Music and Munich

As soon as we’d been in Munich long enough to get our bearings, we noticed these posters everywhere: 

Supposedly your €15 ticket would get you access to 400 concerts in venues around the city. It seemed too good to be true, but we decided to give it a go.

There were three different routes you could follow, complete with shuttle bus stops, or you could make your own way to see whichever bands or types of music you wanted. 

We were lucky to have several venues in our own neighborhood, so we wandered from café to restaurant sampling bands doing covers from the 50s and 60s, the 90s, playing salsa, and singing chants to African drumming.

 It’s good to know Munich's musical legacy
for my generation of non-Germans doesn't
start and end with Milli Vanilli!

It was a fun night and an eye-opener to how much Munich loves music. Not surprisingly, music's prominence in Munich--like so many things--originated with the Wittelsbach family. 

The Wittelsbachs were important patrons of music, not just for its entertainment value, but because it added to their personal prestige and helped boost outsiders’ views on Munich.

It's hard to look at the city now and see it as the provincial back-water it was considered to be in its distant past. Particularly in light of some now-familiar names contributing to its reputation:

• Mozart wrote a piece for the palace orchestra, but was not offered the position as court composer, and moved on to Vienna.

• Richard Wagner was a favorite of Ludwig II. Four of Wagner's operas premiered in Munich.

• Richard Strauss, a Munich native, gave up philosophy and art studies to become a composer. He enjoyed a stint as musical director of the Munich Court Opera.

In terms of style, there’s quite a difference between what Munich residents experienced centuries ago, and what we experienced last month during the Long Night of Music.

My personal preferences, for example, are all over the map. I'm a fan of most popular music, select country artists, hard rock but not most metal, and love a good cheesy ballad.In terms of more "highbrow" musical entertainment, I also have my particular classical music likes and dislikes. 

So with my buffet style of music appreciation, I've been surprised to realize that I have not yet met an opera I didn’t like. To me, opera is the perfect blend of pomp, precision, and musical poetry. That's why I was intrigued to see an event on the Munich city calendar called Oper für alle. 

Opera for All begins each year with a free open-air concert on the plaza in front of the Nationaltheater, home to the Bavarian State Opera (founded in 1653). The event is part of an effort to inspire a love of the arts in everyone.

I attended the concert Saturday night, which began with the Bavarian youth symphony, followed by the state symphony and an accompanying singer. Listening to the music and trilling arias fill the air and echo off the historic buildings and cobblestone of the plaza was like traveling back in time.

So how do you follow up such a great experience? With an annual Opera Festival, which includes opera, concert, and ballet performances. This year the event will feature 17 operas in 6 weeks!

I've been scanning the schedule for possibilities, and may even be able to convince Larry to join me. With a mix of song and dance, both old and new, there should be something we both can appreciate.

From contemporary to canon and back again. Ah, the musical magic of Munich…