4th floor – The Virtual Conductor

Conduct the world’s most famous orchestra, standing in front of the Vienna Philharmonic in the Goldener Saal of Wiener Musikverein – at Haus der Musik, this experience is more realistic than ever before. The world’s only Virtual Conductor allows you to direct the orchestra, determining the dynamics, rhythm, tempo and musical focus. But be careful: if your conducting isn’t entirely satisfactory, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will react accordingly …

This is how it works

take up the baton, select the piece of music and conduct! The musicians then attentively follow your movements:
the higher you raise the baton, the louder the orchestra plays. If you turn toward specific sections of the orchestra, these sound louder than the rest. And of course, the faster you conduct, the quicker the orchestra plays – this is all possible thanks to a specially designed time-stretch algorithm. To emphasize voices, four audio channels are processed in parallel and mixed in real time.

At the digital music stand, you choose between the Blue Danube, Annen Polka and Orpheus Quadrille by Johann Strauss Junior, Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart, Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 or the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss Senior. If you need help. you’re in luck, because at the beginning of every piece Maestro Zubin Mehta, Honorary President of Haus der Musik, demonstrates how it should best be performed.

As an interactive sound museum, Haus der Musik uniquely presents innovative, unconventional approaches to a wide variety of music. Real and virtual sound worlds over four levels invite you to experience musical phenomena at first hand. By playing the waltz dice game, turning their name into an original Mozart composition, performing their own personal opera or conducting the world famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, visitors become familiar with the Grand Masters of classical music and immerse themselves in the fascinating world of sounds.