Apres-Bike

Mozart, Mozart, Mozart

There were 2 days planned to tour Vienna before we headed home to Manila. We checked into Hotel Capricorno, which was excellently located on the Schwedenplatz, just a few blocks from St. Stephen’s cathedral, the hub of the tourist area, and literally steps away from a Metro station.

The day was dominated, fittingly enough, with Mozart. We had stumbled upon his home during our first stop here, so I headed back there for a closer look. It was located a few blocks from the cathedral, an apartment house in which he rented a suite of rooms for about 3 years during a prosperous period in his short life. The Mozarthaus was excellently prepared and documented. Apparently, Mozart lived in many different places in Vienna as his fortunes rose and fell. I had read that he was never fully appreciated and was always scratching for money, bill collectors beating at the door. But the commentaries in the museum said that, on the contrary, he had always earned well and they showed calculations on his earnings in present-day currency. He earned 50,000 florins per year, equivalent to $140,000 present-day dollars, which placed him in the top 1% of 18th century wage earners! They concluded that he was always penniless because he spent too freely and probably ran up gambling debts.

I left the 18th century to do a little shopping in Kaertner Strasse, the main shopping street. I wandered into a department store and had my daily coffee and cake in its rooftop café, from where I could admire the multi-colored tile roof of St. Stephens cathedral. It turned out that Mozart had died in this exact location, and there was a bust commemorating him, right beside the modern glass elevator.

To complete the Mozart-dominated day, that evening I attended a concert in the Goldferein, the famous hall from where the yearly Mozart concerts are televised. Surprisingly, the lobby was crowded with an unorganized tangle of lines for tickets and vouchers – so un-Austrian. The spectacular hall was totally gold. The majority of the audience were tourists, many Asians. In fact, my seatmate was a Japanese lady and all around us were Koreans. The performers came in wearing period costumes and white powdered wigs. Of course, they played so well. They tossed off the Mozart and Haydn compositions effortlessly. It was great fun, even though a little touristy.