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  • Opening of the special exhibition

    THE TRIAD OF THE FIRST VIENNESE SCHOOL: HAYDN - MOZART - BEETHOVEN

    The Mozarthaus Vienna, a museum of the Wien Holding, opened the new special exhibition "The Triad of the First Viennese School: Haydn - Mozart - Beethoven", in cooperation with the International Joseph Haydn Private Foundation Eisenstadt, on 18 February 2020 in the presence of numerous invited guests.

  • SPECIAL EXHIBITION: until January 30, 2022

    THE TRIAD OF THE FIRST VIENNESE SCHOOL:
    HAYDN - MOZART - BEETHOVEN

    Similarities - parallels - opposites

    The common life dates of Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven spanned almost a century (1732–1827). They range from baroque to romantic. In between is the epoch that went down in the history of music as the "First Viennese School", and in which it was above all the triad that shaped and revolutionized the classical music.

  • Record number of visitors to the Mozarthaus Vienna:

    Museum registers an increase of around 13,000 guests

    Around 215,000 guests in 2019

    The Mozarthaus Vienna, a museum of Wien Holding, set a new record in 2019: With around 215,000 visitors, the result of the previous year was again exceeded. This means an increase of around 13,000 visitors compared to 2018.

    July, August and December were the most visited months

    “Compared to 2018, the Mozarthaus Vienna 2019 inspired more than six percent more Mozart fans to follow in the footsteps of the musical genius in Domgasse 5. This shows that Mozart's spell has remained unbroken to this day”, says Wien Holding Managing Director Kurt Gollowitzer.

    The museum welcomed a particularly large number of guests in July (around 23,100 visitors), August (around 26,500 visitors) and December (around 20,800 visitors).

    "In addition to the permanent presentation, the temporary special exhibition of the Archive of the Society of Music Friends in Vienna at the Mozarthaus Vienna entitled 'Mozart: Traveler in Europe' as well as a diverse program of events and numerous cultural education offers contributed to the success," said Gerhard Vitek, Director of the Mozarthaus Vienna.

  • Mozart: Traveller across Europe

    An exhibition of the Archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien in Mozarthaus Vienna

    Special Exhibtion: 13 February 2019 – 26 January 2020

    “An intelligent human being finds the best education while travelling.” Mozart confirms this statement by Goethe.

    Mozart’s journeys as a child prodigy were intended to arouse admiration and recognition, but by their very nature contributed to his education. On the one hand in general and on the other they were educational journeys in music because Mozart was able to become acquainted with the European music scene, with composers and musical styles more so than any other child of his age. Ultimately the journeys also formed his personality, by familiarizing him with the languages, food, living habits, manners and so on of different countries, and the many performances at courts of the nobility and in the presence of rulers gave him self-confidence on a social level.

    It remained this way until Mozart moved to Vienna at the age of twenty-five: he gained knowledge during and from the journeys which brought him experience as well as commissions, ideas and a broad musical view that influenced him as a composer. This is also true of his later travels, which he embarked on from Vienna, even though the journeys were primarily for business purposes to acquire commissions or to premiere commissioned works. The exhibition presents insights into these aspects with a great variety of objects that are beautiful to look at and provide a wealth of information. Select significant examples show what Mozart composed solely by virtue of his journeys, to what extent he benefited and how they influenced his music.

    Curator Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Otto Biba
    Director Archive, Library, Collections of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien

    Cuarator Dr. Ingrid Fuchs
    Deputy Director Archive, Library, Collections of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien

    Note: If this press release is used (even excerpts), the complete title of the exhibition and © - information when using the pictures are to be stated as follows: Mozart: Traveller across Europe An exhibition of the Archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien in Mozarthaus Vienna All images: © Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, Archive, Library, Collections

  • Open House Mozarthaus Vienna

    January 29 2023, 10.00 AM - 6.00 PM

    Come to the open day at the Mozarthaus Vienna on January 29th. – free admission and a great program for young and old await you!

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart was not only active in Salzburg, but also in Vienna – and even more: he experienced his most successful years as a composer and musician in Vienna. In the Mozarthaus Vienna, visitors can explore the only surviving Viennese apartment of the musical genius, in which he composed more music than anywhere else.

  • Mozart on the way to immortality. Genius and Posterity

    An exhibition compiled from the Austrian National Library in the Mozarthaus Vienna until 27 January 2019

    Mozart – the name stands for musical perfection and for an outstanding genius.  Yet how did Mozart become world famous and how did his fame spread?  Poems, homages, work editions, legends – this all formed the image of Mozart after the premature death of the composer. This exhibition is mounted by the Austrian National Library in the Mozarthaus Vienna and presents exceptional objects from its collections, including the autograph manuscript of Frédéric Chopin’s Variations on ‘Là ci darem la mano’ from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, on display to the public for the first time.

    During his lifetime Mozart had in some cases been awarded the status of the extraordinary, especially by his great contemporary Joseph Haydn. It was Haydn who, in 1785, said to Mozart’s father Leopold that his son was “the greatest composer I know in person and by name” and in a letter dated December 20, 1791, shortly after Mozart’s death, Haydn wrote to Marianne von Genzinger, “Not in a hundred years will posterity again see such talent.”

    On October 29, 1792, Ferdinand Graf Waldstein wrote in the album of the young Ludwig van Beethoven, who was about to set off for Vienna, “Mozart’s genius is still grieving and lamenting the death of his pupil. [...] By constant diligence you will receive Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands.”

    The aim of this exhibition is to show this process of how people became aware of Mozart’s greatness and make it possible to experience and comprehend the unbroken, indeed increased popularity of his oeuvre after his death on the basis of a variety of aspects.

    The curators: Andrea Harrandt and Thomas Leibnitz

    More Information

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  • Opening of the special exhibition of the Austrian National Library in the Mozarthaus Vienna

    "Mozart on the way to immortality. Genius and Posterity" 16 February 2018 to 27 January 2019

    On the 15 February 2018 the Mozarthaus Vienna opened the new special exhibition compiled from the Austrian National Library "Mozart on the way to immortality. Genius and Posterity" with noumerous invited guests.

    After welcome greetings from Peter Hanke, Director Wien Holding, and Gerhard Vitek, Director Mozarthaus Vienna, Thomas Leibnitz, Director of the Department of Music, gave an introduction to the special exhibition which he curated with his collegue Andrea Harrandt. The aim of this exhibition is to show this process of how people became aware of Mozart’s greatness and make it possible to experience and comprehend the unbroken, indeed increased popularity of his oeuvre after his death on the basis of a variety of aspects.

    The ceremonial opening from Johanna Rachinger, General Director Austrian National Library, and the musical contributions by pianist Kristin Okerlund and soprano Andrea Carroll completed this successfull evening.

  • Campaign launch “Fake News: A Public Art Intervention”

    Today the launch of the campaign “Fake News: A Public Art Intervention,” an initiative by KULTURFORMAT and Peter Baldinger in cooperation with Mozarthaus Vienna, a member of Wien Holding, will take place at Mozarthaus Vienna. To mark the opening of the poster campaign by KULTURFORMAT and the Austrian visual artist Peter Baldinger entitled “Fake Art: A Public Art Intervention,” the first large-scale subject will be presented on the façade of Mozarthaus Vienna at Domgasse 5. This and three further subjects will then be seen on advertising columns throughout Vienna.

  • Between Fear and Hope – Mozart’s rise and fall in the Viennese society

    from 21 January 2012 until 6 January 2013
     

    Mozart was the first composer to finance his life as an independent artist, with varying degrees of success. At one time, he had the high society fawning over him and admiring his music; then came periods in which he struggled to find recognition.

    He organised concerts where his works were performed for the first time, sometimes by himself, and the list of subscriptions – advance tickets sales we might call them today – provide information about his status. In 1784 his concerts were sold out, while in 1788 Mozart complained of a lack of interest: “It is unfortunately my fate, but only in Vienna, that I cannot earn anything, even if I want to; I have been sending around a list for the last two weeks and the only name on it is Swieten,” he wrote to his friend Puchberg.

    The exhibition featured letters and documents relating to the two subscriptions and the people who supported Mozart’s work. It was shown in a modern artistic setting that gives visitors access in a novel manner to Mozart as a person and to his contemporaries.

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  • Mozart’s Fortepiano in Vienna

    from 25 October 2012 until 7 November 2012
    In cooperation with the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg

    The famous Anton Walter fortepiano that once belonged to Wolfgang Amadé Mozart could have been seen and heard at Mozarthaus Vienna from 25 October 2012. The musical genius played on this instrument during his time at Domgasse 5, where it stood in his study, and during many concerts away from home. It was exhibited and played in Vienna for the first time since Mozart lived here; it returns to Vienna, where it was made and where Wolfgang Amadé Mozart played it almost every day, after more than 200 years.

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  • You will see how merry we can be - Mozart and women

    From 24 June 2010 to 1 May 2011

    In spite of the extensive correspondence, there has still been a lot of discussion and speculation about Mozart’s life. The riddles of the multifaceted relationships and circumstances of his life and times are far from being solved. Much of his relationship with women is also based on guesswork. The exhibition showed twelve selected letters, a loan from the International Mozarteum Foundation, and illustrated documents and portraits.

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  • Tradition is Sloppiness! Mozart’s operas in the Gustav Mahler era

    From 12 May 2011 to 8 January 2012

    Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) is regarded as a revolutionary figure in the world ofopera. A major Mozart opera cycle was put on under his direction at the Vienna
    Court Opera in the 1905–06 season.

    With his congenial stage designer Alfred Roller (1864–1935) Mahler turned the operas into festive occasions with the stage a sea of colours and lights. The
    costumes, also designed by Roller, were seen as revolutionary. Mahler and Roller were devotees of the “Gesamtkunstwerk” (all-embracing art form) principle in which space, colour and light combined with music, words and gestures. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s death Mozarthaus Vienna was dedicating a special exhibition entitled “Tradition is Sloppiness” (Tradition ist Schlamperei!) to the collaboration by these two reformers. It featured outstanding original stage and costume designs by Roller, as well as his famous article, which aptly discusses the Viennese mentality and its scepticism and rejection of Mahler’s plans to revolutionise the Court Opera.

  • Mozarthaus Vienna celebrates it's 5th Birthday

    700.000 people visited the Mozarthaus Vienna since opening; extensive table of events.
    Five years ago - on 27th January 2006 - the Mozarthaus Vienna was opened.

    Mozarthaus Vienna presents the life and work of the musical genius Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, with particular emphasis on his Vienna years from 1781 to 1791, in a unique setting in the heart of Vienna close to St Stephan’s Cathedral. Domgasse 5 is the only one of Mozart’s apartments in Vienna that still exists today. The composer lived in Mozarthaus Vienna in grand style from 1784 to 1787. Nowhere else did he compose more music.

  • “Chi vive amante… Ich weiß, dass derjenige, der als Liebhaber lebt, verrückt ist”

    23 January 2009 – 3 October 2009
    In co-operation with the Vienna City Library

    The main exhibit of the show was a fair-copy autograph score of the insertion aria “Chi vive amante”, which Haydn had composed for Francesco Bianchi’s opera “Alessandro nell’Indie” for the performance at Eszterháza Palace in 1787. The exhibition – which was presented in co-operation with the Vienna City Library – had a focus on the autograph score of this aria, which was written in the same year as Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”.

  • Joseph Haydn’s concerto for cello and orchestra in C major A discovery from the collections of the Czech Museum of Music

    from 20 March 2009 until 21 June 2009

    In 1961 a Prague musicologist discovered a copy of the concerto for cello and orchestra in C major, Hob. VIIb: 1, Sign. TrB 71 (Inv. No. 95069), dating from the late 18th century, in the archives of the Czech Museum of Music, which had been unknown until then. What is more, Joseph Haydn himself had entered a piece of music entitled concerto for cello and orchestra in C major into his own list of works, corresponding exactly with the music found in the museum. It was a sensational discovery in music history research, as the hand-written autograph by Haydn is unknown. In 2009 Mozarthaus Vienna presented the oldest identified document of this work by Haydn for the first time in Vienna.

  • From the Vienna Boys’ Choir to the first Vienna Classicist

    14 October 2008 – 10 January 2009

    In co-operation with Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna), Mozarthaus Vienna presented an overview of Haydn’s years in Vienna with a focus on his early years (up to the mid-1760s) in Vienna and on his later years from 1796 to 1809.

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Following the welcoming address by City Councillor for Economic Affairs Peter Hanke and Wien Holding Managing Director Kurt Gollowitzer, as well as a message of greeting from Anita Eichinger, Director of the Vienna City, Thomas Aigner, Deputy Director of the Vienna City Library, provided insights into the exhibition - accompanied by musical pieces.

In the so-called military aria at the end of Act One of the opera “Le Nozze di Figaro” (The Marriage of Figaro), the main character, Figaro, drastically describes the horrors of a soldier’s life to the page Cherubino who has just been promoted to the rank of an officer. An Austrian military march dating from this period, found recently, shows a striking thematic similarity with the said march at the end of Figaro’s aria. Did Mozart perhaps know this military march and deliberately use it in his opera? If so, with a few ingenious touches he made it fit for performance on stage, thus giving the scene even greater reference to reality.

City Economic Councillor Peter Hanke was enthusiastic about the new special exhibition and predicted that the current context and the documents shown for the first time will attract not only local Mozart fans but also international guests.

Wien Holding Managing Director Kurt Gollowitzer emphasized that through the annually changing special exhibitions of Mozarthaus Vienna, a new focus is always placed on Mozart and his world. The current exhibition now opens up the field of tension between Mozart's artistic aspirations and the military conflicts in the Habsburg Empire.

The musical supporting program with pianist Doris Adam, violinist Karin Adam and Kammersänger Wolfgang Bankl rounded off the festive opening in an atmospheric way.

The new special exhibition will be on display at Mozarthaus Vienna for one year.

Press photo:
Photos of the press release are available in the press section of Wien Holding at www.wienholding.at/Presse/Presseaussendungen. Reproduction free of charge in the course of reporting, provided that the copyright is mentioned.