wien (A) SMart Café Köstlergasse 9 Wiener Konzerthaus · Lothringerstrasse 20
+. / The Piano Teacher Vienna is to music what Rome is to Catholics: a point of origin, a traditional power center, a symbol and a capital. After its apex during the 19th century empire, Vienna went through a time of troubles, from the fragmentation of the empire to occupation by the Nazis. Looking at its art and literature, something became a bit twisted in the process of evolution. Its worldly sophistication took on a darker tone, from the harmony of Viennese Classicism to the disharmony of Viennese Actionism, perhaps by way of one of Vienna’s most famous sons, Sigmund Freud. To truly capture the conflicted soul of the Austrian capital, one must visit both SMart Café (1st Vienna SM-and fetish Café) and a 19th century concert hall, of which there are plenty of both. The space of history isn't just monuments but outcroppings in consciousness: the concert halls represent the high point of a society still looking backward, while SMart Cafè is a psychic space where they work out a fall from grace. Elfriede Jelinek captured both in her novel and Michel Haneke echoes this urban condition with his cinematic adaptation. The plot revolves around Erika, a piano professor at a Vienna music conservatory who still lives with her domineering mother. Erika is only able to “feel” by exacting cruel punishment on her students, whom she secretly detests. Behind her icy façade, Erika is a sexually-repressed woman with a long list of sadomasochistic fetishes.
INDEX
Travelbag Jelinek Elfriede, “The Piano Teacher”, Serpent's Tale, London 1989. Von Karajan Herbert, “Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6”, Deutsche Grammophon, 1993. Haneke Michael, “The Piano Teacher”, Kino International 2001. FetLife, BDSM & Fetish Community, (fetlife.com).
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