Festungskonzert , Mirabell concert or Mozart Dinner Concert

It's hard for any of us to tell you which one is the best as everyone has personal preferences. I'm also guessing few people have been to all of them. The answer also largely depends on what your want to hear; all three of these have websites with at least extracts from the programs.

The Mirabell concerts have more variety in their performers and programs, so if you are looking for something specific, you might find it there. The Fortress concerts are generally done by 1 of 2 ensembles, but they have a lot of variety within their programs; these concerts can be paired with dinner at the Fortress. Both the Mirabell and Fortress concerts are generally instrumental music.

The Mozart Dinner has time-period-costumed performers and features a lot of arias and duettos from Mozart's operas. I find time-period costumes gimmicky and don't particularly care for opera, so this would be a tragically bad choice for me, but not for others.

A friend and I did the dinner/concert combo at the fortress and found it to be a delightful, enchanting evening. I can't remember if we paid for a window seat for dinner or just arrived early and got one, but that was a nice touch for the evening. Many on this board have reported enjoying the concerts at Mirabell Palace. I haven't seen too much on the Mozart dinner here.

Happy planning!

These are all tourist concerts, so you can wear whatever you want.

Meant to put that in my message... the recommended dress is "smart casual."

Anu, I hope you already understand that Salzburg, like some other musical history cities, has a large number of concerts created specifically for the tourist trade. Like other places, the professional, full-time ensembles don't perform all year round, so it's quite likely that you don't have the option of seeing one of those. But I hope you will check to see if they're in town during your visit.

On the other hand, if you never go to live classical music, you might not enjoy a two-hour performance of nothing but that. You have to discuss it among the family and decide the best way to spend your time in Salzburg. You might be better off with a 60 or 90-minute concert, with or without food.

I don't intend to characterize the age or professional level of the three ensembles you asked about, because I've never heard them. I will only suggest that if you have a chance to hear a group connected with an accredited university (like the Mozarteum, for example), you might get a higher quality concert. That's what we heard, in the Marmoreansaal, AFAIR.

As other posters have said it is a matter of personal preference. We've done a Mirabell concert and have done the Mozart Dinner Concert twice. We totally enjoyed all of them! The Mirabell concert was more traditional. the Mozart Concert is more of a "show". The quality of the music at the dinner concert may be not quite at the same level as it would be at a Mirabell concert, but it's very enjoyable also!

Thank you everybody . This is our first time going for a classical music so wanted to go for one to see how it is . Looks like we will be going for the Mirabell concert.