I've been listening to a lot of Mendelssohn lately. I swear this has nothing to do with my weekly brunch/canasta game with my friends; I'm obsessed with his Hebrides Overture. It's just SO good.
All of this leads me, three years after I first learned it, to verify my favourite piece of random Prague information.
My very favourite Prague story is a tidbit I picked up from one of my students. We'd been talking either about classical music in general or Prague's symphony hall, the Rudolfinum, specifically, as we were out wandering around that general vicinity one spring afternoon. We spent a good number of our lessons wandering around different parts of the city, which was fantastic (probably more for me than for him).
The roof of the Rudolfinum is lined with the busts of famous composers and during the second World War Hitler ordered the bust of Felix Mendelssohn removed. Because Mendelssohn was a Jew. The problem here is that none of the busts are labelled and the Czechs had no idea which one was Mendelssohn, so they decided to remove the bust with the most prominent nose. Which turned out to be Hitler's favourite, Richard Wagner.*
I find that story hilarious.
*In general, I love Wagner. He wrote one of my favourite pieces of music of all time (Siegfried's Funeral March) among many other excellent pieces of music.
All of this leads me, three years after I first learned it, to verify my favourite piece of random Prague information.
My very favourite Prague story is a tidbit I picked up from one of my students. We'd been talking either about classical music in general or Prague's symphony hall, the Rudolfinum, specifically, as we were out wandering around that general vicinity one spring afternoon. We spent a good number of our lessons wandering around different parts of the city, which was fantastic (probably more for me than for him).
The roof of the Rudolfinum is lined with the busts of famous composers and during the second World War Hitler ordered the bust of Felix Mendelssohn removed. Because Mendelssohn was a Jew. The problem here is that none of the busts are labelled and the Czechs had no idea which one was Mendelssohn, so they decided to remove the bust with the most prominent nose. Which turned out to be Hitler's favourite, Richard Wagner.*
I find that story hilarious.
*In general, I love Wagner. He wrote one of my favourite pieces of music of all time (Siegfried's Funeral March) among many other excellent pieces of music.
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