Kicking off Holy Week

One of Vienna's monikers is "The City of Music". The city tourism office touts that more composers have lived in Vienna than any other city in the world. So unlike Los Angeles' Walk of Fame honors movie celebrities, Vienna's stars include composers such as Mozart and Salieri (of Amadeus fame), Haydn, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Strauss. Many of these composers knew each other, were students and teachers of each other, and were friends. Just the other day I caught this pic at the State Opera House.

Gustav Mahler
composer and one-time director of the Vienna State Opera

The rich music scene in Vienna continues to this day and frankly overwhelms me. I recently read that around 10,000 people listen to live classical music in Vienna every night! 

I finally took the plunge and picked one:  Bach's St. Johns Passion at the Wiener Konzerthaus by the Vienna Symphony.

And I'm so glad I did. It was the perfect kick-off to Holy Week.

We invited our friends, Casey and Kendra, to join us.

yes, that's the back of the auditorium...

Even the ceiling of the Wiener Konzerthaus is spectacular!

How to survive a concert while you have a cold

I had asked my sister, Juli, which rendition of the St. Johns is the best to purchase. I wanted to get familiar with the music before we heard the live version.  She recommended the Bach Collegium Japan conducted by Suzuki. Fantastic. I highly recommend anyone going to a concert to get familiar with the music first. Thankfully I had also searched out the German/English side-by-side translation of the text and Dave downloaded it to his iPad. I still purchased a program to have the German text in front of me. It was fun to pick out some of the words and phrases, but I frequently leaned over to check out the translation to gain the deeper meaning.  

I loved our Evangelist. It's a critical part, he's like a narrator but also has some lovely solos. Clear voice, beautiful.

My favorite lines:

My precious Savior, let me ask,
Now that you have been nailed to the Cross
and have said yourself:  It is finished,
Am I made free from death?
Can I through your pain and death inherit the kingdom of heaven?
Has the redemption of the whole world arrived?
You cannot say a single thing out of pain:
yet you bow Your head and say silently yes.

I found it interesting that the St. John ends after Christ's death. I wanted the resurrection scene! And yet without going there so quickly, I find myself thinking more on Christ's suffering this week. I'm more aware of His pain, my pain, our world's longing for all to be made right and made new.