I will restrict myself to the current borders:
Novel: Thomas Bernhard, Wittgenstein’s Nephew. This book, set in an insane asylum, is hilarious and is perhaps the least known of the Continental masterpiece novels of ideas. Der Untergeher [The Loser] is another brilliant book by Bernhard. Yes I will put these over Musil and of course Kafka worked in Prague and doesn’t count. Broch’s The Death of Virgil is a dark horse pick.
Music: This combination of category and place is a bit ridiculous, no? Just to mix it up, let’s pick Schoenberg’s Op. 31, Variations for Orchestra, or Webern’s Symphony in C, or Piano Variations, Op. 27, played by Pollini or Uchida. For Berg I’ll pick the Violin Concerto in A minor, or perhaps "Lyric Suite."
If we must look elsewhere, my favorite Mahler is the 9th, the live Karajan version. Favorite Bruckner is the 8th, the first Karajan version and the Bruno Walter recording of the 4th. Capriccio and Metamorphosen might be the most underrated Richard Strauss. My favorite Schubert CD stars Ely Ameling and Jorg Demus, and then Schnabel or perhaps Clifford Curzon doing the last Piano Sonata in B flat. The Hollywood does an amazing version of the String Quintet in C. Britten and Pears recorded the ideal Die Winterreise. I’ve yet to find the perfect version of Schubert’s 9th but I love Furtwaengler’s interpretation. Favorite Haydn, if we can count him as Austrian, would be the last six piano sonatas and the String Quartets, Op.76. Mozart I’ve already blogged.
Book about: How about Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday, a beautiful portrait of declining Vienna by a man who killed himself? Another good pick is Toulmin’s Wittgenstein’s Vienna. Carl Schorske is not to be forgotten either.
Draftsman: Egon Schiele did incredible drawings. Try this one. Here is a beautiful painting by Schiele, who died at age 28.
Movie, set in: It is hard to go against The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles.
Movie: What is the best Austrian movie? Here is a list, good luck. I’ve never seen one all the way through.
Movie star: Duh.
Here is an impressive list of Austrian scientists, including economists. Karl Pribram and Rudolf Hilferding remain underrated as economists. Mises is underrated as a theorist of public choice. Hayek was arguably the first neuroeconomist. Wieser anticipated much of modern "social economics." Freud was a brilliant literary analyst.
The bottom line: There are gobs and gobs and gobs. We haven’t even touched upon design. But the overall trajectory is not exactly positive once you crack the mid-1930s.
You did a great job here, Tyler.
Toulmin and Schorske are wonderfully readable historian of ideas. Frederic Morton’s books “A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889″ and “Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914″ are also excellent narrative histories.
Kafka should count. Prague was part of Austria-Hungary at the time and Kafka’s language was German. Kafka’s descriptions of bureaucracy that we now regard a surreal could be considered near-documentary of the apparatus of the Austro-Hungarian state.
Movie star: What about Hedy Lamarr, one of the first to show some flesh and patent frequency hopping techniques? Or for skill, Klaus Maria Brandauer?
Movies set in Austria: The Linklater duo about uncertain love in Vienna and Paris with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is charming (Before sunrise, before sunset). The Sound of Music funnily is a movie Austrians learn about from Americans. Many Americans even know the score and start singing unprompted. But pride of place certainly goes to the Third Man, clearly the best film.
Austrian movie: Sissi with the young Romy Schneider (also a contender in your Austrian actress category) spawned the genre of kitsch monarchy films.
And the Sacher Torte is too heavy. Try other Mehlspeisen (desserts) such as a Topfenkolatsche (in German) or a Vanilleplunder. Before you start eating, go for an architecture walk. Apart from perhaps Paris and Prague, you do not have such a wide range of building styles in such a compact area amid beautiful parks.
you have forgoten the wonderful pastries – even the French call them
“viennoiserie”.
and I agree with you – Kafka should not count. Otherwise, (almost) everything
that has come out from Central Europe until the First World War is “Austrian”.
about movies from Austria, the director Haneke is quite interesting.
Music: Kruder & Dorfmeister
Draftsmen: Gustav Klimt
Writer: Robert Musil
The most famous (in Austria) Austrian movie is definitely Muttertag (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107625/). Anton Zeilinger is currently the most famous living Austrian scientist in Austria. I think Benedikt Pötscher (econometrics, TSA) and Karl Sigmund (game theory) are pretty well known on an international level.
Athletes: Franz Klammer and Hermann Maier for demonstrating the most
exciting skiing ever. A farmer and a bricklayer.
Granted he doesn’t fit into the categories, but I would’ve thought you’d give at least a passing mention to Hoffmannstahl
I don’t know. When I lived in Prague they certainly tried to claim Kafka for their own. And Egon Scheile was also considered by many to be Bohemian first, Germanic second.
Rubenstein has a good recording of Schubert’s Bb sonata. Recently heard Malcom Bilson’s recordings on the fortepiano. If you haven’t heard, he’s recorded all of the schubert sonatas and he’s really worth a listen. Very sensitive , lyrical + intelligent.
I’ve barely seen anything on that Austrian movies list, but of those I have, the best is Mostly Martha (Bella Martha is its German title.) Also, while in Vienna, one should eat sandwiches at Trzesniewski (which I’m told Kafka liked to eat at too). As for Kafka himself, call him Austrian or not, as you choose; but I think it makes more sense to see whether someone’s Viennese, and that, Kafka isn’t.
“but I think it makes more sense to see whether someone’s Viennese”
Very good point. Once you’re in Austria you will hardly find any Austrian. You’ll find Viennese and Styrians and Tyroleans and so on. The so-called Austrian you can only meet outside of Autria. But I’d like to draw your attention to some modern fiction writer: Thomas Bernhard. He’s fun to read and one can learn a lot about the dark side of the Austrian soul.
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