Hi- My husband and I will be on the Germany, Austria, and Switzerland tour at the end of June and would like to catch a concert in Vienna. A lot of these concerts look particularly cheesy with lots of tourists in the audience and period costumes. Any advice or recommendations for finding a concert that's not so cheesy? I've been navigating www.wien.info as recommended. Has anyone heard Orchestra 1756, for example?
Thanks in advance for the advice!
We attended a concert at Schonbrunn Palace. During the day in Vienna, whenever we walked past a concert hall, or church, we were approached by guys dressed as Mozart trying to sell us concert tickets. Like you said, it seemed cheesey. I thought a concert at Schonbrunn would be a better performance and more professional--and it was. Here's one website with info: http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/things-to-know/tour-through-the-park/orangery.html Have fun on your trip!
"Rule of thumb is wigs and period clothing equals lower quality music. Black suits and dresses usually means better music."
Not really. Many of the music ensembles in Vienna play the same repetoire, heavy on "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", "The Four Seasons", and the "Blue Danube Waltz", whether they wear period costumes or not. There's nothing wrong with either, especially if you've never been to a concert before, but if you've been to one amateur "Four Seasons" concert anywhere in Europe, you've effectively been to them all. In that case, you would need to search out some of the more professional orchestras or smaller chamber ensembles (Vienna Philharmonic, Kronos Quartert, etc). Most of these are usually on holiday or touring elsewhere in the summer.
The point was, rather than ditto every single opinion Rick Steves offers, to note that there's an abundance of budget classical ensembles in cities like Vienna, Salzburg and Prague that basically play the same limited repetoire at about the same level of profiency, whether they wear 18th century attire or modern clothing. And if you don't regularly listen to a lot of classical music, either option is fine, you'll get competent performances of more or less the same music from either option. But if you can hum "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" in your sleep, you would probably want one of the more professional ensembles (ie, Vienna Phil, Vienna State Opera)... who, of course, don't wear period costumes.
Thanks to everyone for your input. It is greatly appreciated!
In Vienna the Opera House is a must.If you get ticktes. Look in viennaoperatickets.com
