Don Quijote de Viena
Wien, 8. Bezirk (the art of very historic streets and palace buildings in the suburbs of Vienna) - Auerspergstraße/Lerchenfelder Straße (Palais Auersperg)
The Rosenkavalier (Knight of the Rose) Palais
It stands, as can hardly be expected otherwise, in Vienna, and it is called - just since October 8th, 1777: Palais Auersperg. On that memorable day it was purchased by Prince Johann Adam Auersperg, which had been built around 50 years earlier by the architect Giovanni Christiano Neupauer according to the plans of the famous Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. The builder was a certain Hieronymus Capece de Rofrano and so we are right in Rosenkavalier! Octavian de Rofrano, the gentleman at the court of the great Empress Maria Theresa, the gallant lover with the silver Rose, he really had existed! Because Hugo von Hofmannsthal actually for his opera libretto a Rofrano as a model for Oktavian had bestirred only this one was called Peter and he was the son of that Jerome, who for the property - an old brick factory was standing on it - non-less than 28,000 florins on the table of the house had pinged. He could afford it because he held the office of Postmaster-General of the Habsburg territories in Italy - and in those days there was no deficit with the post office.
The money played no role in this house - even more but the music: but it is the palace itself, in the words of one of its famous visitors "One of the most beautiful chords in the symphony Vienna". If one still adds that concerning this visitor it was no other than the great Robert Stolz, then it must be admitted that this judgment comes from a qualified source. Music also always has been the invisible center of the palace, long before even Richard Strauss wrote the opera, whose title character is a Rofrano. For example, after 1760 when the Field Marshal Friedrich Wilhelm von Sachsen Hildburghausen moved here as a tenant. This subtle and tasteful music connoisseur and music lover committed as head of his famous house concerts none other than Christoph Willibald Gluck. That was certainly a highlight of the musical history of the palace but not the only one. We know the date of another apogee of this kind, namely the March of the year 1786. At this time here takes place a private performance of the opera "Idomeneo". The ensemble is composed solely of members of the great Viennese society, there appear names like Baron Polini and Count Hatzfeld. Mozart, who revised the vocal parts to "suit the vocal chords" of his noble performers, composed a special "scena con rondo" with violin solo for this occasion. Yet another personality of the Austrian nobility participated in this house at an amateur performance as a performer, the Crown Prince Rudolf, four years before his tragic end. At that time the palace had long been in the possession of Prince Auersperg, whose name it still bears today. And not only the building but also the street is called Auerspergstrasse. This in honor of a Prince Adolf from this dynasty, not less than eight years being Prime Minister of Austria. Under the Auersperg the palais became a center of social life, to a venue of glittering parties and gala evenings. So, for example, there took place the wedding of a granddaughter of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden with King Albert of Saxony. Or three years later a dance evening in October 1856, where the then 26-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabeth and all members of the imperial family attended.
A dazzling chapter of Austrian history is reflected in the history of the Palais Auersperg. But when the brilliance of that time came to an end forever, the end of the novel of that palace had not yet been written. The equally intimate and proud house initially, however, only accommodated the Bundesdenkmalamt (National Heritage Agency) and seemed such to forget its great social and political past modestly and without attracting attention. That this subsequently was not the case shows a simple plaque on the main front. It says: "In 1945 gathered in this house Austrian patriots, prevented the destruction of Vienna, laid the foundation for a free Austria in memory of the victims, the Austrian resistance movement". This succinct report is nothing to add. Perhaps only that under these patriots known names are to be found such as the later Chancellor Leopold Figl and the ones of the later to become Federal Presidents Theodor Körner and Dr. Adolf Schärf. Thus, the wide arc spans from the Postmaster General Rofrano up to the most important politicians of the present time and the number of the prominent guests continues, no matter how the times and forms of government may have changed.
And where the Wiener settles delightfully quietly, he also for his ear wants his pleasure and so the intimate Auersperg concerts - as ever - today, once again, count among the musical tidbits. Where, however, the ear indulges itself, the eye must not be neglected. In order that no lack should occure in this regard, since generations artists have made provisions. Whether it's the magnificent building itself, at the same time solid and graceful, or the lovely park with its huge old trees in whose shade the Empress Maria Theresa sat or the elegant library, the preciously paneled loggia or the conservatory, Walter Slezak referred to it as "Schönbrunn in small film format" - everywhere reigns those well-kept, quiet serene harmony that you can not produce, that needs to grow in long years by itself, just like the house has grown, built on an old brick factory on the outskirts of the city and today belonging to the lively centerpiece of this city where still society, art and politics are giving each other their fertile rendezvous.
Wien, 8. Bezirk (the art of very historic streets and palace buildings in the suburbs of Vienna) - Auerspergstraße/Lerchenfelder Straße (Palais Auersperg)
The Rosenkavalier (Knight of the Rose) Palais
It stands, as can hardly be expected otherwise, in Vienna, and it is called - just since October 8th, 1777: Palais Auersperg. On that memorable day it was purchased by Prince Johann Adam Auersperg, which had been built around 50 years earlier by the architect Giovanni Christiano Neupauer according to the plans of the famous Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. The builder was a certain Hieronymus Capece de Rofrano and so we are right in Rosenkavalier! Octavian de Rofrano, the gentleman at the court of the great Empress Maria Theresa, the gallant lover with the silver Rose, he really had existed! Because Hugo von Hofmannsthal actually for his opera libretto a Rofrano as a model for Oktavian had bestirred only this one was called Peter and he was the son of that Jerome, who for the property - an old brick factory was standing on it - non-less than 28,000 florins on the table of the house had pinged. He could afford it because he held the office of Postmaster-General of the Habsburg territories in Italy - and in those days there was no deficit with the post office.
The money played no role in this house - even more but the music: but it is the palace itself, in the words of one of its famous visitors "One of the most beautiful chords in the symphony Vienna". If one still adds that concerning this visitor it was no other than the great Robert Stolz, then it must be admitted that this judgment comes from a qualified source. Music also always has been the invisible center of the palace, long before even Richard Strauss wrote the opera, whose title character is a Rofrano. For example, after 1760 when the Field Marshal Friedrich Wilhelm von Sachsen Hildburghausen moved here as a tenant. This subtle and tasteful music connoisseur and music lover committed as head of his famous house concerts none other than Christoph Willibald Gluck. That was certainly a highlight of the musical history of the palace but not the only one. We know the date of another apogee of this kind, namely the March of the year 1786. At this time here takes place a private performance of the opera "Idomeneo". The ensemble is composed solely of members of the great Viennese society, there appear names like Baron Polini and Count Hatzfeld. Mozart, who revised the vocal parts to "suit the vocal chords" of his noble performers, composed a special "scena con rondo" with violin solo for this occasion. Yet another personality of the Austrian nobility participated in this house at an amateur performance as a performer, the Crown Prince Rudolf, four years before his tragic end. At that time the palace had long been in the possession of Prince Auersperg, whose name it still bears today. And not only the building but also the street is called Auerspergstrasse. This in honor of a Prince Adolf from this dynasty, not less than eight years being Prime Minister of Austria. Under the Auersperg the palais became a center of social life, to a venue of glittering parties and gala evenings. So, for example, there took place the wedding of a granddaughter of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden with King Albert of Saxony. Or three years later a dance evening in October 1856, where the then 26-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabeth and all members of the imperial family attended.
A dazzling chapter of Austrian history is reflected in the history of the Palais Auersperg. But when the brilliance of that time came to an end forever, the end of the novel of that palace had not yet been written. The equally intimate and proud house initially, however, only accommodated the Bundesdenkmalamt (National Heritage Agency) and seemed such to forget its great social and political past modestly and without attracting attention. That this subsequently was not the case shows a simple plaque on the main front. It says: "In 1945 gathered in this house Austrian patriots, prevented the destruction of Vienna, laid the foundation for a free Austria in memory of the victims, the Austrian resistance movement". This succinct report is nothing to add. Perhaps only that under these patriots known names are to be found such as the later Chancellor Leopold Figl and the ones of the later to become Federal Presidents Theodor Körner and Dr. Adolf Schärf. Thus, the wide arc spans from the Postmaster General Rofrano up to the most important politicians of the present time and the number of the prominent guests continues, no matter how the times and forms of government may have changed.
And where the Wiener settles delightfully quietly, he also for his ear wants his pleasure and so the intimate Auersperg concerts - as ever - today, once again, count among the musical tidbits. Where, however, the ear indulges itself, the eye must not be neglected. In order that no lack should occure in this regard, since generations artists have made provisions. Whether it's the magnificent building itself, at the same time solid and graceful, or the lovely park with its huge old trees in whose shade the Empress Maria Theresa sat or the elegant library, the preciously paneled loggia or the conservatory, Walter Slezak referred to it as "Schönbrunn in small film format" - everywhere reigns those well-kept, quiet serene harmony that you can not produce, that needs to grow in long years by itself, just like the house has grown, built on an old brick factory on the outskirts of the city and today belonging to the lively centerpiece of this city where still society, art and politics are giving each other their fertile rendezvous.