PLAY ON VIENNA

Never before can I recall such a brilliant attempt by a museum to saturate the senses with a treasure chest of musical imagery and magical sounds on such a grand scale.

The astounding collection of music throughout this museum is a feast for every music lover, exhibited on six floors of the palace of Archduke Charles of Habsburg. On the ground level, I was able to shop for recordings, instruments and literature, and for a quick snack the café menu included sandwiches, pastries and hot or cold drinks.

Applause or not!

It’s not Broadway, but still it’s an opportunity for a moment of fame, so why refuse the invitation? Throwing caution to the wind and ignoring my note-challenged persona, I answer the call of the signboard, “Maestro! Take the baton and push the button!” at the Virtual Conductor interactive display.

I am actually going to direct the world famous Vienna Philharmonic in the Golden Hall! The orchestra appears on a large screen, instruments at hand to do my bidding. I select Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz and begin conducting the musicians. After a faint attempt to follow my lousy directions, the music abruptly ends amid loud protests that they’ve had it with me!

I sheepishly look at my guide, Friederike, and thank my lucky stars that there is no lineup at that moment. Just before my attempt, a young conductor ends her performance with applause, while another

Welcome to one of the numerous fun activities at the museum!

Vienna’s illustrious musical past

For years Vienna, the “City of Music,” attracted the greatest classical composers: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss, Gustav Mahler, as well as the Second Viennese School of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

In tribute to these “sons of Viennese music” special rooms on the third floor are devoted to their lives and compositions. As I move throughout the area I am surrounded by soothing music, Mozart’s Queen of the Night and The Magic Flute, the most memorable of all.

Besides the films and databases, documents, costumes, manuscripts and an array of personal items illustrate some of the most insightful information regarding these gentlemen.

Beethoven lived at more than 60 addresses, and in a poignant reference to his deafness, it is recorded that although he could see the church bells ringing from his house, he could not hear them. Amazingly, he continued to compose even after he was totally deaf.

In the pavilion of “waltz king” Johann Strauss I find the dance steps very tempting, really tempting. He is portrayed as vain and debonair, while Mahler, who died at 51, was always finding his inspiration somewhere in the forest in a little house. From 1879 until 1907, he was the Director of the State Opera.

The Exodus display is dedicated to talented musicians who were exiled from Vienna or murdered during the Second World War.

The aural experience

The second-floor Sonosphere is designed to “let your ears take a stroll” although it’s more of a marvelous sound hike of sorts for me. It goes beyond listening from the womb to “seeing” sounds. Every tiny detail resonates through the awesome acoustics and it’s so simple to make a melodic CD all by yourself using familiar noises, voices and tones.

The sounds to come

Titled Futuresphere, this program seeks to inspire new ways of creating music electronically as designed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Brain Opera is the brainchild of Tod Machover, Professor of Composition at the MIT’s Media Lab whereby “hyperinstruments” of the Mind Forest react to movement, touch and voices.

This is music “mixing” to the extreme so even I am able to experiment and make my very own “original” music by distorting sounds, using everyday sounds like the quack-quack-quack of a duck in tandem with my voice.

This attraction shares the fourth floor with a video wall of musical recordings and radio’s House of Sounds.

A museum within a museum

The musical experience at the House of Music can begin or end on the first floor at the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Museum.

One hundred and sixty years of fame is documented within the transformed palace rooms, once the home of Otto Nicolai, the composer, conductor and founder of the orchestra.

The highlights of this symbolic historical presentation are the soundtracks from concert performances and tributes to the orchestra’s members and conductors including posters, portraits and a mannequin of a period costumed Nicolai.

To top it off

On the museum’s spacious top floor are a restaurant and an events room, available for a variety of functions. At the Cantino Restaurant enjoy a meal with a view – Vienna’s rooftops and it’s famous landmark, St. Stephen’s Cathedral.