Glimpses of Austrian Culture by Ruth Paget

Glimpses of Austrian Culture by Ruth Paget 

When I was the vice president of the Young Executive Program of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris (France), I organized monthly networking cocktail parties for members as one of my duties. 

At one of these networking cocktails, I met Ms. S. who did public relations work for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. I immediately told her that I watched the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s Christmas concert with my French in-laws. 

“That’s a good tradition and an Austrian contribution to building European culture,” Ms. S. answered. 

That comment led to a discussion about all the Habsburg queens of France who had Austrian heritage such as: 

-Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV 

-Maria-Theresa of Spain, who was a Habsburg and wife of Louis XIV 

-The famous Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI 

“The Austrian daughters-in-law were not always popular,” Ms. S. noted. 

“The French like Austrian desserts, though,” I said. 

I took this opportunity to note that I had just gotten my first food article published in newspapers in Rhode Island and New Zealand about Catalan food for the upcoming Olympics in Barcelona. I asked Ms. S if there were Austrian food traditions I could write about. 

Ms. S. said that her favorite holiday was the Catholic celebration of Advent, the 24 days before Christmas, which is a time for reflection and simple, but good eating. 

During Advent, Austrians do “jause,” coffee breaks with pastries. The Austrians like “Kaffe mit schlag” – coffee with whipped cream on top and a slice of Linzertorte. Linz is a city in western Austria. A linzertorte is a wedge of jam pastry with a lattice-work pie crust topping. 

On Sundays during Advent, Austrians eat wiener schnitzel, a breaded and fried veal cutlet served with lemon. It is accompanies by sliced cucumber salad, potato salad, and French fries. 

I thanked Ms. S. for the information and introduced her to several Young Executive Program members who worked in media. I noted down what she said and added the notes to my “to-do” list at home. The to-do notes have survived several international moves. 

Finally, about 40 years later after this meeting, I am getting the notes written up in the versatile blog format. The food information is still relevant. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is still magnificent and easy to attend now thanks to online ticket ordering. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting the Alps and Mozart Sites in Salzburg (Austria) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Alps and Mozart Sites in Salzburg (Austria) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Heading into Austria from the Southern Bavarian region of Germany into the undulating Alpine foothills of the Austrian Tirol region makes for a pleasant afternoon drive.

As my husband and I passed over the Innsbrücke, the bridge of the Inn River, I noticed that the water beneath us was almost touching the bottom of the bridge. 

A little further inland, we passed the Űbersee (Super Lake). The water of the Űbersee was high up on its banks, but many people were grabbing the opportunity to go out in their sailboats.

This was the first time that I had visited the Alps, which make up most of the topography of Austria. I took multiple photographs of the soaring craggy Alps, but kept asking myself, “Where’s the snow on top of those mountains?” Alpine flowers grew above the tree line, but snow should have been where those flowers were.

When we arrived in downtown Salzburg, the water in the Salzach River was swelling up to almost churning with its rapid fire current. We enjoyed the sights as we drove along the Salzach River on Müllner Street to Old Town (Altstadt).

UNESCO has classified Old Town Salzburg as a World Heritage Site, leaving it crammed with tourists. The buildings along Müllner Hauptstraat had entrances that opened up not onto a courtyard of a single building as in Paris, but courtyards with many buildings and shops. These single entrance mini-towns were equipped to help Salzburg, a salt mining center, fend off invasion.

We parked the car by the courthouse and enjoyed walking to the Mozartplatz (Mozart Place) and listened to part of a free concert by a live orchestra of popular music. We ate lunch at a nice, outdoor café away from the hubbub, but close enough to hear the music; I ate a Greek salad and my husband had spaghetti alla carbonara.

We crossed the Nonntaler Brücke and walked along the Imbergstrasse, full of Baroque buildings. 

Austria shares a border with Italy. According to the Michelin Green Guide, the prince-archbishops of Salzburg “essentially dreamed of making [Salzburg] into a second Rome.” (p.57) The Austrians beat the Italians at the Baroque architecture game, because the painted limestone of Austria articulates architectural structure and details better than the polished yet mottled surface of marble used to construct many Italian buildings.

The Austrians used restraint in painting their buildings in pastel colors to accentuate an architrave here or an entire wall there, leaving white surfaces to bring out the straight lines of Doric columns, for example.

Another architectural triumph of the Austrians is to make architectural features protrude in relief as necessary to define symmetrical relationships between surfaces. You can look at the exterior of an Austrian Baroque building and almost know how the interior is designed. Finally, the pastel colors play off the soft hues of flowers in summer and glisten in the bright, snow-covered Alps in the winter.

While my husband walked on to the Mozart House, I sat by the Salzach River on a shaded bench and looked over at the Hohensalsburg Fortress and the Dom (Cathedral). I used to love walking around towns and cities, visiting every church that was open in my path. 

I have had an interest in religious iconography since I was nine when I started reading everything I could on Egypt; I wanted to be an archaeologist. Sculptures, in particular, can relate the hidden beauty of many of the world’s religions.

Mozart’s religious and secular music still beguiles us. Yet the architecture of Baroque Salzburg that Mozart grew up with is what influences Mozart’s music the most I think and makes it appealing to contemporary listeners.

Mozart’s music calms one down to listen to it, so that listeners can find the organization in it and focus. The symmetrical buildings of Baroque Salzburg with rooms defined and articulated on building exteriors by color and relief seem to have helped Mozart create equally mathematically satisfying music.

I wonder if Mozart did not compose music for his favorite buildings in Salzburg and Vienna.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Laurent Paget Photography

Laurent Paget Photography

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