Tuesday, March 24, 1998; Vienna

Vienna dawned, sunny and a bit warmer than yesterday. This is a truly impressive city; while heavily damaged during World War II, it has been beautifully rebuilt with many damaged buildings (such as the Opera House) restored to their former glory.

Bill arrived at my hotel at 10 am and we took off to see some sights. We stopped first at Gustav Mahler's grave which is in a cemetery out of the centre of the city. I had seen photos of his simple but imposing grave marker - a single shaft of stone (granite?) with only the words

GUSTAV
MAHLER

engraved near the top - but seeing it up close was a memorable event. The music of Mahler is very powerful to me, and ever since I first heard one of his symphonies (Symphony 6) I have been interested in learning more about the man and his music. Bill and I talked a bit about Mahler in the cemetery and then walked around, commenting on interesting stones and artwork. This Viennese cemetery was very different from cemeteries in the USA; family plots are very close together here, so no grass grows between them. The headstones tend to be quite large with impressive old German writing on them.

We left Mahler's grave to visit two homes Beethoven occupied while he lived in Vienna. Apparently, Beethoven lived at 30 different addresses in Vienna (I wondered if he had trouble playing the rent and moved out in the middle of the night!). The first we visited was the "Eroicahaus" where he composed his Third Symphony. In the rooms were prints and drawings of Vienna in Beethoven's time as well as some facsimile pages of the Eroica Symphony. The second Beethoven House we went to was the Heiligenstadter Testamenthaus where Beethoven wrote his famous Heiligenstadter Testament. Written in October 1802, this document is an anguished personal letter expressing Beethoven's frustration and anxiety over his worsening deafness, and the realisation that there would be no cure. The document was discovered in Beethoven's papers after his death and it is a crushing statement of despair:

What a devastating document! And to see the room where he penned it (which was full of many other facsimiles and engravings) was quite memorable.

Also in this house was a lock of Beethoven's hair (brownish with quite a bit of grey) and a copy of his death mask - death did not come to him easily, sallow, sunken cheeks, downturned mouth - far from the image of peace that accompanies other such death masks I have seen over the years. In all, the trip was moving and thought provoking, and I was glad to add this bit of perspective to my knowledge of the musical life of this remarkable city.

Needing to get home for the afternoon, Bill dropped me off at my hotel with the promise that we would meet again for dinner after my concert and his performance of an opera at the Vienna State Opera. The afternoon was taken up with some shopping, catching up on email, practising the serpent, taking a nap and attempting to visit the musical instrument collection at the Kunsthistorisches Museum - alas, when I got there, I learned it was closed on Tuesdays. That will have to wait for another visit.

Tonight was our final Mahler 3 for this tour, the remaining 3 concerts will all consist of Mahler 6. It's been wonderful to do these two massive works for such a long period of time (four weeks). There is still something very special about Mahler for trombone players that will always be with me. The Wiener Singverein and Wiener Sängerknaben (Vienna Boys' Choir) were excellent; of course their diction was impeccable, but overall, my hat is still off to the women of the London Symphony Chorus who truly gave a memorable rendering of the 5th movement.

Perhaps it was visiting Mahler's gravesite today, or the fact that we were playing in a hall where Mahler had conducted many times himself, but the concert this evening was quite special. From the very first call of the horn section, there was an electricity in the air. From where I sat, I could see a woman in the balcony, perhaps 50+ years old, who stood for the entire performance to get a better view. It was clear from her reactions that she knew the piece well and to watch her was to know again what making music is all about. She was transported to another realm, deeply moved by the music, smiling broadly when the music communicated an uplifting sentiment, near tears when it was crushingly intense. The 6th movement, which Mahler at one time subtitled, "What Love Tells Me", was excruciatingly passionate tonight. Ozawa was in top form, the audience was so quiet you thought no one was there and the BSO was absolutely on target. Whatever the reason - Mahler, the gorgeous hall, the hushed audience, the final night in Vienna - whatever it was, I had that inexpressibly electric feeling throughout the movement, so much so that at one point, I didn't know if I could play. The lump in my throat was wet and hard, and it was as if God was telling me something very personal, very emotional, and very important. I cannot share with you what that was because it is simply too close to me to give it away, but I shall never forget it. Ever.

I walked back to the hotel with Norman Bolter and his wife, Carol, and he shared a similar feeling. So, it was not all just a dream, and I was not alone on the stage, but others had felt it, too. Remarkable. Moments like that remind me, "That's why I play trombone."

Bill came over to meet me in my room after his opera performance was over, he wanted to see the serpent, and afterwards, we went out for dinner. He is a good friend and I enjoyed our time together, and look forward to the next time we will meet, this summer, when his family will be on vacation in Cape Cod and will make a trip to hear the BSO at Tanglewood.

Next stop tomorrow: Munich, where I will meet, for the first time, my Internet friend and Trombone-l contributor Howard Weiner. A late departure in the morning will give me a bit more rest. But on a night like tonight, it is almost as if I could stay up until dawn, remembering what the concert was like, and the massive forces behind the composition and interpretation of great music. Sometimes you just need to think about the "big things". What fun it is. . . Good night.

And there was morning and evening, the tenth day.

A European Tour Odyssey - Part 5 ››

Douglas Yeo joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as bass trombonist in 1985 after holding the same position with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1981-1985. He holds degrees from Wheaton College (Illinois) and New York University, and is the author of over 30 articles about the trombone and music in general; he teaches at Boston University and New England Conservatory of Music.