Tiny, wispy white feathers are everywhere on this Saturday afternoon in Lucerne, blowing across the sidewalks, floating on the water and flying through the air – thanks to the swan population that’s grooming itself after a hard day on the lake. White swans are a fixture in Swiss cities – the come with the river – but seemingly account for 10 percent of the population in Switzerland’s most Mediterranean city. The swans patrol the waters, looking this way and that while occasionally going bottom-up to grab something to eat. Out of the water, they resemble ostriches, but vertically challenged.
Arriving this morning in Zurich, I’ve spent the day being a jetlagged pain-in-the-ass tourist, wandering out in front of speeding vehicles, momentarily freaking out over a lost bank card (in fact, it was only hiding), trying to find the German words for “hair product” and struggling to parse the news that tomorrow’s destination – the mountaintop village where I’ll be hiking for a week – has suddenly become inaccessible by train due to a landslide. Tonight, I’ll commune with Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 conducted by Claudio Abbado at the Lucerne Festival, and then figure out what to do.
You know that you’re condemned to music when LP records find you. I was simply wandering along a side street when boxes and boxes of them appeared underneath a canopy for only 2 Swiss francs each. Could I not stop? Of course I couldn’t. “God, grant me the serenity to….” but wait a minute, I don’t like serenity (In fact, I bonded with my deceased mother in law over our mutual disdain for relaxation).
The lady in charge of the records tried to load me up with free discs – she can’t be Swiss – especially when she figured out that I want classical. “Take more…here’s some Schumann…he’s classical, isn’t he? Oh, you have that already? Well, here is Mozart. The Magic Flute. This is special. I know it is. You must take it. It will bring you good luck.”
I won’t walk away from good luck. So here’s what I’ll be schlepping around Europe for the next three weeks:
Mozart: The Magic Flute, excerpts conducted by Karl Bohm with Hilde Guden, Walter Berry and Wilma Lipp.
Mozart: Marriage of Figaro in German, with Maria Stader as Cherubino, Elfride Trotschel as Susanna and Josef Grendl as Figaro, no conductor listed.
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 with Emil Gilels playing live at the Moscow Conservatory, 1961. No conductor listed.
Verdi: Rigoletto in German, with Walter Berry singing the title role.
Brahms Violin Sonata No. 1 and Grieg Violin Sonata No. 3 with Josef Suk and Josef Hala.
Mozart: Mass in C minor with Edith Mathis, conducted by Wolfgang Gonnenwein. European Columbia with a cream, gold and red label (collectors will know what that means).