Vienna Philharmonic horn player Josef Reif said his horn was stolen during a post-concert night on the town, arts commentator Norman Lebrecht reported in ArtsJournal.com.
Reif, 33, went to a wine bar with colleagues after playing at the Vienna State Opera on Wednesday night. When the musicians sat down at a table, Reif placed his horn, which was in a silver-gray Samsonite backpack, at his feet.
About a half hour later, Reif looked down, and his horn was gone.
The distraught horn player spoke with Austria's Heute.at on Friday. Because the horn backpack looks like a laptop bag, Reif told the newspaper, "The thief thought that it was a laptop. He will not be able to sell it."
Reif's instrument is a Vienna horn, a special horn that is played only in Vienna, primarily by members of the Vienna Philharmonic. There is no market for the horn outside of Austria. Moreover, each instrument has a serial number that would make it easy to trace. Reif's horn is valued at about $8,000.
"It's not about the material value, but to me the instrument is very important," Reif told Heute. He has already reported the missing horn to all the musical instrument shops in Vienna.
Reif, a member of the Vienna Philharmonic, has also played with the Vienna State Opera for a year. He asks that whoever took the instrument please return it to the Musikverein or to the Vienna State Opera, or leave the horn at a police station nearby.
Reif is scheduled to play in the Vienna Philharmonic New Year's concert, which will be televised around the world on New Year's Day. Reif would very much like to have his horn back in time for this important concert.
