Munich Streets and Statues

Grant Chu Covell

[Oktober 2011.]

I.

A brief trip put me in Munich just after Oktoberfest. My home base was in a relatively new commercial area whose street names were derived from Richard Strauss’ operas. Munich has also honored the composer with a section of thoroughfare including attendant tunnels and a stop on the U4 subway line.

II.

My family humors my desire to seek out streets named after famous composers. In central Milan, I had wanted to tread upon Via Luigi Nono. Only later did I learn that the drab street skirting a cemetery gets its name from the composer’s grandfather, a painter.

Munich honors regional talent. Since Brahmsstraße and Brucknerstraße are parallel to each other, I presume they are named after Johannes and Anton. Schumann is a common enough name, however.

I was never near Orffstraße. However, here is Rodin’s bust of Mahler in the Neue Pinakothek, smaller than the one I recall sitting in the Vienna Opera.

III.

When Michael Jackson died in 2009, an impromptu memorial appeared around the Orlando di Lasso statue in the Promenadeplatz across from a hotel he had frequented. It’s a fairly fitting conjunction: Jackson was the di Lasso of his time. [Oh really? W.M.] The city appears to tolerate the decoration, and fans maintain the signs and flowers.

Unlucky Gluck stands a few yards away.