At 09:48 PM 8/17/96 -0400, you wrote: >Dear List: Next month, for the first time in my life, I am going >visiting across the big pond to Lucern, Lugano, Venice, Salzburg, Vienna >and Munich. I know that Mozart was from Salzburg, and Vienna was a >favorite of Beethoven and Strauss. Also, I understand the Bosendorfer >factory is located in Vienna. Is it worth seeing? Are there any >special places in these cities that would particulary interest a piano >technician? Obviously I have no concept of Europe, but I don't want to >miss something that I could have seen if I knew it was there! Any >advice would be appreciated. Thanks. > >Carol Beigel, RPT >College Park, Maryland > Carol, Wien, Wien, nur du allein! I attended University of Vienna eighteen years ago (yikes!) and spent a while in both Vienna and Salzburg. I got excited when I read your post and planned on telling you all the great places to go, but now I can't remember the names or tell you how to get to them (but if you plopped me down in the middle of the city--encircled by the Ringstrasse, I could find my way)! So much for my memory (I must have had too much beer and wine while I was there)! Be sure to hit the wine and or beer gardens that feature live music--sure, some of them are a little touristy, but the music is worth it--nobody plays Strauss better than the Viennese! You're bound to catch dinner in a quaint restaurant that features someone playing folk tunes on a hammer dulcimer or hit a beer hall with a band of guys wearing lederhosen. You will see a lot of lovely gardens and palaces, but my best advice is to SAVOR all the musical events you can! (Oh yes, there are lots of recitals scheduled at Bosendorfer.) If you're lucky, maybe you'll get to hear an organist practicing while visiting one of the cathedrals. Hmmm. Gee, I can't remember if it was at the National Museum or Library (and who knows if it's still there) that I saw a wonderful exhibit of pianos. Of course, one must "nur schauen" (only look!). I got thrown out of the Schubert exhibit (celebrating the 150th anniversary of his death) for touching a piano--a true sign that I would become a piano technician. In the "old-town" of Salzburg, besides Mozart's birth place, there is a restaurant up on the cliff over looking the city (of course, I can't remember the name). It's a *must-do*. When I was there as a *poor* college student, the waiter got perturbed by my group of friends, because we really couldn't afford to eat there and we didn't order much. The view was spectacular, especially since we watched a rather hefty thunderstorm come rolling in and there we were up in the middle of it (or maybe it just seemed like we were in the middle of it). I was really lucky and got tickets to the Salzburg Festival (shucks, I don't know if it is still going on in Septmember) and was able to catch a performance of The Magic Flute and on another evening Peter Shrier sang Schubert's Die Schone Mullerin. Instead of piano accompaniment he used a classical guitarist. I guess I shouldn't admit it as a pianist and piano technician, but it was absolutely heavenly. (For years I looked for a recording of him doing a performance of that with guitar accompaniment, but never found one. If anybody DOES know of one, you know my e-mail address.) If you have a free evening don't be afraid to go out and try to get some tickets (scalped or not!) for a concert or opera. Get some travel books and have a wonderful, wonderful time! Barbara Richmond, RPT
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