Eine Kleine Wiener Musik

I’m sure musicians in Vienna get heartily sick of playing Strauss waltzes and bits of Mozart. I’m not a huge Strauss fan myself, and the first movement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik has set my teeth on edge since we spent far too long studying it in school. However, when you hear it in a setting that is probably close to what Mozart had in mind in his composing days, it all becomes rather lovely.

I went to the Kursalon last night, and the Mozart and Strauss were accompanied by some beautiful singing and ballet dancing, and the musicians LOOKED like they were enjoying it, however they might have felt.

The only jarring note was one of the singers’ outfits. It was brave to attempt to pair a white brocade skirt with a black chiffon and sequined top, but the effect was to make it appear that she’d planned all week to wear the skirt with the matching corset top, only to pull it out this evening and (horror!) find that she’d forgotten to take it to the cleaners last week after she wore it with skinny jeans to a party, and some idiot spilled red wine down the front. That meant that her only other option was the black top, and she’d been meaning to buy something to go with that for ages, but the shops were only selling acid green and pink, and you have to be SO careful pairing those with black, or you run the risk of looking like a cheap tart, so she went with the white skirt, because black and white’s classic, and Audrey Hepburn totally rocked it in My Fair Lady, so it must work, nicht wahr?

Er, nein. I’m happy to report that she changed it for a very respectable plum number in the second half. I can only assume her mum was frantically sewing up a large tear in it in the first.

Cattiness aside, the Kursalon was marvellous, and the chandeliers glittering enough to outshine any sartorial errors. It all felt very picture-book Viennese, and I’m very glad I went.





The Kursalon at twilight.