Vienna Philharmonic

This was hands down the best concert I've ever attended. My initial kick in the butt to make me go on this trip was the concert in the Sydney Opera house with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Before that experience I never really fully understood how awesome live "classical" concerts were. After that I had to have more and was hoping to have similar experiences on this trip. Every concert has been really wonderful! But the Vienna Philharmonic has been the most musically and emotionally satisfying concert so far! 

First of all, we were sitting in the front row. Not the absolute best acoustics-wise, but holy crap it was absolutely awesome being that close to the stage! And I mean super close. Here is my hand touching the stage from my seat->

Because we were so close we were able to get a unique perspective of the concert. The musicians made eye contact with us a couple times in between pieces and we could see sweat droplets forming and dripping off their faces- it was awesome. The first piece played was an early Mozart piece in B major I think. It was one if the pieces that Mozart wrote in rebellion to Collorado's distain for instrumental music. It was so charming and quaint- typical. I'm pretty sure I smiled throughout the entire piece. The musicians nailed every articulation and artfully shaped EVERY note. Ridiculous. Next was Joshua Bell playing Brahms' Violin concerto....(whaaaaa!) that was very increadible playing (putting it lightly). What was the greatest is that about 10 minutes into the first movement, Joshua Bell was shredding SO hard that a couple hairs came loose on his bow and when he had a moment of rest he just yanked them out and continued on shredding. We could see sweat beads forming on his face throughout the entire performance (sorry I'm talking so much about sweat... But it was super cool to be that close to be able to see that!). He nailed every technical passage and very gracefully approached every note. It was an amazing performance (he even got an applause after the first movement-oops). He didn't play an encore, which caused a lot of sadness to the wild applauding and standing audience after his performance. They then played an absolutely gorgeous Strauss piece called "metamorphasen". It was a very heavy piece. He started writing it the day after the Vienna Opera House was bombed. I'm definitely going to have to get a good recording of this piece. Next to lighten things up was an absolutely adorable Mozart symphony- the "Haffner" symphony. It had some ridiculously quick technical passages that all the musicians nailed. A very lighthearted and wonderful way to end the program. 

All in all, this was the best concert I weber been to and I'm certain that I will be back to Europe someday to listen to that group again. Though the tickets won't be nearly as cheap! :) Nonetheless, I believe an expensive ticket would definitely be worth that kind of concert.