Chopin in Vienna – Beneath the City, Above the Stars: Piano Concerto at the Crypt

About the Event

An extraordinary piano concerto by the virtuoso Viennese pianist Renate Hudler about longing, departure, and inner freedom.
Chopin's path led him to Vienna twice for short periods, but these months left a deep mark on his music. Between glamour and loneliness, between coffee houses and concert halls, a world of sound was formed here that still touches us today.
Full of homesickness and unable to return to Poland, which had been shaken by revolution, he spent Christmas alone in Vienna, filled with longing and emotions that are reflected in his mazurkas, in the Scherzo Op. 20 with a Polish Christmas carol, and in the moving Nocturne in C‐sharp minor.
Living near St. Peter's Church, Chopin encountered musical role models such as Johann Nepomuk Hummel, listened to the dance music of the time in Viennese cafés, and transformed it into his unmistakable musical language. This is how the sparkling Grande Valse brillante, Op. 18, was created in Vienna.
When orchestra rehearsals failed, Chopin improvised. The spirit of these improvisations lives on in the Fantaisie‐Impromptu, Op. 66, a musical stream of consciousness between virtuosity and introspection.
Jealousy, longing for love, and a passion for opera also accompanied him: after seeing Rossini's Otello, Chopin felt like Othello himself—a motif that Franz Liszt takes up in Venezia e Napoli – Canzone.
The crypt is pleasant in every season.