intuitive

I would like to take my 22 year old son to Europe this year. He is a Music Ed. major in college. He has expressed an interest in visiting places that have some musical history/meaning. Any suggestions for a 10 day tour? I'm not set on any country in particular at this point.

Debbie

Bob_KY

I'll top this for you. With my (very) limited knowledge I would suggest focusing on Austria / Germany. Perhaps a few days in Vienna, then Salzburg (Mozart). Bayreuth in Germany for Wagner. Beethoven was born in Bonn. I'm sure your son will have some ideas of course.

ferdun

Vienna would be my starting city- both Mozart and Beethoven spent creative time there and Strauss(es) of course.
I would skip Salzburg since it is only the birthplace of Mozart and not part of his career cycle.
Paris, of course, from Lully to Stravinsky and in between-with a heavy dose of expatriate Jazz during the twenties.
Then London- Handel et al.
That would be manageable in ten days and give time to each city.
Not knowing his particular area of musical delight, this should cover the waterfront.
Have fun-be sure to hear the St. Sulpice organ.

Underhill

Berlin and Dresden would also be possibilities.

L84SKY

Like Bob_KY said, I'm sure he'll know where he wants to go for the history.
Do you want suggestions on cities with the best venues for opera and/or symphony?
When are you going?

Marc_David_Miller

My two suggestions are St. Petersburg, for the White Nights Festival, and Salzburg, for the Salzburg Festival. Not only will you both experience some of the finest contemporary rendition and staging, but your son could meet many people who are influencial in the classical music world.

WillTravel

Leipzig, the home of J. S. Bach.

nancywbrown

If you can get your hands on More magazine, Nov.06 issue, there's a great article with lovely photos about Renee Fleming's visit to St. Petersburg. I've been there, and it's wonderful for classical music. I teach piano, and loved Salzburg and Vienna, seeing Mozart's birthplace and piano, also my Mom loved the Sound of Music tour, beautiful countryside around Salzburg. I would like to have had more information for a Vienna walking tour, but found some significant places where composers lived on my own. Be sure to visit Cafe Central, live music and such a lovely setting, for a coffee and streudel. London has free noon concerts at St. Martin in the Fields on Trafalgar Square, and the nightly musical tickets can be purchased at the half-price ticket booth at Leinster Square, I believe, very reasonable. Germany has so much, Rhine river area, Neuschwanstein Castle has much in the architecture about Wagner. Venice is also wonderful and has a musical history. Hope you enjoy!

laverendrye

<<I would skip Salzburg since it is only the birthplace of Mozart and not part of his career cycle.>>

I would certainly NOT skip Salzburg--a beautiful city with strong musical connections. IF you can go during the Salzburg Festival, it would be a highlight of the trip.

Contrary to ferdun's association, it was not just Mozart's birthplace, but where he lived and worked until he was 24, when he left Salzburg for good. Clearly his greatest works were yet to come, but he wrote many of his compositions, and not just church music, while he was in Salzburg.

Having said that, Vienna is a must. Depending on whether or not you wish to go north or south from Vienna, you could also visit Venice, a great musical city and home to Vivaldi among others.

laverendrye

Sorry--"assertion" not "association". My fingers were obviously operating independently.

intuitive

Thank you all for the suggestions. I am beginning to see that Austria and Germany will probably be what I focus on and perhaps add in Paris and/or Prague? Hopefully we can stop in London on the way there or back. I happened upon "Classical Music Tours" on the PBS site last night and got pretty excited. Although my son would never want to go on an organized tour, there were some ideas there-Budapest for the Bohemian composers? Both the White Nights Festival and the Salzburg Festival would be great but they are in the summer and my son has teaching engagements every summer so those are out for now. Too bad...he and I love Shostakovich and Rimsky-Korsakov, among others but that will be another trip. So, we are most likely going in December when he has a lot of free time and I would love symphony venue suggestions. Thanks again!

Barbara_in_CT

No matter where you are, check out the churches for sung masses, evensongs and concerts.

cambe

Hi I,

I went on a Classical Musical tour of Central Europe in July/Aug and thourly enjoyed it.

Salzburg suffered (IMO) from Mozart Mania but I loved the city. I went to the see The Marriage of Figaro at the Festival Hall and it was the highlight of my trip. I also enjoyed the numerous musians playing Mozart's music and various others at every corner (the Mozart were pieces that I had not heard before an I am a Mozart freek!!).

In Vienna I was not impressed with the Opera House (Budapest was better) but did attend musical evenings by the Vienna Residence Orchestra at the Orangerie (Schonbrunn Palace) and The Palais Auersperg. Preferred the Palais Auersperg. The first half was Mozart and the second half Strauss. Very funny and well worth a visit.

In Prague I went to the Municipal House to see a Gershwin concert which was brilliant. There are also lots of church concerts in Prague - I went to one whic was great and very cheap.

The only concert I have been to in Paris was at the Sainte Cgapelle. It was tremendous but more expensive than Prague.

Have a great Classical Music Trip.

Helen

ben_haines

You can set a search engine to a composer’s name and the word Museum, and have results. I did this for a few people, and show my results below. I find the houses once used by great people are moving, and often the keepers offer audiotaped background to my choice, or evening recitals on original instruments in original rooms. You can also search for a musical style of interest, add the word Festival, and draw results. Your son may want to ask his tutors, and himself, where our music came from (plainchant, early music, national folksong collectors of the nineteenth century, or other), is coming from now and will come from (north African, south Asian, Chinese, and other world sources). You may develop ideas for places to see and music to hear if you search for Martin Randall Tours, then at suitable titles within Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, and Italy.

The reference library of a city near you may have the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, which shows the trains that will make the tour possible. If you book a sleeper for two or for three you can cover eight hundred miles in a night, and cut a hotel bill. I have on disc a note on getting the best from sleepers: please tell me if you would like a copy. Also, if you search under Man in Seat 61 you find careful notes on expresses. I am afraid you will not reach the Russians in St Petersburg, nor, probably, Enescu in Bucharest. But if you look at a mapf Europe you can tell yourself that some overnight journeys are Granada to Barcelona, Barcelona to Paris, Paris to Odense, Odense via Malmo to Berlin, Vienna to Leipzig Venice or Prague, Prague to Warsaw, Warsaw via Vienna to Sopron, and Frankfurt to almost any of them. When you have drawn up your short list you are welcome to ask me to sketch the most convenient journeys, and to suggest agents in the US who can set up the bookings. Many continental museums close on Mondays.

Opera is affordable in Prague and Budapest, but extravagant elsewhere. Where I list an opera house it is as a building with a guided tour in English, full of memories. Where I list a concert hall, it is as a fine old building, but I list only halls with seats at 15 euros.

You are lucky that many museums and houses dedicated to one composer are in towns, and fewer in big cities, so you go to see old places with national character, of which the citizens are proud. The great orchestras are in the great cities, but usually end in time for you to take a train for an hour back to your hotel in town.

Granada
House and Museum of Manuel de Falla
Flamenco, if available

Barcelona, 45 miles south
Pablo Casals Museum

London
Handel House Museum
Thomas Coram foundation, for Handel’s friends
The Royal Albert Hall, for a grand building but moderate music
The events magazine Time Out lists many concerts and recitals, including south Asian. It omits some lunchtime and evening recitals in seventeenth century churches, and you can ask what is to happen on your dates when you know what they are. Please telephone on 0040 20 7606 3998 or email [email protected]/.

Orkney Islands
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies plans a museum, but I think it is not yet up.

Paris
The events magazine Pariscope lists plainchant and early music in Notre Dame and the Musee Cluny, and lists Morroccan and other Maghrebi music

La Cote-Saint-Andre, Isere
Hector Berlioz museum

St Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris
Musee Claude Debussy. Open Tuesday to Saturday 14.00 to 18.00 (except public holidays) - Free admission Groups: guided tours by prior arrangement - Tours and lectures for individual visitors on set dates
Now the Municipal Tourist Office and the Debussy Museum

Leipzig
Bach museum and archive
St Thomas Church. Bach was cantor here from 1723-1750 and is buried here.

Dresden
The Semper Opera House, rebuilt after the fire of 1869, saw the premieres of Wagner's 'Rienzi', 'The Flying Dutchman' and 'Tannhauser'. Eight operas by Richard Strauss were premiered here this century.

Bonn
The Schumann House and the birthplace of Beethoven.

Bayreuth.
Margravial Opera House may be the most beautiful Baroque theatre in Europe.
Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus with its unique acoustics. A great number of festivals offer music, theatre and art on a very high level.
Richard Wagner Museum
Franz Liszt Museum

Odense Denmark
The City Museums include a display on the life and work of Carl Nielsen

Abo Finland
Sibelius museum

Tallinn Theatre and Music Museum. Sadly, no special display for Veljo Tormis or Arvo Part

Prague
Smetana Museum
Rudolfinum Concert Hall

Brno
Janacek Archive and Museum

Budapest
Museums for Bartok and Liszt
Vigado concert hall
Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music

Prague, twenty miles north
Above the river (of Ma Vlast) is the high fortress of Veyhrad, and beside the river the cemetery includes the graves of Dvorak, Smetana and Fibich. The Dvorak museum and the Mozart museum are in the Villa Bertramka, the house belonging to the Duek family of musicians where Mozart was a frequent guest and where he wrote Don Giovanni.

Vienna
House of Music
Mozart house
Vienna Opera
Johann Strauss museum: the living room and the study of the former apartment
Schubert museum
Musikverein concert hall, full of memories of first nights, but cheap tickets are for standing places only
Theatre an der Wien opera house and concert hall. Beethoven had first nights and rooms here. Cheapest seats are 11 and 20 euros
40 kilometers south east of Vienna
Eszterhazy Palace Fertoed. Summer home for Handel

Venice
Wagner Museum at Palazzo Vendramin. (now Venice's Casino) on the Grand Canal near S. Marcuola vaporetto stop. Here Wagner worked and died. It is open only on Saturday mornings at 10:30. You must book the day before (Friday) by phoning before 12 noon. Phone the Wagner Society at 041 276 0407. There is no fee, but a donation is suggested.

Vivaldi Museum. In the rear of the Pieta Church, around the side. This small new museum has a few Vivaldi ephemera but also an interesting collection of items relating to the Ospedale della Pieta, an "orphanage" where Vivaldi was maestro dei concerti and where he worked for many years. It is open Mondays and Wednesdays, 11AM to 4 PM, 3 fee.

Warsaw
Chopin museum.

Krakow
17th Jewish Culture Festival, June 23rd - July 1st 2007. Celebration of temple, klezmer, and other music, of Jewish cooking, and of the Yiddish and Hebrew languages

Bucharest.
George Enescu house
The Athenaeum concert hall

Please write if I can help further.

Ben Haines, London
[email protected]

papagena

If you can include Berlin in your itinerary, the Berlin Philharmonic's concert hall is amazing and the tour is fascinating for a musician. The seats are laid out with galleries jutting in at every angle so that all seats have excellent sightlines and acoustics. Of course a Berlin Phil/Simon Rattle concert would be great if you can get tickets (you'd need to arrange this in advance). Berlin also has three opera houses all of which have a high standard of productions.

Vienna is fantastic for musical history as previously mentioned, and the interactive music museum is fun (particularly the section where you use an electronic baton to conduct a symphony orchestra - the better your conducting the quicker you're "out" ISTM). Both the Staatsoper and Volksoper are great, and do cheap last-minute tickets. The Volksoper is always good for a controversial production! The Vienna Phil has an excellent reputation, you probably need to get tickets in advance.

Whether to go to Salzburg probably depends on how much your son likes Mozart - in the absence of a festival it's not worth adding to a 10 day itinerary purely for concerts, but personally I would go to make the "pilgrimage" to Mozart's birthplace.

London is excellent for concerts and Handel and Mozart lived here among others. The Handel house museum and the backstage tour of the Royal Opera House are both interesting.

My experience of music in Eastern Europe is that it is often less polished (well, I hate to say it, but basically slightly less technically competent) than in similar Western European venues, BUT, I have enjoyed it greatly on every occasion because the performers have given so much. I absolutely loved the opera in Prague; even though some of the singers were a bit dodgy, the productions were so much fun and the acting was excellent. It also seemed to be a real community event which was a huge contrast to the western european tendency to have half the good seats used for corporate entertainment.

Well, this has turned into rather an essay and I've only just got started! In summary, my reccs are:

- Visit Vienna
- Go to a concert in eastern europe (Budapest or Prague are easy overnight trips from Vienna on the train)
- DO NOT under any circumstances go to a concert where the performers are in period costume. Unless your son wants a good laugh.

Does your son have a favourite era/composer? I didn't even start on Italy, but if he likes Verdi Milan shouldn't be missed, if Vivaldi Venice etc...

basingstoke2

In Vienna consider staying at the Best Western Tigra. It is at the address where Wolfgang and Leopold Mozart stayed for his Vienna debut and where Wolfgang later returned as an adult to live awhile. The concert hall where he made the debut is right around the corner. The hotel itself is quite nice and well located within the ring but on an uninteresting street.

Prague is great for affordable and plentiful concerts of all sorts.

It is ironic that Mozart did not get along with the authorities in Salzburg. He did not like them and they did not like him. Now he is the city's major industry.

amp322

Well, Ben covered it all, as far as I can see lol! What instrument does your son play? I majored in Mu Ed @ Northwestern.

As a musician, I enjoy actually being in a music festival. When I was 15, I spent 5 weeks in Italy playing on tour, and then toured China & more of Europe later on. There is nothing like playing a concert in a castle that was built in the 13th century! Seeing concerts in castles & churches is also a great experience, and I would never take a trip to Europe without squeezing such a unique performance into my itinerary.

Anyway, there are also classical music tours that will take you to highlights in the most important countries. If you go it alone, I would either do Austria, Czech Rep & Germany, or Italy and London. You can always go back & cover the ones you missed later. Depending on the season, you'll want to check schedules & see if museums are open and if concerts, etc will be happening when you go. I still think he should look up some festivals & try to play over there. His college will have tons of literature hanging up on the info boards, and it is not too late to apply for this summer.

Holly_uncasdewar

I disagree with the advice to avoid any concert where the performers are in period custume. Some of the most delightful concerts I have been to have been in period costurme. The absolute worst was one that was not in costume. I certainly wouldn't use costume as your criteria on choosing a venue. I'd base it more on the composer and the program.

ferdun

I loved Salzburg but would not include it in a 10 day tour with other major music sites like Vienna to visit.
As for costumed performers, I think the reference is to the touts in costume for the 'concerts' in the basement of the Municipal house. It is semi-pro and not in the buoyant surroundings of Smetana Hall.
Wherever you go, you will enjoy the music.

papagena

No, as a general rule I avoid all concerts with performers in costume. There are various reasons, but I think the politest way to put it is that I'm a complete musical snob!

Obviously there is a huge market for these concerts - lots of people must enjoy them or they wouldn't be arranged.

*Goes away giggling at the memory of a costumed performance in Vienna where the soprano was so bad the orchestra were actually laughing at her attempts to hit the queen of the night's top Fs. The audience gave her a huge round of applause.*