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My Vienna: Johann Strauss II, traces & places

Above: Danube river at dusk, facing southeast from Brigittenauer Sporn. Photo, 11 Jun 2022 (X70).

Vienna is a historical city of music with the likes of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and more. In the mid- to late-19th century, the Strauss family of composers created a dominant scene in Viennese waltz (Wiener Waltz). Johann Strauss II’s “An der schönen blauen Donau” (The Blue Danube) is one of the best-known compositions of classical music. The song was used famously in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel “2001: A Space Odyssey“.

And as in the movie, the soaring feelings of hopeful anticipation during the spacecraft’s journey and docking with the spinning space station have become as routine as my arrival onto Viennese shores from the other side of the big eastern pond. I rely on Vienna to provide the gravity to maintain balance and spirit; this much has stayed true over multiple consecutive summers.

I’ve spent over 100 total days in Vienna, explored many of her streets and districts, and walked hundreds of kilometres. Efforts to immerse myself in various types of the city’s art and architecture have been accompanied by the sounds of brass horns and sweeping strings in a back-and-forth “dance” that spans the entire city. There’s new opportunity to learn about the song’s composer who was born, raised, studied, worked, and died in the Austrian capital city.

With the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss II’s birth in 2025, the city of Vienna celebrates the occasion with a multitude of arts and culture events over the entire 2025 year.

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24T58 Eisenstadt: the home of Haydn

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From Vienna, regional express trains take about an hour southeast to Eisenstadt, capital city of the Austria federal state of Burgenland. Eisenstadt is also the “home of Haydn,” where the composer and music director spent many years under the auspices of the Esterházy family.

Joseph Haydn, 1732-1809: musician and composer; considered the “father of the symphony” and “father of the string quartets”. Haydn also mentored Mozart and taught Beethoven.

Below are some highlights from my day trip from Vienna to Eisenstadt.

Joseph-Haydn-Platz

*“Music director for Prince Esterházy, Joseph Haydn once lived and worked here.”*

*“Eisenstadt: die kleinste Großstadt der Welt” (the world’s smallest big city).*

*Behind the St. John of Nepomuk column is …*

Haydn Mausoleum

*A peek inside through the locked door.*

*The skull and corpse were finally reunited in 1954. The complete remains of Haydn lie here.*

Haydn Museum

*Joseph Haydn: Mass in B-major, Hoboken XXII:13, “The Creation”, 1801.*

*Hammerklavier (piano forte), by Anton Walter, Vienna, 1780-1790. It’s very likely Haydn played on this very piano.*

*Autographed “Anton Walter in Wien”; a 1-Euro coin for comparison.*

*Porcelain bust of Joseph Haydn on a china-blue stand, by Anton Grassi, 1st copy, 1802.*

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 4 Jul 2024. I received no support from any external organization. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Vienna Heiligenstadt: Beethoven, despair, deafness, & his 6th Symphony

Above/featured: Memorial statue in Vienna’s Heiligenstadt Park; more details below.

Composer Ludwig van Beethoven spent a total of 35 years in Vienna, from 1792 with his arrival from Bonn until his death in 1827. Every summer, he would leave Vienna to stay in a country- or farm-house in Heiligenstadt which at the time was rural; a stagecoach trip from the inner city required several hours. Today, urban development and expansion have reached and overtaken the once verdant fields right up to the flanks of the city’s northern heights.

By 1802, Beethoven’s hearing loss was almost complete. With his doctor’s recommendation, Beethoven had hoped time away from the noisy city would help recover some of his healing, but after the summer had passed, his initial fears had come true: his hearing would not return. In desperation, Beethoven wrote to his brother a letter, known as the “Heiligenstadt Testament“. He never sent the letter to his brother; the letter would only be discovered 25 years later with Beethoven’s personal effects, shortly after his death in 1827.

I’m tracing out some of Beethoven’s footsteps in Heiligenstadt wrapped inside the present-day city’s 19th district of Döbling. All locations can be visited comfortably on foot in a single day. The following description is part of a larger overview of my search for Beethoven in the Austrian capital city.

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London Bridge Studio: Pearl Jam, Temple o.t. Dog

Pilgrimage is a noun, defined as “a journey to a place of particular interest or significance.”

There are three things you need to know about this particular personal music pilgrimage.

One: the music that’s stayed with me came about because I was tuned to `70s radio; I learned I liked the sonic combination of guitars and drums. Some of those musical memories came from Seattle.

Two: sharing the same space where your favourite bands and songs were recorded hits a lot different than intersecting at your favourite band’s concert while seated waaaay up in the upper deck.

And three: on a recent visit to Seattle, I spent the morning in a recording studio just outside city limits. Little outside suggests some important music history was made here.

The two-storey building looks like a cross between a warehouse and ordinary office space. The surroundings include a small commercial complex and a storage-unit facility. Within a quarter-mile, there’s a gas station, some fast-food joints, and a shopping mall. This is the modest setting where London Bridge Studio resides in the city of Shoreline, WA, about 14 km (9 mi) north of downtown Seattle.

It’s unassuming and it’s also important to note how out of the way this location is from other popular places to visit. A little more effort is required to visit this place of living music history.

I’m more than curious, but there’s music that’s meant a great deal and stayed with me over the decades. Recorded in this studio are two important albums on personal playlist and timeline: Temple of the Dog’s 1991 self-titled album as tribute to Mother Love Bone’s Andrew Wood; and “Ten”, Pearl Jam’s 1991 debut album. Much of the credit goes to Rakesh “Rick” Parashar: born and raised in Seattle, first owner and co-founder of the studio, and producer for “Ten” and “Temple of the Dog”.

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Seattle’s Chris Cornell

Above/featured: One of many customer contributions to the walls of Beth’s Cafe in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge – 7 Mar 2020 (X70).

Who: Chris Cornell, 1964 – 2017.
What: Musician, songwriter; Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden, Audioslave.
Where: Seattle, WA, USA: he grew up in the neighborhood of Bitter Lake.
Why: A search for traces in the city of his birth.
My fave: “Hunger Strike“: live at Alpine Valley, 4 Sept 2011.

On 21 April 1991, an album of music both memorial and celebratory in nature was released, and changed not only the nature of rock at the time, but also the lives of many, both inside and outside the music industry. In the days and weeks after Andrew Wood’s death in March 1990, a group of people gathered to mourn and remember; they wrote new compositions and sang their songs. Temple of the Dog was born: the release of their self-titled album on that early-spring day in 1991 would be the only full-length album to the band’s name.

Decades later, the album’s 3rd track “Hunger Strike” is as compelling now as the first time the music video dropped in 1992 to grab my eyeballs and the harmony-melody-guitar-crunch latched onto my ears and brain. For lead singer Chris Cornell, intervening years included critical acclaim and success with Soundgarden and Audioslave, among solo efforts and other collaborations. Hours after performing on tour with Soundgarden, Cornell was found dead in his Detroit hotel room on 18 May 2017, shocking the communities within Seattle and music at large; he was only 52 years young. Wherever they may be, that jam session with Cornell, Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, and Andrew Wood has got to be one for the ages.

21 April 2021 marked the 30th anniversary of the release of Temple of the Dog’s self-titled album.

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