Coordination of guided tours
Ms Birgit Mittelmaier
Tel: 01-513 4850-26
Mail: fuehrung@hdm.at
Price on request.
The following tours are for groups only. If you are interested in doing a tour individually, find our offers here.
„IT’S ALL ABOUT BEETHOVEN“
[ target audience: adults, youth ]
What was especially revolutionary about Beethoven‘s music? Was it the tonality of his compositions or his personality and his free, artistic spirit?
In this tour we talk about how artistic freedom was redefined amidst the 19th century bourgeoisie and we explain how interpersonal, culture-political and also societal phenomena of the 18th century made this extraordinary composer take new musical paths. The tour examines Beethoven’s friendships, patrons, family but also his political convictions and his music in 18th/19th century Vienna. Joseph Haydn, Clara Schumann, Franz Grillparzer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg or Richard Wagner – they were all great admirers of Beethoven. With musical examples, sheet music and scriptures, we display the Viennese feel of the classical period.
„BEETHOVEN IN & OUT“ – Museum and City Walking Tour
[target audience: adults]
We start our tour at Haus der Musik as our walk along Beethoven Path introduces us to the famous composer. In entertaining anecdotes, we learn all about Beethoven’s life, talk about his hearing loss, the development of his only opera „Fidelio“ and his 3rd Symphony „Eroica“. A historical city map with Beethoven’s residential addresses leads over to a stroll through Vienna’s old town. Following Beethoven’s footsteps, we discover places important to him, such as Kärntnertor Theater–the premiere venue of the 9th Symphony, where Hotel Sacher is today–we then visit one of the many apartments he resided in and stop in at a coffee house he loved…
„BEETHOVEN AND LOVE“
[ target audience: teenagers, adults ]
The first love in a child’s life is for their mother. Starting from Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, we treat Beethoven’s work which was inspired by his being in love and his mostly unhappy love relationships.
Who is not familiar with the piano piece “For Elise” or the “Moonlight Sonata”? How are these and other works connected to Beethoven’s encounters with women? What is it about the letter to the “Immortal Beloved” that was never sent and in how far is his ideal image of a relationship between a man and a woman represented in his only opera, “Fidelio”? We also focus on his hearing impairment and question how the gradual hearing loss influenced his relationships in both a narrower and broader sense. This special tour aims at getting to the bottom of Beethoven’s passion for music and women and making comparisons with other composers of the permanent exhibition, such as Mozart or Schubert. The interactive sound installations at Haus der Musik complete this specialized tour.
„LISTEN TO LUDWIG!“
[ Target audience: children ]
“Listen to Ludwig!” is an interactive guided tour for children. By way of active listening activities and further interdisciplinary didactical methods, Ludwig van Beethoven is introduced to children from 6 to 11 in a playful way. Who was this Ludwig? What was so special about him? What does his music sound like? What did he eat, where did he live? What did he do when he was happy? Was he sad sometimes? Why was he deaf by the end of his life? Children can hear, explore, reflect and even create these and many other topics throughout the tour. The whole experience is connected to selected works of the great master of composition. The aim of this tour is the development of a sense for the work and life of Ludwig van Beethoven and to encourage the child’s musical ear and development.
“AN EXPEDITION INTO MUSIC AND SOUND” / HDM HIGHLIGHT TOUR
[ target audience: adults ]
Since Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen lived in the magnificent palace on Seilerstätte 200 years ago, a lot has changed. Since the year of 2000, Haus der Musik has been inviting its guests to a musical expedition from Mozart & Beethoven across interactive sound experiments to the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic. Marvel at, dwell on and work with different phenomena: the tour leads you over the piano staircase “Stairplay” to the Museum of the Vienna Philharmonic, where you learn about Otto Nicolai, the founder of the world’s most famous orchestra and the so called “Wiener Klangstil” (Viennese sound style). The movie theatre lets you relax to the New Year’s Concert before action comes into play at the virtual Waltz-Dice-Game, where every participant can compose their very own waltz by rolling the dice. After the second floor about sound, acoustics and perception where Kundt’s tube can be discovered, the expedition continues onto the third level and into the 18th and 19th century. Here, the focus is on the life and work of Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven: which musical genres did these composers pioneer? What was their motivation and inspiration? Accordingly, the “Namadeus” game in the Mozart room lets you set your own name to music – Mozart assigned every letter of the alphabet to a few bars of music. Accompanied by the sound of Strauss’ Waltz and a few humorous anecdotes, the tour ends with the “Virtual Conductor”. The visitors get the exceptional opportunity to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. But beware of what happens when you miss a beat… the musicians do not put up with everything!
