Sounds and tastes of Vienna: Austrian Culture Days return to Tel Aviv

In the early days of the state, and the decade and a half or so before its creation, thousands of German and Austrian Jews made aliyah, bringing with them their hefty cultural baggage.

And, so the incipient country was introduced to such time-honored Germanic customs as Schlafstunde – the inviolable daily siesta strictly observed between the hours of 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. – languid and lengthy social interactions at cafés over coffee and cake, and enjoying the sounds of the “heim” (erstwhile homeland) the German-speaking new olim heard on the radio, or on LPs they may manage to schlep over here with other essentials.

Mika Cohen gets that, and connects strongly with that side of the cultural tracks.

“Viennese music, in principle, is the basis for most of the operas around in the world today. There were all those great musicians who worked in Vienna,” she states.

That’s quite an assertion, and the 22-year-old soprano singer backs that up with her own personal experience of the oeuvre that comes out of the Austrian capital. “As soon as I encountered the repertoire, the operettas and Viennese music, I said wow, what fun!”

Cohen’s enjoyment of that extensive body of work should be in full view, and earshot, when she performs in the forthcoming installment of Austrian Culture Days at the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv on November 22 (11 a.m.). The musical event is part of the Wien-Tel Aviv venture established by Judith Weinmann-Stern, who divides her time between homes in Vienna and Netanya.

This is the eighth edition of the cultural initiative, which aims to offer Israelis with Viennese roots, and others, what Weinmann-Stern charmingly calls “an operetta morning with music and familiar sounds from your own homeland.” Naturally, there are not many survivors of the pre-Holocaust Viennese Jewish community around these days.

However, it so happens that quite a few of the second, third and fourth generations continue to feed off their familial heritage. “We’ve never had such a big audience like this time,” enthuses Weinmann-Stern.

Austrian Culture Days

It seems Austrian Culture Days is just the requisite spoonful of musical medicine for these times. “Four generations of old and new Austrians asked for tickets in these hard and sad days,” she adds.

“It is such an amazing repertoire,” Cohen maintains. “It is impossible to explain it. There is the delicacy and the beauty of the music, together with the laughter and the playfulness, everything together.”

Cohen’s partners in entertaining arms on Friday include Israeli tenor Ron Zaika, with whom she will share merry and soulful duets, with Austrian-Israeli pianist Lior Kretzer – an Austrian Culture Days fixture – providing instrumental accompaniment. “We will perform pieces from all areas of Viennese music. From operettas to folk songs, and waltzes and duets, with Ron. And Lior plays so beautifully.”

For obvious reasons, Weinmann-Stern has had to make do with a pared-down edition of the festival due to the difficulty of coaxing foreign artists over here. Still, the one-dayer will not lack quality musical content or positive intent. The event banner, Im Prater bluh’n wieder die Baume – In the Prater the trees are blooming again – referencing the expansive Prater park by the banks of the Danube in Vienna’s Second District, gives that game away.

COHEN SPENT last August in Vienna performing in the Vienna Opera Academy program, including the role of Despina in Mozart’s opera buffa Cosi van tutte, contributing to concerts at the famed Musikverein (Vienna Music Society) and Mozarthaus.

The young Israeli soprano has clearly earned her operatic spurs and is gradually strengthening her ties with the German-language vocal oeuvre, which, in fact, feeds into her own backdrop. “My grandfather came from Poland, but he was a German-speaker, and I remember him speaking in German, at home, with his friends. I feel at home with the language, and I am studying it.”

That, Cohen feels, is integral to doing a good job as a vocalist with Viennese and other songs. “I have had the honor of singing in various languages. My teachers at university have also told me that I first need to understand the text. If I don’t know the content of what I am singing, I will never understand the song or the music. Music and text is an amazing combination. If you understand the lyrics, you can understand the music, and vice versa.”

That is doubly true when your listeners are well versed in the source material and culture. This will be Cohen’s third appearance at the Tel Aviv event, and she has witnessed evidence of that fact on the ground firsthand. “This is music that penetrates the soul,” she bubbles. “You see that at the concerts. Last year the audience sang the songs along with me. They know all the songs – the people who were born there, and the second and third generations. The music starts and they all sigh with nostalgic joy.”

The sense of the Viennese zeitgeist is enhanced by the traditional Viennese Café, with apple strudel and other delicacies served to the physically and emotionally hungry patrons.

“People come up to me after the concert, at the café, and tell me how much they enjoy the music and how it reminds them of their beloved Vienna,” says Cohen.

You can’t beat a delightful drop of escapism.

For tickets and more information, (054) 622-1604 and Judith.weinmann@wien-telaviv.com