Music as the Ultimate Currency of Cultural Exchange
Lang Lang’s performance at a garden party in Vienna in May 2026 brought back a few old music stories. I want to share some of them here.
Music has long seemed to me a particularly effective currency of cultural exchange. A concert can bring people together before they have found much to say to one another. That has been my experience, both as a listener and through cultural projects. [1]
Lang Lang in Vienna
I was invited again to the garden party of the Chinese ambassador, Qi Mei, an occasion I always look forward to. In earlier years, the guest list was quite small and seemed to consist mainly of people from politics and business. I imagine my own repeated invitations have something to do with the cultural projects I helped initiate and organise over the years. It is nice to feel that these have not been forgotten. [2]
Chinese students studying music in Vienna have usually provided the music, always to my pleasure. This time there was an additional guest: Lang Lang (郎朗). Rudolf Buchbinder was there too, whose recordings have given me pleasure for decades. Hearing Lang Lang at such close quarters brought back memories of very different musical encounters.
Early Observations
During my early days in Vienna, I constantly noticed Japanese, and later South Korean, students walking around with violin or cello cases. I remember a major misconception I had back then: I assumed Asian musicians could never truly understand or interpret the music of Mozart or Schubert deeply enough, simply because it is so uniquely rooted in Vienna and its culture. What a mistake. Today, Dame Mitsuko Uchida is one of my absolute favorite interpreters of Mozart and Schubert. And I am equally captivated by the virtuosity of Lang Lang, who continues to bring fresh energy to classical music.
I left my parents’ home at fifteen and a half and tried to stand on my own feet, refusing almost any support. My musical world in those years lay somewhere between Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. And then came Viktring. [3]
The Viktring Music Forum
Friedrich Gulda brought his music forum to Viktring in 1972. For me, those early years, especially 1972 and 1973, were extraordinary. I associate them with Ornette Coleman, Dollar Brand—later known as Abdullah Ibrahim—Charlie Haden, Don Cherry and Gulda himself. [4]
A Morning Jog with Don Cherry
Don Cherry, one of the most significant jazz icons of his era (younger generations probably know his daughter, Neneh Cherry), was one of the most impressive musicians at the festival. On the morning of his performance, coincidence had it that Don Cherry and I went for a jog together. It was a beautiful summer morning, running along a great path through the woods. We pushed ourselves hard. As we finished our loop, we walked the final stretch.
Right next to the path was a stream. Hot and sweaty from the run, we stripped off our clothes and jumped into the cool water to refresh ourselves.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a policeman appeared on the bank—someone had probably tipped him off that there was “long-haired rabble” hanging around the area. He started lecturing us about “causing a public nuisance by skinny-dipping” and demanded a 25-schilling fine. My memory is a bit hazy, but I think I let Don do the talking. Since he spoke no German and the officer spoke no English, we got away with a simple warning. We had a great laugh about it afterward, while I used my basic English to explain the concept of “causing a public nuisance” to him. A public nuisance—in the middle of the woods, with nobody around but the trees and a stream?
An Unforgettable Gulda Concert in 1973
Gulda’s forum had previously taken place in Ossiach. By the time I encountered it in Viktring, its mixture of classical music, jazz and free improvisation was challenging familiar ideas of what a concert should be. The evening I remember most was in 1973.
Now, Gulda’s performance in Viktring was scheduled for the evening. About 50-60 chairs were set up outdoors. The front rows were packed with local VIPs: I assume the mayor and his wife, the local bank director, the school principal, and some similar local celebrities. We long-hairs sat all the way in the back—behind many empty seats.
Paul and Limpe Fuchs, the duo known as Anima, took the stage. In my memory, Gulda then sat at an amplified clavichord and worked on it with a knife and fork. It was a long way from the formal piano recital some people seemed to expect. Several of those in the front rows walked out.
The front rows emptied instantly. But then, once only the long-hairs were left sticking it out, Gulda played Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. A completely new world opened up for me. Bach has been a permanent fixture in my music collection ever since. [5]
About a year later in Vienna, I was walking past a high-end music shop in the city center during my lunch break. Everything inside was way out of my budget, but I walked in anyway, asked to try an electric guitar, and started messing around. Mid-riff, I heard a voice behind me in a thick Viennese dialect: “You have to play it like this.” I turned around—it was Gulda, correcting my guitar playing from across the room at a keyboard.
The Perks of 1970s Social Democracy
The Second World War had ended about a quarter of a century earlier. The Austria I knew was changing, and the early 1970s carried a sense of possibility. After years of conservative government, Bruno Kreisky became chancellor in 1970. A “red chancellor”, and Jewish too: I remember how much that challenged the assumptions of some people around me.
Hertha Firnberg became minister of science and research in 1970. I associate that era with an opening of cultural and educational opportunities. What mattered most to me as a young listener was access to cheap student tickets. I remember paying twenty schillings for unsold seats shortly before performances. Those tickets brought music within reach of my very limited budget. [6]
I was never any good at flirting, but I apparently caught the eye of one of the usherettes. One evening, she looked at me and asked, “Your usual spot?” before handing me a ticket for the stalls, ground floor, 5th row center.
Vienna has always been the heart of classical music, but that specific era was truly extraordinary. And so, because of those cheap student tickets, I was able to see countless legends live: Emil Gilels, Igor and David Oistrach, Nathan Milstein, and many others.
Embracing Diversity
In Falco & the Vienna Music Scene of the 1970s, I wrote about Bona Mente, our shared space where musicians rehearsed while I painted upstairs. Harri Stojka and Falco were among those who later reached much wider audiences. Stefan Weber and Drahdiwaberl were always capable of a scandal.
For me, listening to classical music while also loving jazz, blues and rock was never a contradiction. I enjoyed the differences. That has stayed with me, and it is part of what made the afternoon with Lang Lang so welcome: another encounter in a musical life that has taken some unexpected turns.
Footnotes
[1] Music and exchange. “Currency” is my metaphor for the encounters described here. It does not mean that music is the only, or always the most successful, form of cultural dialogue.
[2] Cultural projects. My work has included projects with the Austrian Society for Chinese Studies (ÖGCF) and Chinese film programmes. The Viennale’s 1991 festival archive records that year’s major Chinese film showcase.
[3] Viktring. The festival took place in the former monastery near Klagenfurt. Its experiments brought classical music, jazz and improvisation into close contact. The concert episodes here are my recollections of those early years.
[4] Festival history. The Musikforum’s 2011 press archive recalls the tradition and musicians associated with Gulda’s forum. I have kept my personal memories distinct from a complete concert chronology.
[5] Many years later, when I had a small office, for 2-3 years I played Bach’s Goldberg Variations almost every morning as the first thing I did.
[6] Firnberg and access. The House of Austrian History describes Firnberg’s establishment of the science ministry in 1970 and her university reforms. The twenty-schilling concert tickets are my own recollection; I have not established the precise administrative measure behind them.
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