Parisian bistro or Viennese café? Escalope or Wiener Schnitzel? Barnabitengossn or Champs Elysees?

Both are good, say Valerie Sajdik and Katharina Hohenberger, meaning that when the Viennese song engages in a tête-à-tête with the French chanson and vice versa, you can marvel at how kindred spirits the two actually are.

When two musical powerhouses take on this meeting – each of whom is deeply rooted in one of the two genres and yet likes to use other sounds with uncanny grandeur – then musical cultural fusion could not go deeper into the heart. One shines with a crystal-clear voice and her multi-faceted interpretations of French chanson, influenced by Edith Piaf, Jaques Brel and the song tradition of Viennese songwriter Gerhard Bronner, while the other is popular on the local scene as a Viennese interpreter of dialect songs à la Hermann Leopoldi or Hugo Wiener, who celebrates love and life itself with a colorful timbre, biting charm and uproariously comedic interpretations.

In a biting double conference, the two ladies lead through the evening and always have a wink ready for the audience, which they ensnare in Viennese style and flirt with in Parisian style.