Exploring the home of Mozart, Salzburg

After spending a week in Hall in Tirol, we finally moved to another city, Salzburg. Salzburg is famous for Sound of Music and Mozart. Let me share a few stories.

Story of Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the world famous composer was born and lived in Salzburg for a major part of his life. He is a child prodigy and became proficient with Piano and Violin at the young age of five, and even started composing and performing his music before the European Royalty. His father took him and his sister (another talented musician) to perform shows all across Europe. He got employment as a court musician at the court of Salzburg.

The ruler of Salzburg did not permit Mozart to perform before the king of Austria at Vienna. At this, Mozart got furious and asked for resignation. The ruler of Salzburg, irritated at this request, eventually gave permission to resign, but only after Mozart received a “kick in his arse”. It’s crazy to think that a musician of such stature was insulted so badly.

Mozart

There is a small rumour that many of Mozart’s symphonies were written by his sister (who herself possesses a lot of musical talent, but could not shine because she was a woman), but these rumours may just be rumours.

Mozart stayed in Vienna performing at the King’s court, where he achieved highest fame but little financial security. He struggled to have his finances in order, and tried to earn or borrow. During his final year of his life, he was super productive and was able to improve his finances by a great deal. He died at the age of 35 with some illness related to fever.

Sound of Music real story

Sound of Music is a well-renowned movie shot in Salzburg. Even though the movie portrays itself as a traditional Austrian movie about an Austrian household, the reality is that it is just a hollywood movie. Most of the people from Austria and neighbouring countries of Germany wouldn’t even have heard of the movie growing up. The movie was only famous in America and the larger English speaking world.

The few Austrians who did watch the movie, didn’t like the movie at all. They found it incredibly cheesy and goody-goody type and told us that it neither depicts an Austrian household or their values. Also, as shown in the movie, the von Trapp family members did not escape to Switzerland by walking (Switzerland is very far from Salzburg), but they actually took the train to reach Italy.

Today, Sound of Music brings in a lot of tourism to Salzburg. You will find various tours taking you to the sets and locations of the Sound of Music movie production.

Salzburg & Our Music Experience

Salzburg is famous for all-around the year music performances and orchestras. It’s famous for many Opera theatres including the famous Felsenreitschule (where von Trapp family performed in Sound of Music) and Mirabell Palace, a UNESCO Heritage site. It’s ironic that the city where Mozart was insulted is now booming with tourism based on Mozart’s fame.

We were quite excited to go to a Symphony (but we had a budget consideration) and came across a free symphony at a college festival of Mozarteum University. This concert was performed by the students and they used many traditional instruments like dulcimer, viola, piano and a harp. We also heard the traditional Austrian yodel. It was breathtaking.

Symphony

Salzburg felt like a crowded city with a lot of tourists. We skipped some of the touristy activities and contented ourselves to enjoy a few parks in Salzburg, where we observed locals and just chilled on the grass.

Stay tuned for our next mail, exploring the most liveable city in the world 🤯 and how the history we learnt there, shaped rest of our travel exploring Central Europe

Even if you think you haven’t listened to Mozart before, I bet you would have. Listen to these two performances:

Do share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below.