Musikverein

Musikverein Review

The most important concert halls are in the buildings of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, called the Musikverein. There are six halls in this magnificent theater, but the one that everyone knows is the venue for the annually televised New Year's Day Concert—the Goldene Saal, the Gold Hall, officially called the Grosser Musikvereinssaal. Possibly the most beautiful in the world, this Parthenon of a music hall was designed by the Danish 19th-century architect Theophil Hansen, a passionate admirer of ancient Greece. For his 1869 design of the hall, he arrayed an army of gilded caryatids in the main concert hall, planted Ionic columns in the 660-seat Brahmssaal, and placed the figure of Orpheus in the building pediment. But the surprise is that his smaller Brahmssal is even more sumptuous—a veritable Greek temple with more caryatids and lots of gilding and green malachite. What Hansen would have made of the four newly constructed (2004) subsidiary halls, set below the main theater, must remain a mystery, but the avant-garde Glass, Metal, Wooden, and Stone Halls (Gläserne, Hölzerne, Metallene, Steinerne Säle) make fitting showcases for contemporary music concerts. The Musikverein, in addition to being the main venue for such troupes as the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Wiener Symphoniker, also hosts many of the world's finest orchestras.