This week’s photo challenge asks us to interpret “Masterpiece.”

Vienna is famous for its many masterpieces … Sacher Torte, the Spanish Riding School (you know me and horses), its many beautiful palaces and, of course, music.

Everywhere you walk sandwich boards are perched on sidewalks advertising nightly classical performances in concert halls and churches across the city. These concerts feature the music of Vienna’s (and other) great composers, including but not limited to Mozart, Bruckner, Schumann, Lehar, and Haydn.

Their musical masterworks live on and hover around my subconscious primarily because I was raised in a home resonating with classical music. My mother made her living on the international operatic stage, so naturally I was exposed to these and other musical masters on a continuous basis. Their (my “Uncles in Music” as I like to call them) influence helped to shape who I am today and continues do so as I evolve and embrace life as one growing into my self. For that I will always be grateful.  After all, I am a (master)work in progress. (Aren’t we all …  😉 … )

But that’s a story for another day …

Perhaps the golden boy of Vienna composers was Johann Strauss II ~ composer of the Blue Danube Waltz, among other instrumental gems, and my favourite operetta ~ Die Fledermaus.

A couple of years ago, while strolling through Vienna’s Stadtpark (which boasts a number of statues dedicated to Vienna’s masters of music) we ventured upon this incredible monument to Herr Strauss. At the time it was cordoned off for refurbishment. To get this shot I had to stand on a bench and peer over a solid barricade.

At the time I was disappointed by the obstruction. Still, as I ponder this image now I wonder if the artist applying gold leaf, surrounded by his tools and perched precariously on a ladder, had any notion at all that he might be engaged with a masterpiece of his own.

Regardless, it is a monument worthy of Vienna’s Master of the Waltz.

Thanks for visiting …

Dorothy 🙂

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Shout Outs

On Dragonfly Wings with Buttercup Tea

Artifacts and Fictions

Hamburg Und Mee(h)r

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©Dorothy Chiotti, Aimwell CreativeWorks 2013