Vienna, I cried when the tour guide told us LvB had lived in one of those houses. I felt a fool all the same. But the Viennese woman in the ticket office (for Hofburg concert) said, "Beethoven had about 60 addresses in Vienna - he had a very hard time". More tears! So, Michael you are speaking to the right people on this forum. I agree with pianist Stephen Kovacevich, "late Beethoven is the music I most want to hear and play" (there was a sense that this wasn't a choice but a necessity). Thankyou for sharing your thoughts.

[Hollywood]

So you went to the Beethovengang while you were here in Vienna. That's only 4 more stops on the D tram from where I live in Heiligenstadt. Sounds like you were on the D tram which has one of its end stations in Nußdorf at the Beethovengang. If so then you went by the Karl Marx Hof (the world's longest continuous row of flats) where I live. Maybe the next time you are here in Vienna we could get together for a coffee.




That's funny how those classical music concert tickets sellers scoffed at Beethoven saying that "...he was a German". Well if you want to get technical about it you could have told them that Mozart was not actually Austrian since Salzburg was not a part of Austria at the time of his birth in 1756. It wasn't until 1814 that Salzburg was then given over to Austria from Bavarian control.

[Michael]

So you went to the Beethovengang while you were here in Vienna. That's only 4 more stops on the D tram from where I live in Heiligenstadt. Sounds like you were on the D tram which has one of its end stations in Nußdorf at the Beethovengang. If so then you went by the Karl Marx Hof (the world's longest continuous row of flats) where I live. Maybe the next time you are here in Vienna we could get together for a coffee.

.

Yes, I must have passed close to your place, Hollywood! I was very lucky to get to the Beethovengang. As I have mentioned, there were five of us and I had to make sure I didn't hog the whole holiday with Beethoven. If it had been just myself and my wife we could have spent more time in Heiligenstadt. It was a freezing cold day but it all looked very beautiful. I must definitely come again in the summer. You are so lucky to live there.

(We took about 500 photographs between us all and the Karl Marx Hof is included!)

[Michael]

Michael, I was moved by your comments about your recent visit to Bonn and Vienna. I too loved Vienna and will return next year to both places, hoping to spend a year in Austria. "He was German", yes they are ignorant but Austrians don't seem to like Germans - that's the message I got last year whilst in Salzburg. Yes, I can concur about the rush of emotion - my husband thought I was quite mad when, on a bus trip through Vienna, I cried when the tour guide told us LvB had lived in one of those houses. I felt a fool all the same. But the Viennese woman in the ticket office (for Hofburg concert) said, "Beethoven had about 60 addresses in Vienna - he had a very hard time". More tears! So, Michael you are speaking to the right people on this forum. I agree with pianist Stephen Kovacevich, "late Beethoven is the music I most want to hear and play" (there was a sense that this wasn't a choice but a necessity). Thankyou for sharing your thoughts.

Thanks, Bonn1827. Trying to see as many Viennese sights as possible in two days was no easy task. I had monument fatigue by the end of the second day. On the last night, there was a concert/recital in the Mozarthaus near our hotel. I had been informed that the programme included a Beethoven string quartet but upon arrival I found I had been misinformed and that it was an all-Mozart affair. Now, I do like Mozart but I didn't want to carry back memories of his divertimentoes from my first trip to Vienna, so I passed.
For various reasons, I couldn't choose the dates for this short holiday but next time I will come armed and ready.

[Bonn1827]

Michael, I passed Bonn on a cruise of the Rhine and Danube rivers last May and got up at midnight especially to be awake when we passed Bonn. As we weren't having a stop there I resolved to return in 2011, but it was a moving experience in the middle of the night, with lights twinkling on the Rhine to be up on the top deck alone, thinking of the great man at the place of his origin and youth.