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Published: March 13th 2021
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http://www.heygo.com 12th March- The city of a million melodies
Today’s virtual tour with Claudia was interesting to hear stories about some of the well-known composers of the past.
Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice, Italy, which is where he spent most of his life. His father taught him to play the violin, and the two would often perform together. He made his first known public appearance playing alongside his father as a violinist in 1696
Antonio continued to study and practice the violin, even after he became a priest. He was called the "Red Priest" because of his flaming red hair, but he had bad asthma & that kept Him from saying Mass.
After that, Vivaldi spent all his time writing music and teaching. He taught at an orphanage for girls, and wrote a lot of music for the girls to play.
By the late 1730's his popularity had declined and he slipped into poverty. In 1741 Vivaldi went to Vienna hoping to secure a lucrative post from Charles VI, who was a great fan of his music, but the monarch died before granting him an audience. Alone and destitute,
Vivaldi succumbed to a heart attack and was buried, that same day, in an unmarked grave at The Poor Sinners cemetery . This cemetery was abandoned in 1783, and the Vienna University of Technology was built on the grounds in 1818. On the 300th anniversary of his birth, a plaque was installed at Vienna Tech to indicate Vivaldi's long-lost gravesite.
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler discovered a piano in his grandmother's attic when he was six years old. Just four years later, he gave his first public performance.
Mahler became director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic at the turn of the twentieth century.
On 21 February 1911, Mahler conducted his final concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. He was severely ill afterwards and confined to bed. He travelled back to Vienna, where he died on May 18th 1911.
Mahler’s grave is little more than a large, plain stone block with a grassy patch in front and close to the grave of his wife, Alma Mahler-Werfel.
Brahms
Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, the young Brahms was forced to play the piano in dance halls
to contribute to the family's income as they were so poor.
Brahms met a Hungarian refugee and violinist in 1850, and was introduced to a whole range of folk and gypsy music that massively influenced his composing style.
Although Brahms began composing his first symphony in 1854, it wasn't premiered until 22 years later.
As she stood in front of the statue of Brahms our guide say the famous lullaby. I was imagining all the virtual trippers joining in.
Wagner
We passed the Imperial Hotel, great names such as Brahms, Mahler and Bruckner were frequent visitors but Richard Wagner set up home here in 1875 playing music and composing all night long on the piano that he had set up in his salon.
Schubert
Aged 10, the young Schubert won a place in the Vienna Imperial Court chapel choir and quickly gained a reputation as a budding composer.
Schubert enjoyed a good time and, in his day, he was famous for his musical parties when he would gather with his friends and fans and showcase some of his latest songs.
Being only five foot one tall, Schubert’s
frame, added to his rather plump body,earned him the nickname ‘little mushroom’.
Beethoven
Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792, where he met influential composers like Haydn and began to compose in earnest. By 1796, he had begun to suffer from tinnitus and was losing his hearing.
Ill health and increasing deafness caused a drop in productivity at the end of Beethoven's life, but he still managed to produce important works which were wildly inventive for the time.
Beethoven died in Vienna on the 26th March 1827 after a long illness.
Johan Strauss
Johan had a lot of names. Since his father, also named Johann, was also a famous composer in his time, people needed a way to distinguish between the two. The younger Strauss was also known as: Johann Strauss Jr. - Johann Strauss the Younger - Johann Strauss the Son - Johann Baptist Strauss & The Waltz King.
Johann was born in 1825 in Austria. His father wanted Johann to be a banker. He didn't want to compete with his own son musically. Johann was secretly taught violin by one of the violinists in his father's orchestra and
was beaten by his father when the truth came out.
Our tour ended in front of the beautiful statue of Johann Strauss. in 1903, a few years after Strauss’s death, plans were in place to build a memorial. Unfortunately, the financing turned out to be trickier than was hoped and the outbreak of the first World War didn’t help matters.The resulting delays meant the memorial first saw the light of day in 1921.The “gold” statue is actually gilded bronze.
Another educational tour.
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