For about 20 years Christine de Grancy had been climbing the roofs of Vienna, on the Ringstrasse and in the Inner City, seeking ever more stunning pictures. She wished to approach the figures on these roofs. Twice she narrowly escaped a fall. Again and again she had to overcome her fears and growing dizzyness. What drove her on and on to brave these heights?
Perhaps, for instance, to discover an open book leaning up against the naked posterior of an angel playing an instrument in which a dedication praising and giving thanks to Theophil Hansen, the architect of the unique Musikverein building, had been engraved. And, as if to understand it even more strongly, Leonard Bernstein was rehearsing Brahms‘ Third Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic on this cold and sunny early spring day. The magnificent sounds reached her through the windows, perhaps through the roof to accompany her efforts. Below, the cars dashing out from the Naschmarkt were speeding across the Karlsplatz, cut up by a highway, towards the Schwarzenbergplatz.
Apparently, all this was incoherent and yet seemed to be mysteriously linked. From the roof of the Musikverein building her eyes were drawn to the cupola of the Karlskirche, to the beautifully curved roof of the Upper Belvedere- on and on into the world.
