As we hopped on the coach this morning headed toward the Vienna Art History museum, our guide Gabriella gave us some background on the city and some things we were passing by. Nearly a third of Austrian’s population of 9 million live in and around Vienna. The total population of the country crossed that 9 million mark just last month with the arrival of 60,000-70,000 Ukrainian refuges. Just 120 years ago Vienna was among the most heavily populated cities in the world, following London, New York, Paris, and sharing a three-way tie between Chicago, Vienna, and Berlin. Despite it's large population, it's considered one of the world's most livable cites due to low crime rates, very clean Alpine water, and clean air. Housing costs are also less than other large European cities (London, Paris, etc), with the government owning about a fourth of the apartment housing. Vienna is home to some180 art museums, housing massive collections acquired the emperors of the past. The Vienna Art History museum we toured is a work of art in an of itself, and we saw some incredible pieces during our time there (see photos for more deets). One could easily spend all day enjoying the galleries and the beauty of the building itself.

After our time in the museum, the groups divided into three groups for the latter half of the morning, two of which did an overview tour dubbed "Vienna Imperial City Highlights" and the other group (the one I joined) focused on the famous composers who gave Vienna its reputation as the capital of classical music. Our group hopped on a tram and traveled to "Haus der Musik" where we explored individual museum suites dedicated to Vienna's most influential composers: Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Strauss, and Mahler. The darkly lit exhibit rooms brought shifted your focus to the composer's music as it was played in each suite. We learned about Ludwig van Beethoven whose sophisticated sounding surname literally means “from the pig farm.” He came to Vienna at the age of 22 and lived there for 35 years. Many know that he was hard of hearing, which lead to his being mocked for his poor conducting. Despite this, he had a great many benefactors and was deeply respected by the people. His downfall was his habit of consuming two liters of white wine and one liter of red wine every day, wine which contained lead that slowly poisoned him. He was so beloved that 10% of Vienna's population attended his funeral, over 20,000 people. Beethoven greatly admired Mozart, who was fourteen years his senior, but they did not get the chance to work together directly as Mozart's health was already in a steep decline when they met. By a natural progression, we moved next to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's exhibit to learn about his prolific career, during which he composed over 600 pieces including 22 operas and 50 symphonies. As depicted in the popular movie "Amadeus," he was a child prodegy, first learning piano at age 3 and composing his first piece at age 5. Throughout his life he exhibited wild and vulgar behavior, leading some historians to suspect that he had mild version of Tourette’s syndrome. He died when he was just 35 years old and was buried in a mass grave in Vienna. As we walked into the next exhibit our guide commented that our next composer, Joseph Haydn, appeared relatively normal compared to the previous two musicians. A court composer, he wrote over 100 symphonies and is considered the founder of Vienna Classic style, which introduced the quartet and movements within symphonies. Upon entering the next exhibit for Johann Strauss II, we observed a drastic change tone of music from somber and grand to light and cheerful. Strauss composed over 800 hundred pieces, most of which were dances. He attempted to write more serious music, but composed no opera seria or masses. A close, personal friend of Johannes Brahms, he dedicated a famous waltz "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" ("Be Embraced, You Millions!)" to him. He is responsible for the famous Viennese waltz style, which is very difficult for conductors to lead as the second beat held is longer that the first, followed by a quick beat 3. We finished in the exhibit of Jewish composer Gustav Mahler whose music took us on to a melancholic turn, while reflecting his bohemian heritage. Mahler utilized larger orchestras than those before him, allowing for huge contrast in dynamics. He also reformed concert culture into what it resembled today with arriving on time and silence during performances, as opposed to eating, drinking and merrymaking typically done by the nobility during concerts. His higher demands also extended to singers, requiring them to perform as actors interpreting their pieces instead of simply standing on stage. Mahler eventually eigrated to United States as antisemitism grew in Europe. After completing our tour of the Music House, we walked to Mozart’s most famous apartment, where he composed many iconic works including the Marriage of Figaro. Little is known about which rooms were used for which purpose and how it was furnished, so the rooms were not staged but included historian's best supposals on each space.

As we returned toward our lunch-bound transportation, we passed the incredible St. Stephen's Cathedral. This over 800 year old gothic church is made of sandstone, a very porus material that absorbs pollution which causes the stone to turn black. The stunning interior was view by the other group, which I was very disappointed afterward that I had missed! Thankfully, Jeff Miller was gracious enough to share his pictures for the blog.

The afternoon held our excursion to the Hapsburg dynasty's summer residence, Schoenburnn palace, and I'll do well to let the pictures do the talking. Simply incredible!

After returning to the ship for the day, we enjoyed a wonderful concert of classical and folk music by a dynamic duo of musicians before dinner and a lovely evening of sailing toward tomorrow's destination - Dürnstein!