Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

Today was our second full day in Salzburg, and it dawned with a layer of snow blanketing the city. When I woke up this morning it was hard to believe that only a few hours earlier we saw the Vienna Philharmonic play amazing music and Joshua Bell literally shredded it! Seriously, his bow frayed because he was playing so hard. And we were in the front row, close enough to see the sweat fly off of him! The musicality of the ensemble was absolutely insane. It sounded like there was only one person on each part because they were all just so in tune with each other. I especially loved the sound of the basses...they were so rich and dark I could feel the sound waves through the stage!! And let me just repeat that Joshua Bell was the most amazing string player I've ever heard in my entire life. He was ridiculously expressive and moved around so much with the music, and he played everything flawlessly. His cadenzas were incredible.

The view from our seats was awesome!!!

After that phenomenal concert I wasn't sure anything else would live up to what I had just heard. However, Mozart's piccolominimesse in the Salz Dom was really cool!! We got to hear Mozart's music as it would have been performed back in the day when he was the organist, and the acoustics in there were incredible! There was a 10 second ring with the gigantic organ in the back, and there were four other organs in the front of the church! The mass we saw was definitely very different from the service at the Berliner Dom, since that was a Protestant service. I have only been to one or two catholic masses, so I was far more lost in this service than I was at the Protestant one (especially because there was no translator). After the service, Hannah E. and I got some pastries and hot drinks before what we thought was an organ/recorder recital. However, it turned out that the recital was actually another service with the recorders as special music instead of the piccolominimesse! Also, the musicians were two girls who couldn't have been older than 13, and they were amazing! I had no idea recorders could sound so good. 

We saw the services underneath that big green dome!

After the service we went on a guided tour of the city. Our guide was very energetic and engaging, and she was full of interesting trivia about the city. Then half the group split off to explore. We went up to the Franciscan monastery on the hill on the other side of the city, and the view was phenomenal. It was quite the trek to get up there and it was really slippery with mud and snow everywhere! The hike was well worth it and here are some pictures:

Tomorrow: touring the Salzburg castle and seeing some Mozart history!