Zweisimmen, Paris, Hamburg, Maribor,

In a Paris Cafe

The landscape sketches and paintings done in August September as I train-tripped my way through Europe are now online.

Cafe La Cantine du Troquet

Zweisimmen to Gstaad by rail

 Zweisimmen is half an hour by rail from Gstaad and I took the train there yesterday. It is a very curvy scenic journey up and over the hill.

Salzburg Elevation  = 424 m (1,391 ft)
Bern Elevation  = 542 m (1,778 ft)
Zweisimmen Elevation =  947 m (3,107 ft)
Gstaad Elevation = 1,050 metres (3,445 feet)

Zweisimmen to Gstaad by rail.

Now I have finally visited Gstaad I realise how lucky I was deciding to stay in Zweisimmen instead of Gstaad. Firstly that extra train change after a long haul flight would have been one too many. I would not have enjoyed the scenic journey.  But secondly,  Gstaad is like a large upmarket mall and I found it similarly sterile. It might be upmarket but it is not relaxing ( well perhaps it is for people who love shopping.)

Pretty Gstaad

Visitors were a mixture of Swiss in hiking gear and internationals/locals shopping in the swanky shops. Middle Eastern folk were noticable by their presence, carrying large shopping bags.

Art ...

Art too

I visited two art galleries which were full of the type of art made in workshops according to an artist's directions.

In short, I found Gstaad tiring and alienating. Good for a concert perhaps, but not for a holiday.

Sebastian Knauer wows his Zweisimmen audience

I came to the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland to hear Jonas Kaufman sing but on the way I have discovered another fantastic musician, a pianist called Sebastian Knauer.

Zweisimmen Church

I bought my ticket to Knauer's concert (Tribute to Wilhelm Kempf) because it was on the day before the Kaufmann concert and would be held in Zweisimmen Church which is a couple of streets from my hotel.

Stumbling over something remarkable quite by accident is such a joy. I had no idea who Wilhelm Kempf was (so much in music passed me by during my scientist years) nor Sebastian Knauer but you only have to listen to Knauer play for a few minutes to realise that he is one of a kind and I was fortunate enough to hear him at practise at the church for a little while in the morning. His playing sent me into a different dimension and I immediately went off to find out more about both he and Kempf.

Split in pole holding up
The balcony

Zweisimmen church

They are both from Hamburg (I studied there and still love the place), Knauer was something of a child protegy and Wilhelm Kempf was a renowned interpreter of Beethoven. So my ears had not deceived me; this was something special.

I have a feeling that Knauer must have learned from Kempf because during his performance of Beethoven in the evening it felt as if he was channelling the composer. He took us by the hand and led us on an emotional journey and you could have sworn Beethoven was in the room. I suppose that is how Kempf must have played and I was reminded of a piano teacher I knew in Hamburg who traced his lineage directly back to Mozart through a series of teachers. That sort of pedigree does make a difference.

Sebastian Knauer has the build of a sportsman and his playing is muscular while at the same time delicate and nuanced.

At the concert in Zweisimmen Church he played mostly Beethoven for the first half then included several Schubert pieces in the second. Two hours of playing to an audience that was captivated from the first moment and which gave him a heartfelt standing ovation.  There were several piles of his CDs available to purchase and every one was sold. I think that is the first time I have seen that happen and the audience was not particularly large. I bought his Schubert compilation so, like many, I am taking a little bit of Knauer home with me.

Swinging to the Rinderberg, Zweisimmen

So what do you do when you find yourself staying in a small Swiss village in a hotel about 100m from the base station of a  gondola? Well if you are like me, you make an unscheduled trip to the building next door which, luckily for you, houses a bank. With cash in hand you can take a trip to the top most station, the Rinderberg, for your Wurstchen & Roestli lunch.

As I sat swinging in the small red cabin I remembered I am not much good at heights, but the door was securely fastened and there was no way to either fall out or turn back so I concentrated on the view instead. I had the cabin to myself but I could well imagine it full of well padded people with snow goggles and skis when the very green fields below would be white.

Up and up we swung, over fields of grazing cows, over the treetops and up and up until Zweisimmen was a tiny spot in the landscape below.

Zweisimmen

I was the lone guest in the Rinderberg Restaurant and as my Wurstchen was being cooked the young owner Jurgen told me his story.

He was from Düsseldorf and had worked all over the world in other people's restaurants but he really wanted his own place.

Now this was his, the Rinderberg (cattle mountain) Restaurant and although it was a difficult place to make a living he was doing okay.

Zweisimmen is just to the right of the pylon.

He ran events. Next weekend is an event for 17 year olds then the following event was for 70 year olds. He wanted everyone to come, no matter what their age and sees his job as "making them happy". He shouted me a drink as we sat and chatted.... Vodka and green 'Spritze' - now that's novelty with a sausage lunch!

Jurgen said he had just run a four day Techno festival which had been really successful. He'd got a police licence so when the lone farmer with a shed nearby complained to the police they just said 'Well he has a licence, there's nothing we can do'.

" And anyway," said Jurgen, "the cows came to watch and I they stayed. I think they really enjoyed it too."

He said that he was now getting calls from other venues asking how he managed to get a licence and how he organised the party because they wanted to put on something similar.

The party finished last Monday ("I did 60 straight hours behind the bar" ) and they were still cleaning up. They had already cleaned three times and would do a fourth clean tomorrow. He obviously fits well into Swiss society. (I watched the cleaner do my room out yesterday and marvelled at her thoroughness, speed and efficiency. She'd win a competition hands down.)

I will remember my ride up to the Rinderberg with pleasure and I think the Swiss are lucky to have such a committed restaurateur as Jurgen in their midst.

Zweisimmen

Zweisimmen is picturesque, even on a wet day, a perfect place to spend time recovering from a long haul flight.  

Everything is green, the wooden houses all have geranium filled window boxes and the vege patches in front gardens show how fertile the soil is. But it is cold, about 17C.  I see some locals still wearing T shirts which reminds me of Dunedin in New Zealand.

Gstaad, home of the Menuhin Festival

Where do you go if you want to hear tenor Jonas Kaufmann sing and you find all his opera performances are long since sold out? Well, if it's August, you go to Switzerland, to a tiny place called Gstaad, high up in the mountains.  The road/rail ends at Gstaad - it is as far as you can go before the rock face to the south cuts you off. Over the mountain is Italy.

Switzerland: Zweisimmen (red arrow left) and
Gstaad (red arrow right) and lots of ski-lifts

Gstaad seems an unlikely choice for a famous-tenor concert, particularly when you find Kaufmann is singing in a tent (yes really!), but then you discover this concert is part of the Menuhin Music Festival and that Yehudi Menuhin lived in Gstaad and it no longer seems so outlandish.

Festival Tent in Gstaad

I discovered this concert a few months ago when there were still tickets available and here I am, jetlagged but ready to listen.

I am not in Gstaad yet actually but in nearby  Zweisimmen. A bed in Gstaad costs CHF300 (AUD$412) - way too expensive for artists, or many people really.  There is a piano recital (also part of the Menuhin Festival) in the Zweisimmen church the night before Kaufmann sings, so it seemed an ideal place to stay. I did check the train timetables and yes, there is a late train back to Zweisimmen! I have since discovered that a shuttle bus services operates from Bern and Lausanne for the major concerts so perhaps even the Swiss find accommodation prices in Gstaad a little overwhelming.