"A true Viennese is not Austrian, but a cocktail," Loni said, wiping the brown icing from her smile. "We are a mix of the old Habsburg Empire. My grandparents are Hungarian." Pointing to her friends, she said, "And Gosha's are Polish, Gabi's are Romanian, and I don't even know what hers are."įor 600 years Vienna was the head of the once-grand Habsburg Empire. In 1900, Vienna's 2.25 million inhabitants made it the world's fifth-largest city (after New York, London, Paris, and Berlin). Then Austria started, then lost World War I and, with it, her far-flung holdings. Today Vienna is a "head without a body" - an elegant capital ruling tiny Austria. The average Viennese mother has 1.3 children and the population is down to 1.6 million. I asked Loni about Austria's low birthrate. "Dogs are the preferred child," she said, startling her friends into pearl-rattling stitches. Sharing coffee and cake with Viennese aristocracy who lived as if Vienna was an eastern Paris and as if calories didn't count, I was seeing the soul of Vienna - a city in love with life. Vienna may have lost its political clout, but culturally and historically, this city of Freud, Brahms, a gaggle of Strausses, Maria Theresa's many children, and a dynasty of Holy Roman emperors is right up there with Paris, London, and Rome.Īs far back as the 12th century, Vienna was a mecca for musicians, both secular (troubadours) and sacred. The Habsburg emperors of the 17th and 18th centuries were not only generous supporters of music but fine musicians themselves. (Maria Theresa played a mean double bass.) Composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Mahler gravitated to this music-friendly environment. They taught each other, jammed together, and spent a lot of time in Habsburg palaces.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |