Music in the air

Vienna has a soundtrack and culture all of its own

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[caption id="attachment_12228" align="alignleft" width="1024"] Hofburg Palace[/caption] If you like music, you’ll love Vienna. With three opera houses and a constant schedule of musical performances, the city is a music lover’s home from home. In fact, it was once literally home to Schubert, Strauss and Shoenberg who were born here; it became home to Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms and Mahler. Mozarthaus, the composer’s former residence at Domgasse 5, can be visited (http://mozarthausvienna.at), as can the newly opened museum in Beethoven’s house, Probusgasse 6 in Heiligenstadt. https://www.wienmuseum.at/en.html The famous Vienna State Opera offers more than 50 operas and ballet works on around 300 days per season. The repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the 21st Century. Audience members can individually switch on subtitles in a choice of languages. In April, May, June, September and December, more than 80 opera and ballet performances will be screened live on Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz in front of the opera building on a 50m² screen. Watch and listen free of charge. The world-famous Vienna Boys’ Choir appears regularly as part of the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle at the Holy Mass in the Hofburg Chapel on Sundays (September to June). Buy tickets online at http://www.hofmusikkapelle.gv.at. They also appear at the MuTh, their new concert hall in the Augarten, which opened in 2012. (MuTh is an abbreviation of “Music and Theatre”.) The MuTh is located right next to the Augartenpalais, where the Vienna Boys learn, live and sing. www.muth.at If you would like to wield the baton yourself, head for the House of Music where you can ‘virtually’ conduct the Vienna Philharmonic and capture your personal version of ‘A Little Night Music’ on CD. The building’s seven floors house astounding sound technologies plus mini museums dedicated to great Austrian composers. You won’t be in Vienna’s inner city long before you’re approached by someone dressed in 18th-Century costume selling tickets to a concert in the Hofburg Palace. Touristic? Yes. A fun evening? Yes. It’s a light-hearted concert including the most popular waltz and operetta pieces by Johann Strauss as well as opera arias and duets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Concerts begin at 8.30pm. ‘Traditional wine tavern music’ comes with your dinner at the Zwoelf Apostelkeller, an inner-city restaurant with a rustic air. A likeable pair of musicians – violinist and accordionist – stroll the vaulted 600-year-old rooms of this cellar, perhaps playing at your table. You won’t be the only tourist, but chances are you’ll enjoy it anyway. Open daily. https://www.zwoelf-apostelkeller.at/index_en.html For an overview of what’s on in ballet, opera and classical music, and for tickets online, have a look at https://www.vienna-concert.com/
At the Heuriger
In 1784, Emperor Joseph II issued a decree allowing vintners to sell their newly fermented wine without tax and directly to the customer. An evergreen bough, a buschen, hanging outside the gate would signal that the wine was ready. Eventually the vintners began providing wooden tables under the arbours for their guests and setting out a variety of snacks to go with the wine. The rustic wine tavern that evolved from this is called a ‘heuriger’, meaning ‘this year’s’, referring to the young wine. Vienna is said to be the home of the heuriger and from there the concept spread across Austria. A 15-minute taxi journey from Reed conference centre brings you to Mayer am Pfarrplatz, a typical heuriger (and Vienna’s smallest vineyard). They mainly produce Gemischter Satz, a blended wine from two or more different grape varieties grown in the same vineyard and vinified together. This wine has gained DAC status. Other white varieties are Grüner Veltliner, Weissburgunder and Rheinriesling. Red wines to try are Blauer Zweigelt, Blauburgunder and Cabernet Sauvignon. Enjoy a relaxed meal or a simple snack with your wine. Towards the rear of the garden is the entrance to a newly opened museum, the little house where Beethoven lived and worked in 1817 and where he created his Symphony No. 9. For details of the heuriger and of the Beethoven Museum visit: https://pfarrplatz.at/en/
Glimpse of Vindobona
In the First Century AD, the Roman legion set up a military encampment in Vindobona, their name for Vienna. As wine was included in the legionnaire’s rations, an already flourishing wine culture was not the least of the area’s attractions. Under Emperor Probus the Celtic wine was improved with Italian grafted grapevines. For 350 years Roman soldiers were stationed here, protecting the northern border of the Roman Empire. At one time the population rose to 30,000. An excavation in front of the Hofburg Palace on Michaelerplatz reveals traces of Vindobona. You peer down at a Roman road junction and foundations of houses dating from between the 1st and 5th century AD. The famed Spanish Horses enjoy one of the world’s most prestigious homes in a wing of the Hofburg Palace. Part of Vienna’s culture since 1565, this traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses invites the public to watch morning training Tuesday-Friday mornings (free with Vienna Pass). A new series of occasional exhibition evenings, A Tribute to Vienna, presents the Ballet of the White Stallions alternating with musical performances by the Vienna Boys’ Choir. One of two September Tribute performances is scheduled for Friday, 21 September, the evening before the ESCRS Congress opens in Vienna. For further information about all Spanish Riding School performances: www.srs.at Voices from history An audible artwork echoes across Vienna’s Heldenplatz twice a day this year. Called ‘Voices’, it is a sober memorial of Hitler’s annexation of Austria, which was proclaimed from the balcony of the Hofburg Neue Burg wing 80 years ago. The artist is Susan Philipsz, a former Turner prize winner, whose installation was commissioned by the House of History (scheduled to open in November 2018). Ms Philipsz has said she wanted to recognise all those who disappeared after the Anschluss and that this sound – four notes achieved by rubbing a finger on water-filled glasses – most closely replicates that of human voices. ‘Voices’ can be heard for 10 minutes each day at 12:30 and at 18:30. Opera online Listen to the Vienna State Opera live streaming of selected performances via the internet on your computer or Smart TV and via Wiener Staatsoper Live App on your smartphone or tablet. The streamings are broadcast with a time-delay to suit local prime time. Choose between a full recording or a live edited version. On-demand streams are also available and can be played back for one week. Find the programme at https://www.staatsoperlive.com/en/live/. Live streaming costs €14.00; On-demand stream: €5.00; Digital programme: €2.69. Sheets ahead of other music shops Who’s that pianist? It could be you. If Vienna’s musical ambience makes you want to join in, head for Musikhaus Laimer’s music shop. A piano is available for customers who want to try out some new sheet music and there’s plenty to try out. This is one of the city’s largest music shops, with more than 400,000 titles in its database of books and sheet music. Laimer’s clientele includes many notable musical institutions and orchestras and its offerings encompass almost every musical genre. International shipping is available. Laimer’s is located near the House of Music, at Hegelgasse 7, 1010 Wien. http://www.musikhaus-laimer.at/. Open Monday-Friday, 09:30-18:00, Saturday 10:00-13:00, closed Sunday. Take the floor Every year, at more than 450 balls, Viennese young and old will spin to the strains of a waltz. Many will have learned or honed their skills at Elmayer, an institution that has flourished since the turn of the last century. If you have a partner and are free on a Saturday from 16.00-17.00, drop in to one of the open sessions/lectures given in English. The cost is €50 per couple and there’s no need to register. Otherwise arrange a one hour-long private lesson; come as part of a couple or dance with an Elmayer teacher at a time to suit you. (In either case bring leather-soled shoes) www.elmayer.at Take a train For an amusing tour of Vienna’s wine-growing villages, try a ride on a Lilliput train. Heurigen Express One starts in Nussdorf and travels through the Vienna woods, passes elegant villas and ancient wine houses. Train Two starts in Strebersdorf, taking a circular route through Strebersdorf and Stammersdorf with stops at wine taverns in the area. Trains operate April 1 to October 31; Train One leaves every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays from Nussdorf from 12:00 to 18:00 on the hour. Train Two trundles off on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from Strebersdorf at 14:00 to 20:00 on the hour. Round trip €9.90, one way €5. Tickets on the train. www.liliputbahn.com Take a tour Fans of the film classic The Third Man have a choice of two tours: Third Man Walk – In the Footsteps of a Film Classic, an above-ground walking tour covering locations in the city, and a separate tour of the sewer system where some the most iconic scenes were shot: www.drittemanntour.at. Film fanatics will enjoy the Third Man Museum; from September 1, 2018 this small private museum offers a fascinating exhibition on the making of the film, which captured Vienna’s situation after the war and made the city a “movie star”. 3mpc.net
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