A City of Music

Never have I visited a city where music is so much a part of the everyday. Both in concert and improvisational, you can’t wander too far in Warsaw without hearing piano concertos, violin solos, or melodious ensembles. Even Warsaw’s airport pays tribute to this fact, having been named for its famed composer Frederic Chopin.

Taking the Royal Walk along Krakowskie Przedmieście shoves you right into the musical world of Warsaw. Benches inscribed with tidbits about Chopin’s life play recorded piano music upon prompting. Chopin even left a tidbit of himself on the Royal Walk – his heart is in the left-side pillar of Holy Cross Church under the biblical inscription "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." At the end of the Royal Walk you’ll find the home of probably the most ornate (and ostentatious) organ you’ve ever seen. Dominating the choir coral at the back of St. Anne’s Cathedral is a gilded silver and gold organ (the picture, compliments of nzorgan.com, just does not do it justice). Visit St. Anne’s for Mass and you’ll be pleasantly rewarded with organ and solo tenor duets throughout the service.

The Royal Castle also celebrates the city’s love of the classical by frequently offering chamber music concerts within its royal walls. The palace’s Great Assembly Hall instantly transports you to a time when composers were like gods, white wigs were the fashion, and the luxuries of the rich were celebrated without reserve. Concertgoers are seated in velvet cushioned chairs surrounded by gold trimmed mirrors and marble columns. Twenty gilt bronze scones strategically line the walls between mirrors and crystal chandeliers delicately light the chamber. With seating for just a small crowd, it shows the audience how chamber music gets its name. Despite the room's "large" name, listeners sit in close quarters with room for just a couple hundred. The acoustics of the room, assisted by its small size, delicately swirls the music of small ensembles above, around, and between listeners as it is isolated, blended, and resolved. Listening to chamber music in situ is an experience that truly can't be replicated.

But music isn't just isolated in concert halls and royal palaces. Just take a walk around the Old Town and you'll see what I mean. Out of a second story balcony, a woman hangs her laundry as recorded orchestra music floats out from French doors. Music students lay violin cases street-side while playing Vivaldi’s Spring in exchange for tips. And out of a basement window, bassoon and trumpet warm up chromatically while the strings of a violin whine as they are tuned.

For the many tourists and locals, music is what makes the town. But perhaps it is possible to have too much of a good thing: