Sommernachtskonzert

Annually, the Wiener Philharmoniker (I'm guessing you can figure out what that is, but in case you can't, that's the orchestra that plays the famous New Year's Concert) holds a free concert at Schönbrunn Palace. It's a big deal because it's one of the best orchestras in the world and a normal ticket to see a performance is pretty darn pricey (and you generally can't even get tickets unless you are a member of the Society or whatever, which is also obnoxiously expensive to join). However, the Sommernachtskonzert is free. As a result, A TON of people attend. We got there around 3 hours before the concert started so we managed to snag spots right in front of the railing the separated the seated section from everything else. Not bad.

Overall, the concert was quite good (that is, the music itself) but the whole experience would have been even better if it weren't so chilly... and if the woman behind me didn't try to keep pushing forward. Oh well. I can't complain because I was able to experience almost 2 hours of amazing music played by exceptionally talented musicians (the violin soloist had serious skill). My only major disappointment was that the program was less awesome than last year's. Why? Last year, they played a ton of stuff from Star Wars, which is pretty much win all around.

I just realized that this is the 2nd "major," televised event I've been to in Vienna. This would never happen at home. Is living in a city always this great? Or is Vienna just freaking amazing?

If you are interested in watching some video about the concert and such, click HERE (the video is in German though so... yeah).

PS: I just updated (read: posted) 2 new blog posts. They're both from May so they're probably buried back in the older posts somewhere, but take a look if you wish.