Dr Elisabeth Wolff organised a visit to this unique repository of the Arnold Schoenberg archival legacy, which belongs to the UNESCO Memory of the World. It offers insight into Arnold Schönberg´s significance as composer, painter, teacher and theoretician. In music history, his name is associated with the epoch-making innovation of “Zwölftonmusik”. The exhibition of photographs recalls various periods of Schönberg´s life from his birth in Vienna in 1874, to his death in 1951 in Los Angeles which has been moved to Vienna in 1998.
Dr Wolff expressed WA’s gratitude to the director of the ASC, Mag Angelika Möser, who guided its members through this internationally renowned Archive.
Antique advertisement conserved in the archives of the ASC
Joyce Tessa Freissmuth surrounded by members
WA members studying documents in the ASC
Modern technical equipment admired by WA members
(For further information click here: http://www.schoenberg.at)
Advent Concert in French Embassy
This year’s invitation – once again – came from Ambassador Pascal Teixeira da Silva and his charming wife Pascale into the French residence. Vienna based Nicolai Quartett entertained with Josepf Haydn and Johannes Brahms, with the unique sound of the Vienna Philharmonics: all four quartett members are part of the string crew in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra!
NICOLAI QUARTETT (© B. Dinkhauser)
Come and see,
Be a member of Welcome to Austria!
(more photos to come)
Monthly Jour Fixe
for accredited diplomats to meet WA members: informal networking lunch at Café Landtmann, Universitätsring 4, 1010 Wien (Biedermeierzimmer), on the second Wednesday of each month, any time between 12:30 and 14:30. Menu € 12,50 or à la carte. Organized by Aglaë Hagg-Thun, Second Vice President
WA Jeunes Familles: Vintage Train Tour
Vintage Steam Engine from 1928
WA Jeunes Familles Tour Sept2016
“Das Heizhaus”, Starsshof, Driving on a Steam Engines Model
Children entering a maintenance car in Vintage Train Museum HEIZHAUS
General Assembly 2016
General Assembly 2016, Alois-Mock-Saal, BMEiA
Welcome to Austria 2016: Gabrielle Schallenberg, Hon. Vice President & Angelika Saupe-Berchtold, vice president
Aglaë Hagg, 2nd vice president & Elisabeth Wolff, many years of coordinator for music programs
from left: Gundega Miluts, Dagny Herheim, Joyce Freismuth, Rosanna Berti
Cuisine: Lunch at Elisabeth Sunley’s house
Elisaeth Sunley explaining her home cooked lunch with Austrian specialties
Invited at Elisabeth Sunley’s Haus for Austrian specialties homemade such as Tafelspitz, Wiener Schnitzel and Sachertorte
Funkhaus visit to FM4
Funhaus ORF, WA member Jeoffrey Skipper registering radio comment
Anna Skipper registering her poetry in ORF Funkhaus Erlebnisstudio
(Expect Radio comments to be published here)
Saturday, June 11, 2016
- First stop was the mausoleum of the famous General Radetzky in Heldenberg, continuing to Schloss Limberg where the internationally renowned artist Erwin Wurm showed his atelier. WA members enjoyed Erwin Wurm’s explanation of one of his sculptures
- Lunch at Schloss Rosenau was followed by a tour of Austria’s only Museum of Freemasonery.
- Near the Bohemian border Countess Kinsky welcomed WA members to the family’s imposing Burg Heidenreichstein which dates back to 1160.
- The Romantik-Hotel Gmünd provided food and overnight. HRH Andreas von Habsburg gave the Members a short talk on the history of Gmünd and in the morning he permitted us to have a glimpse of his private art collection.
Erwin Wurm’s atelier.
Inside the Masonic Temple
Burg Heidenreichstein
Romantik Hotel Gmünd
HRH Andreas von Habsburg private art collection
Sunday, June 12, 2016
- A walking tour of the charming walled town of Freistadt was followed by a visit to Kefermarkt’s Gothic church to admire the famous altar-piece, a jewel of Medival woodcarving.
- In the afternoon, the group viewed the historic Dyers’ House in Gutau, famous for its traditional indigo-printed textiles.
- The final stop was Grein, where the first visit was to the magnificent Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha castle overlooking the Danube.
- The weekend ended with a guided visit to the charming Baroque theatre in the centre of Grein.
Historic wooden blocks for printing indigo cottons
Freistadt’s landmark tower
Visit to Kefermarkt’s parish church
The Danube Valley at Grein
Inner courtyard at Grein Castle
Historic theater in Grein
Reinildis van Ditzhuyzen (historian & writer), introduced us to recently discovered love letters from a private family archive in a Viennese house, saying that her book, 15 Love Letters from Lemberg. An Unexpected Detective & Life-story 1916-2016 is mirroring the Great War (1915-1916). The beautiful language of the time Hermann Lilienfeld addressed the letters to his beloved Hermine Rainer, a rich Viennese heiress, certainly was unusual for soldiers. Today we can also identify with his cosmopolitan life.
´You know, Hermine, I always and everywhere look for beauty. War is horrible, but even in the most gruelling circumstances, there are moods and moments full of beauty, that bring tears to my eyes and make me happy.´ Although the book is published in German, Ditzhuyzen presented it for us in English.
…..The book will reveal the secrets of these pictures, you want to buy it?
(Write to the author: reinildisditz@gmail.com)
English spoken was the guided tour through the FUNKHAUS of the ORF (transmission center of the Austrian public radio) for children of foreign diplomats. And they had great fun. FM4, THE radio station for foreigners in Austria, received the internationally mixed group of 12 children with open arms. Three boys had prepared a coolourful comment on Austrian soccer and broke the ice. In the end nearly every child present was speking into the microphones and registered. Who wants to listen? Shall we put it online?
Well, we’ll have the video online next time as this program will continue and we are planning more fun programs for diplomats’ families present in Vienna, especially for their children, says Aglaë Hagg, Coordinator Jeunesse WA
Studio FM4; “Good Morning Austria”
Lena esplains how to moderate a transmission and then: 123-go!
Close feeling with all machines in the Adventure Studio
Antonio & Pietro & Hawi comment on Austrian Soccer
They left as new friends – dating for September 18th!
In the center: Dr. Elisabeth Wolff and at her right Nadja Kayali, the lecturer
Last Wednesday, Nadja Kayali, musicologist, popular radio-broadcaster, much sought-after lecturer and a fascinating personality herself opened our ears and minds to specific „oriental“ sounds of music.
Fascinating how elements of Turkish, Persian and Arabic music and story-telling found their way right into the European classical compositions of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and others,
says Dr. Elisabeth Wolff, WA Coordinator for Music
