Concerts in Salzburg

The primary question is whether you LIKE classical music. Because Rick is getting the tickets for you, I would think that's a good insulation against a second-rate "Tourist Concert", but I haven't been on a Rick tour. The next issue, especially if you don't get to learn the names of the musical ensembles (Google and check the dates?), would be whether you're going to either of those buildings on the tours, already.

The Marble Hall in Mirabell is a gorgeous room, where we heard a sub-group of the Mozarteum Salzburg, perhaps the best known of the ensembles in Salzburg. Because the walls are all marble, the acoustics are alas, not ideal. We sat on loose wooden chairs.

Tim, these two places were recommendations of a concert to attend on one of our evenings free. They mentioned we should get tickets ahead of time if we are interested in one of these places. As far as other venues in Salzburg or Vienna, it was stated that our tour guide could help us at the time of the tour. We have not sat thru classical music. Not sure if we would regret doing something like this since we will be there, but it might be better for is to wait till we r there and see what our other options are of things to do or see?? I did read somewhere that there is a concert where the ensemble dressed in the Mozart era. That sounded interesting to me. I'm still researching. Thanks for your input.

Hi Diane,

I would take them up on the concert in Salzburg. I am sure that the music will be very accessible--familiar--even though you've not been to many if any classical music concerts. Both venues are interesting historically. Can you find out what will be played?

Also, you might want to browse this MOOC from Yale. It's open and you can just choose to check out a lecture or two. Lectures 17 and 18 might be good.

Pam

Hey, Diane, I've been to NW Arkansas, and I know they have classical music there! After all, I went to see the new museum of American Art in Bentonville. It's hard to explain, but, does it interest you that Mozart lived and worked in Salzburg and make you want to hear a live performance of his period's music, in the settings where it was first performed? Probably lots of residents of New York (my birth city) have never heard music performed in a small, royal chamber like it was written for ... . That's an opportunity.

I don't recommend the Marionette Theater because the music is canned, and mostly opera, which is, er, a little less popular, in general. But there are lots of kinds of local culture. For example, outdoor beer gardens, maybe with a little live local popular music. There are a lot of what I snootily called "tourist concerts" that are shorter, in costume, and guaranteed to be something you at least vaguely remember hearing before. It's really important to enjoy your free afternoons and evenings on an otherwise "organized" tour. So think about what might make you glad to walk back to the hotel through those pretty streets.

I don't mean to sound snobby. I spent a lot of my career in presenting various forms of classical music, and I want someone's first experience to be something they enjoy, remember, and make them think they might do it again some time.

Tim, you just blew my excuse that we don't have classical music in the south! Actually we do, but have never been. We are looking forward to a trip that will open our eyes to all kinds of neat experiences such as scenery, language, food, locals, fellow travelers and other unknowns, including music. I think we have decided to see a concert, but not sure which one. It also sounds like if we choose not to see a concert at the Mirabelle Palace or the Hohensalzburg, (because we would need to get tickets ahead of time), our guide will help us get tickets at other venues in Salzburg or Vienna. So if we don't decide now, I think we can decide on the tour. Thanks for your input.

Diane,

Some background - my wife and I enjoy listening to all kinds of music, including classical, but it is rare that we attend a live symphony, perhaps once a year.

When we were in Salzburg in May we attended a Mozart dinner concert at the St Peter Stiftskeller and found it really enjoyable. The evening had a chamber group of 5 musicians along with two singers (one male and one female). The music was all excerpts from Mozart operas and everything was excellent - in fact the male singer was superb. The evening alternated music with dinner courses so for the 'amateur' it had good pacing. A plus was that it was located in a very comfortable hall in St Peter and it was all modeled after an evening in the 1700s. The costumes as well as the food - I have to say I was actually surprised at how good the dinner was.

It's definitely more 'touristy' than purely 'musical', but it was wonderfully entertaining.

Bruce, did you buy your tickets for the Mozart dinner concert ahead of time? We'd like to do this on September and I'm wondering how far ahead it needs to be booked. Our RS My Way guide says we can get a €9 discount per ticket if we book directly with the guidebook. I'm assuming I'd have to call them or book in person to get the discount.

Thanks for the info Bruce. I am also curious if you got your tickets in advance?

Nancy / Diane,

I did buy our tickets in advance. Looking at the online invoice the tickets were purchased April 30 and we attended the evening of May 28th (Wednesday). I am certainly not an expert on Salzburg, but the room looked to be full the evening we were there so it may be a good idea to buy in advance. It was a big room - though - you could probably shift things around and put in another table or two (8 to a 'normal' table) if need be.

I actually ran across the tickets on the Panorama Tours website when I was reserving our Sound of Music Tour - after checking that the tickets were not more expensive than purchasing them direct I went ahead and bought them through Panorama. I did not notice that there was a Rick Steve's Discount - rats a discount would have been pleasant!

If you decide to go I would recommend getting there early - by being early we were able to sit close to the front and the singers actually came right up to the table. Also I greatly regretted not bringing my DSLR to take pictures - there did not appear to be any restriction on taking pictures/video and I ended up having to use my phone - which really doesn't work well in low light, the DSLR would have done much better.

Bruce, were you in Salzburg on a RS tour? I notice the SOM (4 hr) tour starts at 2 and the Dinner/concert recommends arriving at 7:15. It looks like it would all be doable on the same day? Also, if we chose to do the SOM tour, it looks like we would see lots of areas, scenery etc. In the am we will be touring a few areas with RS tour. Would we feel like we r missing out on seeing other things in Salzburg if we r not in the city that afternoon? We will be traveling on the next day.

There has been lots of discussion of the SOM tour on this forum; you can find more with Search, above. I have not bothered to try the tour and would prefer to use the free afternoon to see more of the town at my own pace. As far as lovely scenery in general, you'll see quite a bit from your big tour bus during the planned trip.

In Vienna, if you want to experience some semi-live opera without investing in a ticket, check out the dates when the live performance will be transmitted to a viewing screen outside. I tried hard, but could only sit through about a half hour of the shows I saw, which were big on exposition and low on action.

Diane,

We were not on a RS Tour.

We went on a 9:15 am SoM tour and were back at the Mirabell by 12:45 (I have pictures of us in the Gardens with time stamps), so I guess it is possible to get back in town from a 2pm SoM tour in time to do a quick change and get to the St Peter Stiftskeller by 7:15 (we took a taxi from our hotel - mostly because it was raining). Depending on where your hotel is I guess there is some modest risk about the timing.

Our party of four 60-somethings really, really enjoyed the SoM Tour but I have to say if the weather had been better during our visit (it rained to one degree or another almost the entire 3 days we were in town) I think spending more time on walks along the Monchsberg and Kapuzinerberg would have been a better use of the time. With 3 days we had plenty of time to do everything - including the SoM tour. We did find the SoM Tour not only wonderfully entertaining, but also very informative about Salzburg - mostly because Peter (our Guide) was excellent (great knowledge of the history of the town as well as current events), but also because there was quite a lot of road construction going on so the bus had a hard time getting around and the result was that there was more time for Peter to fill up - he did a great job at that, and we did see a fair amount from the bus because of some detours.

During our time in Salzburg : The afternoon we arrived we walked over to the Monchsberg (from our hotel across the river in the new town) a bit for the views (it was the only time it wasn't really raining). We used the Walking Tour of the Old Town from Rick's Salzburg book as a basis for a morning in the Old town - thank you Rick for the free .mp3 file! - it made me sound brilliant (perhaps that is how the RS tour will spend the morning?). We spent an afternoon going up to the Fortress - with some wandering/shopping in the Old Town when we came back down, then off to the Dinner Concert. The SoM Tour was another morning - ending with some time in the Mirabell/gardens. We were going to walk the Kapuzinerberg trail that afternoon but the rain deterred us and we ended up with a visit to the Mozart Wohnhaus and some other wandering about on the 'new' side of the river before walking along the river and over to the Augustinerbrau for dinner. I have to say If we had needed to cut something out - the SoM Tour would have been the first to go... the SoM Tour does give you a nice bus ride out to get a view of the lake District - but it sounds like the RS Tour covers that already?

Sorry I just used quite a lot of words to basically say - even though we really enjoyed the SoM Tour - it uses up an interesting chunk of time that you might find better uses for - or maybe not :-)

Some pictures from the concert - remember to Bring the Good Camera! - all I had was my phone :-(

The Singers
The Ensemble
The Room
The advantage of being early - being embarrassed :-)

Thanks Bruce for the info. We will only be in Salzburg for one day so I think we will opt out of the SOM tour. I am a huge fan, but we will be touring with our group in the am and if we hit a glitch or something, whatever that could be, I would hate to have something scheduled . I know we don't have to do everything with our tour group, but looking ahead as I tend to do, I think we will "wing it" for the afternoon. I have a list of ideas for my husband and I to do in our free time. As far as the evening concert goes ( I did like your pics) I'm still undecided. Our tour info did say that our guide will give us concert options if we do not attend at Mirabelle Palace or Hohensalzburg. So I'm guessing we would still be able to see/hear something without scheduling ahead of time. Like my husband tells me, "we will like whatever we choose to do." There will be too much to see and not enough time. I guess this would be a reason to go back some day:)

Bruce,
Thanks for the pictures of the Mozart dinner concert at the St Peter Stiftskeller! We have three nights in Salzburg, so you've convinced me to reserve ahead. I have confirmed with them that they do offer a €9 discount to RS readers.

Ya'll are very welcome - I got so much help from various people on these Travel Forums when I was planning our trip (including Rick since I used his books, TV shows and .mp3 files) that I figure I'll need to answer quite a few more questions before I break even. Thanks to all.

My wife and I will definitely be going back to Salzburg and it's true - there is so much to see and do that especially for the first few visits I can't imagine being really disappointed in any choice you make.

I have done both and enjoyed both. If you enjoy the pure sound of music then the Mirabell Palace Marble Hall is great but I loved the view from the Hohensalzburg fortress they play around sunset and I enjoyed the view the fortress provided while enjoying the music. If you are in Salzburg for a short time then you can go up a bit earlier and tour the fortress giving you time in the day to do other things.
I hope you enjoy your trip
Safe travels to you