Karl Böhm lived here!!

[Belle]

I'm having a ball because Google maps is available on the streets of Vienna now for the first time. I've located a house occupied by the great conductor in Grinzing which I vividly remembered from my last visit there. How I'd love to live there in that house, in that suburb:

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@48.2572 ... 312!8i6656

[maestrob]

I'm having a ball because Google maps is available on the streets of Vienna now for the first time. I've located a house occupied by the great conductor in Grinzing which I vividly remembered from my last visit there. How I'd love to live there in that house, in that suburb:

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@48.2572 ... 312!8i6656

Lovely, and well-deserved!

[Lance]

What a lovely place. I'd love to live there. I wonder if it is an apartment building or whether the whole house was his living quarters. When I was in Vienna, I don't remember seeing that place.

[Belle]

What a lovely place. I'd love to live there. I wonder if it is an apartment building or whether the whole house was his living quarters. When I was in Vienna, I don't remember seeing that place.

It's in Grinzing and you get the 38 Tram from the Schottentor 'interchange' which finds you terminating at the foothills of the vineyards amongst some of the most beautiful homes in Vienna. The apartment was one of several in that 'house', which was also the home of other famous people (plaque on right hand side) whose names I didn't recognize. We stumbled upon the house during a walk and I easily found it again yesterday on Google maps. It identified the years he lived there on that plaque but the image is too indistinct on Google and I can't remember them. All I know is that it's a comparatively considerable distance from inner Vienna. I said to my husband that if we ever won the lottery I'd head to Grinzing in Vienna to live out my days. It would be my idea of heaven - which is actually the name of the street; Himmelstrasse!!!

[barney]

Yes stunning. Are those doors at the bottom left garage doors? Unusually nice, if so.

What does Brian know that we don't when he says it's well-deserved? Not arguing, just wondering... Because in my experience we don't usually get what we deserve, and I'm very lucky that this is the case!

[Belle]

Yes stunning. Are those doors at the bottom left garage doors? Unusually nice, if so.

What does Brian know that we don't when he says it's well-deserved? Not arguing, just wondering... Because in my experience we don't usually get what we deserve, and I'm very lucky that this is the case!

Yes, I wondered what he meant too.

Meanwhile, are we getting what we deserve in politics right now in Australia? I have a son caught right in the middle of that crucible in his role as a very senior political staffer to a high-ranking politician who must have significant indigestion right now. I've just sent him an email hoping he can deal with the stress - together with some useful tips about what is really generating our ongoing political crises; the politics of climate change. It will continue, election loss or not. My daughter-in-law's boss has just resigned and she's not sure whether she has a job to go to today!! I guess this is precisely why they both get the big bucks; here one minute, gone the next.

[maestrob]

"Well-deserved" simply means that Karl Bohm was a great musician who led many great performances and has mostly been forgotten today. He earned his place in musical history, and a fine place to live as well! His Flying Dutchman on DGG remains my go to recording of the work, just as an example. Incidentally, he led 262 performances at the MET during the 1960's. Although he continued his career in Dresden, Salzburg & Vienna during the Nazi years, he led premieres of, IIRC 3 Strauss operas, and was successfully de-Nazified after the war. Not as controversial as Furtwangler, Bohm was especially well-thought of in Mozart & Wagner.

[barney]

I gather Bohm may have had more Nazi inclinations than Furtwangler, but I have only read loosely around the topic, and don't really want to blacken his name. I treasure many of his recordings.
Sue, what is the story with your children today, now that things have settled slightly? I hope they are relieved? I have to say I think Morrison is a much better result for the Liberals - Dutton would have led them into the wilderness because at heart Australians are centrists who do not like political extremes of any sort.

[Belle]

I gather Bohm may have had more Nazi inclinations than Furtwangler, but I have only read loosely around the topic, and don't really want to blacken his name. I treasure many of his recordings.
Sue, what is the story with your children today, now that things have settled slightly? I hope they are relieved? I have to say I think Morrison is a much better result for the Liberals - Dutton would have led them into the wilderness because at heart Australians are centrists who do not like political extremes of any sort.

It's been a day of high excitement here; phone calls and sms coming in all day to us as my son's boss promoted to PM. My son is deeply private and discreet and would hit the roof if he knew I had written even this so I'll leave it there. His wife will remain in politics too.

[barney]

Congratulations.

[John F]

I gather Bohm may have had more Nazi inclinations than Furtwangler

For sure - during the Nazi era he signed at least some of his letters with "Heil Hitler!" Furtwängler never did. In his memoirs he claims to have been nonpolitical, but in this and other matters he's not to be trusted. Apparently he did no actual harm, he merely exploited the absence of his betters (Jews and anti-Nazis) to the hilt, and after a 2-year ban for denazification he resumed his career as if nothing had happened. I have no serious problem with that, and most people are unaware of it anyway.

[maestrob]

Congratulations.

Ditto!

[Belle]

Thank you both! A huge task for the PM in a divided party and nation; my son with 18 plus hour days and we'll hardly ever see him from now on - even less than when his boss was Treasurer. I felt very proud seeing him sitting behind the official party at the swearing in ceremony yesterday with the Governor General.

There's a bit of publicity about my son and his wife in the national papers, including their wedding picture. He will be absolutely cringing!!!