The Holy Trail of Composers

The trip to Northern Europe is full of opportunities to meet all your favorite composers you have known all your life. Just in Germany alone we can count 4 leading composers, Johannes Sebastian Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelsohn. This is excluding neighboring Austria, Czechia, Poland, and Hungary which account for many more.

This special area has some magical force that drew its culture and population to create such a vast output of classical repertoire it is here to stay and has been leading the world’s musical scene for centuries. Germany is a North European country that borders Poland to the East, Czech Republic to the Southeast, Austria to the South and Belgium to the West. It covers an area of 357,022 square kilometers and is home to more than 80 million people. No wonder so many composers were able to make their mark in a vast country as such.

In Poland the most famous composer that stands among the heroes of classical music is Fryderyk Chopin. Born near Warsaw, his house is used to this day to conduct concerts of his very well-known piano repertoire. Poland is also a large country that covers almost the size of Germany (312,696 square km) hosting half the population of Germany, 40 million people. Chopin’s work includes many solo piano pieces, waltzes or sonatas and some music for orchestra. No Pianist concert or encore is complete without a work of Chopin.

Czech Republic is a 78000 square kilometer land locked country which gave us famous composers Berdych Smetana, Leos Janacek, and Anton Dvorak. If you are a classical music enthusiast this is also a great place to visit and follow the trails of these great people. And even if it’s not your main course know that the capital city of Czech Republic, Prague, is the 5th most visited European capital. The wealth of musical culture of Czech Republic lies in the classical music tradition during all historical periods.

Another solo pianist that our adventures in Northern Europe will take us to is off course the one and only Franz Liszt from Hungary. A country that once was an empire gave the world this unique composer at the same time in the 19th century as the Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin. Hungary is a vast landlocked country covering 93030 square kilometers with a population of 10 million. As opposed to the short careers of many of the composers we will visit in this trip Liszt career span over 6 decades. He was a handsome healthy tall man with giant hands to handle the piano and his choice of chords.

We now reach two of Northern Europe’s most famous composers in Austria. Home to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert. Austria is a small landlocked country in the Eastern Alps Mountains. In a small town called Salzburg a musician father called Leopold taught his son from birth to write his fist partitures at age 4 already. With an output almost as big as his neighboring German composers he became one of the leading composers of all time if not number one. Mozart left behind over 600 symphonies, operas, chorales, chamber music pieces, piano sonatas, concertos, string quartets, masses, serenades, and many other works.

Let’s begin than. Berlin would be a great place to start our trip as most of Europe is accessible from that city for a reasonable price. In the morning take a 4 hour train to Leipzig, the city of Johann Sebastian Bach. If you require some adjustment or are coming from a far and staying in Berlin for a couple of days, be sure to catch the world-renowned Berliner Philharmonic playing a concert. Tickets can go from as cheap as 10 euros to 50 euros for the best sit in the house. The sound of the house of the philharmonic is like no other.

When in Leipzig we will start at Augustusplatz, the main and largest square in Leipzig. Marvel at the Opernhaus and Leipzig University buildings as we walk towards Saint Nicholas Church. In the 18th century, several works by Johann Sebastian Bach, who was the music director of Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche from 1723 to 1750, premiered here. The Organ in Saint Nicholas is the largest one in Saxony. We shall now visit St. Thomas Church, Bach served as the choirmaster at this church(to which his grave was moved in 1949) for the last 27 years of his life.

And if we are already in Leipzig celebrating Bach, a trip to Bach Museum is a necessity. This is an excellent museum with a focus on J.S.Bach. It contains information on his music and the Bach family. The museum has some excellent interactive exhibits also which allow you to hear a specific instrument in a Bach composition or compose your own music. Be sure to report to Instagram after visiting the Bach monument in Leipzig with a picture of the Bach Monument. To the ones who are heavy in Bachmania you can also visit the AltesBach Monument which is a monument to commemorate the older family members of the Bach family.

Our next hero of classical music is the one and only Ludwig Van Beethoven. We will take a 5 hour train ride to his birth place Bonn to follow in the footsteps of this remarkable achiever. Born in December 1770, LVB spent the first 22 years of his life there. For our Instagram fans we have a statue in his honor built by the support of nonother then Franz Liszt and situated where we will arrive in Bonn, Munster Square.

Beethoven’s birthplace, originally built around 1700, has survived the ravages of time and is one of the few remaining old houses of Bonn. The small building with its pink baroque facade still stands at Bonngasse 20. Born in one of the attic rooms, Ludwig was named after his Dutch grandfather Ludwig van Beethoven, today it is a museum, the Beethoven-Haus Museum.

Now we shall arrive at St. Remigius Church , Bonn, where  Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized here on 17 December 1770. After making the pilgrimage here we shall go to the venue where young Beethoven played for Joseph Haydn, Redoute Palace. You are now where Princess Diana and the Shah of Persia visited and listened to works like Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”

Another favorite of our Beethoven are the Roisdorf healing water Fountain. To keep healthy Beethoven and his family took the waters on occasion. The Roisdorf mineral fountain not only offers excellent mineral water, but also a nice little park with a pond and pavilion, which is popular with visitors.

We shall end our footsteps following Beethoven’s tour in Drachenfels(Dragon’s rock). From here, there’s an enthralling view of the mythical hills and the panorama across the Eifel and Westerwald mountains. This craggy rock crowned with the romantic ruins of a 12th-century castle has long been tied to myth and has inspired artists and writers including Lord Byron and Heinrich Heine, as well as Beethoven.

Next on our list of discoveries of great composers of Northern Europe is Robert Schumann. We shall head back to Zwickau via Leipzig from Bonn and discover the birthplace of Schumann. We shall start in Zwickau at the Robert Schumann haus. From here we shall visit Hotel „Zur grünen Tanne“. Robert Schumann came here both as a high school student and on his later visits to Zwickau and attended concerts by the Casino Society. On December 6, 1835, Clara Wieck gave a concert in the “Green Tanne Casino Hall”. Today a commemorative plaque commemorates this performance.

Now we shall head to „Grünhainer Kapelle“ und Lyzeum. The most famous student at the Lyceum from 1820 to 1828 was Robert Schumann. He finished with "omnio digitus", which means something like "limited praise for good systems". After we will head off to the monument after Schumann Robert-Schumann-Denkmal, and then to the approximate place which was destroyed in WWII of where Schumann grew up and wrote his first poems Schumanns Jugendhaus. To end we shall visit the convervatorium named after him Robert-Schumann-Konservatorium.

Our next destination is Prague, the Czech capital where we will meet and mingle where composers Smetana and Dvorak used to. Take a break at Smetana’s Municipal house and listen to a concert. Almost every day there are performances. Go to the Rudolfinom to see the Czech philharmonic conduct music by these famous composers and bask in the glorious of Dvorak Hall, named after the composer.

Take a personal and up-close tour with Dvorak when you can visit his largest home in Prague and the apartments, he used to live in. The composer’s largest home in Prague is now a museum. In it you can see his piano, ceremonial robes from his honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge, writing desk, photographs, documents, and more.

If you really wish to pay respect to these wondeful composers and other Czech prominent figures you can take the subway to Dvořák’s Grave. In Vysehrad Castle (the old castle), there is a cemetery with the graves of Dvořák and Smetana. This ancient castle is not as frequently visited as Prague Castle but is worth a visit.

 From Prague we shall now head down to Salzburg. In Salzburg, we visit Mozart’s childhood homes and stroll on the streets where the talented youngster grew up. Visiting the Birth House Museum, We will stand in the room where Mozart was born on January 27, 1756. A true homage to a great composer. There is also information about Opera’s and certain works by Wolfgang to be discovered here. Mozart’s Apartment Museum in Salzburg Is where he lived as a teenager and also worth a visit. You will find 4 keyboards there and a movie about his teenage years.

For the Instagram lovers, we shall now see the monument of Mozart erected in 1844. Nearby, is the Salzburg Cathedral, where Mozart was baptized. St Peters Church is where the Mass in C Minor was first played in 1783. Finally we will enjoy coffee and some delicious cakes and pastries In the café Tomaselli, mentioned in Mozart’s letters as a place he used to hang out it.

After visiting the great Mozart we shall continue to Vienna, where a prominent composer named Franz Shubert was born. It is about a three-hour ride to the capital and one of the most exciting cities for classical music. Two museum’s capture the life of Shubert. The Birth House Museum, Schubert was born in the little kitchen (left) in a house on Nussdorferstrasse, and Apartment museum where Shubert died. In the first we can see his piano, and in the latter some extremely touching letters.

After his death, Schubert was buried next to Beethoven in what is today called “Schubert Park”, just down Währingerstrasse from the Volksoper. In the 1880’s, the remains of both composers were moved to the newly opened Central Cemetery. Schubert’s final resting place is in the section of the cemetery dedicated to the great composers: Beethoven, J. Strauss, Brahms, and others. His tomb was designed by Theophil Hansen, the architect who designed the Musikverein and Parliament.

For our Instagram enthusiasts, be sure to visit Schubert Statue in Stadtpark. One of the nicer statues of the composer is in Vienna’s Stadt Park, not too far from the famous golden statue of Johann Strauss, Jr., the “Waltz King”.

And to finish with this wonderful composer we will finish with the Unfinished Symphony. The Apartment where Schubert wrote the “Unfinished” Symphony. Schubert lived here in 1823 and 1824. The plaque in front of the building is one of the few images of Schubert without glasses. Next door was the long-time home of Antonio Salieri.

Our last to final stop will be Franz Liszt’s Hungary and city of Budapest. Franz Liszt was a virtuoso pianist and composer who spent much of his life in Budapest. The Liszt Museuam, near the Opera house, was the nicest of Liszt’s homes. You can find furniture, awards, pianos, and even a small Bosendofer top drawer keyboard that was given to him by the Bosendorfer.

Statues of Liszt are to be found in the Opera house. And not far we can find another museum that represents a lot of the composer’s life and output, the Museum of Musical History. Liszt visited Vienna several times. During one of these visits, he stayed in the Schottenhof, marked by this plaque.

Finally for our last composer, we shall head back north to Warsaw. Polish French composer and pianist of the Romantic period, best known for his solo pieces for piano and his piano concerti. When Frédéric was eight months old, his father Nicholas became a French teacher at the Warsaw lyceum. Chopin himself attended the lyceum from 1823 to 1826. Today it doesn’t exist unfortunately.

A day tour visiting this wonderful composer can be described as such: Pick up from your hotel in Warsaw by a tour guide. Head 1 hour West of Warsaw to Żelazowa Wola village. Sightseeing of Chopin's Birth Place Museum. Return to Warsaw with the possibility of a lunch break. Marvel at the  Frederic's Chopin Museum in Ostrogskich Palace. For Instagram lovers Transfer to Royal Baths Park, photo session by Chopin's Monument. There is possibility to arrange a Chopin's music concert on request.