Well, Slovenia is a picturesque pocket handkerchief sized country not much larger than Wales and far smaller than my home New England region of Australia. We spent the day on the hoof, walking around this small (300,000 population) city first with a tour guide (very useful) and then alone. It's easy to navigate and pedestrian friendly. There are lots of lovely Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings which survived Tito and the communists; many historic churches; lots of pavement cafes and restaurants; several interesting squares; and - in the middle of it all - Ljubljana Castle atop an eminently defensible hill adjacent to the Ljubljana River. The hill has been occupied a long time, but Slovenia has rarely been indpendent. Long part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it has had only brief independence in the last century.
This evening, after dining at a Slovene Restaurant, we headed off to an unusual concert at the beautiful Slovenian Philharmonic Hall. Most people are familiar with name Gustav Mahler, one of the 19th century's most prominent composers. He lived in Ljubljana for a while and I guess the Slovenes like to claim as one of their own. Anyway, we had a Mahler concert, but an unusual one. To start with there was a performance of his piano quartet, whose existence was unknown to me prior to today. It was a fine work. Then there were four songs by his wife Alma Mahler, again unkown to me, though slight works. The second half of the concert contained two works: a famous Strauss waltz and some of Gustav's songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. However, the waltz was arranged by Arnold Schonberg for a crazy collection of instruments: piano, string quartet, and harmonium. Then the programmers decided to intersperse the Mahler songs with parts of the Waltz to create a 'new' work whose only coherence was common epoch of the work. Oh well! It was enjoyable.
By the way, do you like this cute building opposite our own Art Nouveau hotel?
AS
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