Auditions, Art, and A Walk

The main stairs of the museum

Yesterday was a long, hot, but pretty good day. I had German class in the morning. A bit less disruptive, felt like we were learning a bit more, but still some disruption. I just hope she clarifies what's on Friday's test!! Afterward, I went out and got some lunch and walked to the Museums Quartier. Here, there is the natural history museum and the art museum of the Hapsburg family form a forum with a huge statue of Maria Theresia in the middle. This in turn creates a forum with the Hofburg Palace complex which is across the Ringstrasse (in all, this creates a sort of T shape). I then got a tour from a lovely older professor of art history in the art museum. Our IES group got in for free for this tour. She explained how, unlike in America, the museums of Europe were founded by the great monarchical families to hold the treasures brought back across vast empires (in the case of Austro-Hungary, as far as Spain). Hence they are much older and hold collections that were acquired right around when things were actually painted, whereas museums in America are founded on collections bought much after the fact by industrialists.

Looking down the main stairs

Ceiling mural & looking up the main stairs

A room where they hung a bunch of paintings without title or artist name

She went through the various styles of painting and some key changes between the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. She explained also that the Hapsburgs did not like anything after the 18th century period, and such works are housed in a post-monarchy modern art museum elsewhere in the city. It was fascinating to hear about the difference between the Venetians who focused on color and blurred their lines and the Florentines and Germans and later periods where paintings became more inviting, backgrounds changed from gold or black to landscape, etc. Here are some paintings of which I took photos (flash is, of course, prohibited since it can damage paintings, so they're not the best shots):

A later painting with a landcape background and balance through triangular foreground

There were two huge paintings like this - on those they based the height of the museum walls

not the greatest shot, but my favorite painting there. It's of the Tower of Babel...

After finishing the museum tour I went back and prepared for my audition, including meeting with the pianist. It's been interesting adjusting to the very ringing practice rooms and singing in the heat. The auditions were very long, about 2 hours, and I expect it will be the same for at least some of the other three days. I didn't think I did too well but no one else thought it was awful. We'll see what happens, especially since the purpose is supposedly to select repertoire and form ensembles and not to keep people out of the class, though it's possible.

Finally, after that, I went out to walk, eat, and get ice cream with some girls, walk around Stephansplatz, and also went into some shops with them. This was fun, and then I returned home, battled the internet and went to sleep. This morning, I ate my last Lebkuchen (gingerbread) from Mariazell, which was bittersweet since on the one hand, it was really tasty, but on the other hand, it was really tasty and now it's gone... But I've immortalized it here: