It’s time for another travel story. I’m going through them slowly because I don’t know when I will get back to Europe and want to savor them.
A big part of my last trip to Europe included museums of the more musical nature. One of the most fun was the Vienna Philharmonic museum. In addition to wonderful displays on the various classical music time periods they also have a great interactive exhibit where you can “conduct” the Vienna Philharmonic. They have a small mock up of the concert hall and there is a full wall video of the orchestra. The baton is linked electronically to the speed the video plays. Basically, if you conduct fast, they play fast and visa versa. You are given about five different pieces to choose from, all really great classical pieces. The best part, however, comes when you mess up. If you really botch it the orchestra stops, in some cases starts rattling their bows on their stands and one member will yell at you…in German. Great fun really. Each piece has a different scenario for getting yelled at in German. It sure beat the Mozart Geburtshaus but more on that later. That's Mr. Wallace, the kids conductor, in the picture. He did great. I, on the other hand, learned lots of new words in German.
Comments