'Be Embraced, You Millions' - The Capital of Classical Music. 

It may seem a commonplace to quote Vienna as the capital of music. But if we overview the cultural history of the city, no art has ever played such an eminent role in Viennese life as music. Music history starts in the Baroque Age with the representation of early Italian operas at the Habsburg court. In fact, Italian style dominates till late 18th century. 1781 marks a turning point with Mozart settling in Vienna. Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven are the outstanding figures of the so-called »First Viennese School of Music« carried on by the great composers of the Biedermeier and the Romantic period such as Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler. Mahler’s eruptive but also profoundly melancholic music reflects the peculiar atmosphere of Viennese Fin-de-siècle already overshadowed by the twilight of the Habsburg Empire.

Itinerary

The tour starts in front of the Theater an der Wien, Vienna’s oldest opera house. We will then cross the Karlsplatz and come to the world renowned Musikverein, where the Philharmonic Orquestra plays. It is here that the famous New Year's Concert takes place. The next venue is the  emblematic State Opera, the first public building erected on the Ring Boulevard. Our way leads us now into the historical city centre. On the New Market  (Neuer Markt) stood in the 18th century the well known "Mehlgrube", a  popular inn and dance hall where Mozart performed some of his great piano concertos. A few minutes further we will get to  Café Frauenhuber,  associated both with Mozart and Beethoven playing there.  At Rauhensteingasse 8 a plaque commemorates Mozart's last domicile. The great composer died here in December 1791 working on his Requiem which he left uncompleted. In a short distance from there is Mozart's first Viennese domicile, the Guest House of the German Order which still presents its magnificent Renaissance courtyards and characteristic wooden galleries ("Pawlatschen"). Just a few minutes away stnads the Figarohaus,   the only apartment from Mozart’s time with its preserved historical interior. The Baroque house which had once belonged to a stucco maker is today the seat of the Mozart Museum in Vienna. A narrow passage leads to St. Stephen’s Cathedral where numerous important music events took place.

After a short coffee break we continue our music walk. Passing  the fashionable commercial streets of the inner city (Kohlmarkt, Graben), we stop at the Großes Michaelerhaus which is associated with the first great master of the Classical School of Music, Joseph Haydn. Opposite the Michaelerhaus once stood the Old Burgtheater, the most famous theatre of the historical city demolished in the 19th century when the newly built theatres on the Ringstaße were opened. We come now to the political and cultural heart of the Habsburg Empire: the Hofburg where the great baroque operas were performed. On Josephsplatz where today the National Library is located, the Italian theatre engineer and stage  designer Ottavio Burnacini built the first Opera House in 1659. In the ancient Redoutensäle, magnificent festival halls and ball rooms, great concerts were performed in Beethoven's days. It is  here that Beethoven premiered his unique battle music on Wellington's victory in Victoria in 1812. A walk past the elegant winter palaces of the aristocratic families (many of them music patrons) leads us to the Palais Lobkowitz where Beethoven's 3rd symphony, the Eroica, could be heard for the first time in 1804. The tour ends on Albertinaplatz (Zilkplatz) near the State Opera.

(This tour also includes selected pieces of music).

Practical information

MEETING POINT: »Theater an der Wien«,

Address: Linke-Wienzeile 6

DURATION: the tour lasts for about 2,5 - 3 hours.

END OF THE TOUR: Zilkplatz, State Opera.

RECOMMENDATION:

It is recommendable to focus on a music period (i.e. the 1st Viennese School of Music) or a composer (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert etc.). The proposed itinerary is just an exemple.

OTHER INTERESTING VENUES:

The Beethovenhaus in Heiligenstadt (Probusgasse 6), Beethoven's Pasqualatihaus. The House of Music (Haus der Musik), The Central Cementary (view tour on this site). The spa city of Baden (south of Vienna in the Vienna Woods). The State Opera may also be visited.

FURTHER READING: David L. Nelson, Vienna for the Music Lover, Vienna 2007.

Richard Rickett, Music and Musicians in Vienna, Vienna 1993.

Charles Rosen, The Classical Style. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Faber and Faber 2005.

David Wyn Jones, Music in Vienna 1700, 1800, 1900,Woodbridge 2016.

Jan Swafford, The Vintage Guide to Classical Music, New York 1992.

Very recommendable is the following movie: Eroica. The day that changed music forever, by Simon Cellan Jones.

(© fotos Reinhard Travnicek).