Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart's Birthplace)

Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart's Birthplace) Review

As an adult, the great composer preferred Vienna to Salzburg, complaining that audiences in his native city were no more responsive than tables and chairs. Still, home is home, and this was Mozart's—when not on one of his frequent trips abroad—until the age of 17. Mozart was born on the third (in American parlance, the fourth) floor of this tall house on January 27, 1756, and his family lived on this floor, when they were not on tour, from 1747 to 1773.

As the child prodigy composed many of his first compositions in these rooms, it is fitting and touching to find Mozart's tiny first violin and his viola on display. The second-floor displays focus on the day-to-day living and traveling circumstances of his day, while the third floor has an exhibition called "Mozart on Stage." American artist Robert Wilson redesigned the whole fourth floor, and his sometimes surprising installation uses architecture, light, sound, and design objects with the intention of transforming the museum-like character of the apartment. Most of the rooms here are fitted out with modern museum vitrines and there is not much from Mozart's time.