Growing up, before I really started to get obsessed with maps and traveling, I always had a vague awareness of Vienna—not because of its geopolitical significance, or because it was the capital of an important European country—but because of the arts. Having been raised by a painter and an ex-symphony musician—hi Mom & Dad 👋—I knew places like Vienna by reputation at young age. And, if that wasn’t enough, the fact that that the 90s sitcom Frasier was nearly always playing the background of our household solidified Vienna’s aura. I can still hear Niles’ voice clearly in my head name-dropping Vienna every 3rd episode.
In this article, we’re going to jump head-first into the world of classical art and culture that has become a calling-card for Vienna. I definitely did not have time to do everything that this city has to offer, but I was able to make the most of the time I did have thanks to my man on the inside. There was truly nobody better to have been my guide in this department than my host, Nadir. Big thanks to him!
Albertina
The Albertina was originally constructed as part of a military fortification in the 1600s, but today its purpose is purely intellectual. This is one of the premier art museums in Vienna, and indeed, on the European continent. I’ve got a pretty good sample size of art museums to compare this against now, and I really enjoyed this one! But before I show what was inside The Albertina, let me share a couple of pictures of the exterior, and the building itself, just so we can set the scene.
At the time of my typing these words, tickets into the Albertina cost €19.90, which is well worth it in my opinion. You can check out the full list of ticket prices here.
The Albertina includes works from a number of very famous artists, including Albrecht Dürer, Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, Max Beckmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Joan Miró, Emil Nolde, and Pablo Picasso. Fun fact: the collaboration software Miro is named after Joan Miró. This has prompted some debate over how to pronounce the name of the software amongst my teams at previous jobs (i.e. Miro vs. Miro). But I digress…
In the gallery below, I’ve included snapshots of my favorite paintings from this museum. I’m not going call out each of them by name, but I think you’ll see from the gallery below that I was gravitating toward modern graphic works and Impressionist paintings during this visit. There’s a lot more housed in this museum, but these are the paintings that really made me stop and look.
Haus der Musik (House of Music)
In my mind, Vienna stands out in the world of the classical arts not for the visual arts, but for music. Vienna has been a massive center of gravity in the world of classical music and that is what the rest of this article is going to be about.
I’ll share a quick list of the some (but not all!) of the most famous composers that were strongly associated with Vienna, either for having lived here or spent significant time here. Even if you’re not a big classical music buff, I’d wager a guess that you know most of these names:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (lived 1756-1791; Austrian born & spent most of his life in Vienna)
Ludwig van Beethoven (lived 1770-1827; German born & spent most of his life in Vienna)
Franz Shubert (lived 1797-1828; spent his whole life in Vienna)
Anton Bruckner (lived 1824-1896; Austrian born & spent most of his life in Vienna)
Johann Strauss (lived 1825-1899; spent his whole life in Vienna)
Johannes Brahms (lived 1833-1897; German born & spent most of his life in Vienna)
Gustav Mahler (lived 1860-1911; Czech born & spent most of his life in Vienna)
Haus der Musik is a great place to come for an overview of the musical history of Vienna. But before you get to any of that, it’s also got lots of rooms devoted to music more generally. It even has a room where you can put yourself in the place of a conductor with a motion-sensing conductor’s baton and a virtual orchestra like some sort of classical-music Wii Fit! There were lots of couples having fun making fools of themselves playing “conductor”. This world can sometimes feel a bit out of reach to people who haven’t interacted with it very much, and I think this did a good job of making it more accessible.
Now—back to the list of Viennese composers—each of them has their own dedicated room in this museum. These rooms go through their lives from birth to death and explain the circumstances of the time, as well as the cultural context surrounding them. It really gives you a 3-dimensional understanding of these characters and the world they inhabited.
Up next we’re going to visit something that is actually quite similar in terms of its presentation of Viennese musical history. What it lacks in technology and the modern bells-and-whistles, it more than makes up for by just being an insanely beautiful space…
Austrian National Library - State Hall
Prunksaal der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek
I should start by telling you that there is actually a lot more in the Austrian National Library than just the room I’m going to show you here; this is an actual library which is housed in a massive (and beautiful) building. In fact, this building houses 4 different museums as well. I did not realize this at the time, but there is an Esperanto Museum in here… that will definitely be on my list for my next visit to Vienna. But that’s not where we’re going today.
The museum we’re visiting today is called the State Hall. This impressive room was built in the 1700s and boasts 20-meter-high ceilings, 4 giant Venetian globes, and 200,000+ historical books. But in terms of what is actually displayed in this space, much of it is music! There’s a lot of historical material on the aforementioned Anton Bruckner (whose likeness is shown in the 2nd photo below), but what I found to be most interesting was the original, hand-written sheet music they had on display. Some of these papers were more than 100 years old. Music is really its own language, like Japanese or Python. Having spent 6 years playing in the school band growing up, I can read it… but something about seeing in this historical context made it feel alien to me, like I was seeing it for the first time. And that, somehow, made me appreciate it all the more.
Anyway, even if you don’t care about the actual contents of this museum, the room itself is beautiful enough that its worth visiting for its own sake.
Swan Lake @The Vienna State Opera
And now, the main event: the Vienna Opera House. A.K.A. the Vienna State Opera, or, in German, “Wiener Staatsoper”
All of the thanks for this experience are owed to my host, who was able to score me a ticket on virtually zero notice. Not having planned this trip around the Opera House’s event schedule, I resigned myself to see whatever show happened to be on that night. And it just so happened to be Swan Lake!
In the run up to this show, I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a professional ballet before… I was very lucky to have seen an opera at La Scala in Milan years ago (and I’ve listened to opera as a genre periodically ever since), and I’ve been to a million classic music performances… but ballet was altogether unfamiliar to me. I have a vague memory of having seen the nutcracker once before at some local production back in Ohio… but this was going to be the real deal!
The building itself is incredible; really just extremely grandiose and ornate. It was built from 1861 to 1869, and as the streetlights switched on in the early Viennese evening, it looks like something out of a storybook. Before I even entered, I had to take a walk around the southern face of the building to capture it in that blue-hour light. All of this was shot on my phone because I assumed that I wasn’t going to be allowed to bring my good camera in, and to be honest, I think my phone was better-suited for the job anyway.
Once I got inside, I made a point to explore the building before the show started and during the intermission. My seat was in the highest row, atop the typical opera-house horse-shoe. On paper this was perhaps not the greatest seat, but I actually really appreciated it because it allowed me to see the whole space all at once, from the stage on my left to the curvature of the seating on my right. When the show began, it was a constant reminder that I wasn’t just watching a best-in-class performance of Swan Lake, but I was doing so in the damn Vienna Opera House! How cool.
As incredible as it was, I was definitely out of my element. If I had known I would be attending the ballet, I would have packed some nicer clothes! There were lots of people who were dressed to the nines in attendance that night. In my gray collared shirt, black pants, and Dr. Marten Chelsea boots, I was probably in the lowest fashion quartile, but luckily there were a few slobs walking around to make me look good by comparison. But once the show started and the lights dimmed, none of that mattered. I just got to sit back and enjoy the show.
I reconvened with my generous host after the show for a typical post-show street food refueling. We went to a nearby food stand and ordered sausage and beer. It might not seem like anything special to look at in pictures, but this sausage was actually delicious! There are all sorts of variations on this dish—some of them have cheese inside, some of them come with different sorts of condiments—but it should be a familiar paradigm to anybody who’s had a hot dog or a bratwurst before.
This was definitely a trip that made me feel blessed. There is no reason why these sorts of experiences should be accessible to me but for a large amount of luck and privilege in life. To be able to inhabit these places and experience art and culture on this level is really special.
If you’re interested in central Europe, Vienna is a must! And if you come here, you’d be missing the point if you don’t make an earnest attempt to interact with its rich cultural and musical history. Oh, and also it’s present, as well! These famous composers may all be dead & gone, but their creations are alive and well in this beautiful place, and there are lots of incredible musicians, dancers, singers, etc, breathing new life into them even as you read these words. It’s extremely cool.
*Puts in headphones and turns Morgan Wallen back on
