kate12

We would like to attend some concerts while in Vienna later this month. Can anyone recommend a particular event or venue to see?
There is a concert by the Wiener Hoburg Orchestra and one by the vienna mozart Orchestra. Any recommendations?

treble

We were there recently and did see the Hofburg orchestra concert. I am a professional musician btw. Though it was well played, and fun to listen to it was not an incredible evening. And only tourists go to those anyway. But my middle school age boys enjoyed it. (they are both in the school orchestra too) We also went to a trumpet and organ concert in a tiny church in the pedestrain area. Players were great, repertoire a bit cheesy, pews extremely uncomfortable! Try to go to the opera if you can. We loved the Haus der Musik. Good luck.

rkkwan

My parents went to the Vienna Mozart Orchestra. It's also totally catered to tourists, but it was a lot of fun and not bad for an evening of entertainment. But I don't think they would have gone if it wasn't at the Musikverein Golden Hall.

kate12

Thanks for the tips. I have gathered from reading up that the quality of music is not the best. I guess we will choose according to venue. Unforunatley the Opera does not perform in August!

Christina

August is not a good month for performing arts in almost every city (except London and Edinburgh with their festivals). I've been to Vienna in July and thought I'd have lots of choices given its reputation, but there was hardly anything worth going to. I know and listen to classical music a lot, so was interested in regular concerts, not the tourist ones.

I did see in the Vienna paper a couple chamber music events in a church here and there, and that was the best thing I found. They were relatively cheap, also, of course. There are periodic things like that in St Stephans cathedral, so I'd check for that.

amyb

I went to the Mozart Orchestra last fall when I was in Vienna and escaped at intermission. The musicians were so talented, but the costuming and the fact that I was so obviously stuck in a tourist trap just really irritated me. Try to find something locals would attend instead. I also lucked out and saw the Vienna Boys Choir in Brahms Hall in the Musikverein, which was the highlight of my week there. I booked tickets at viennaticket.com and had no problems paying for or picking up the tickets. I note that that site has performances for other orchestras that you might be interested in.

Musicteacher

As said before, August tends to be a vacation month for musicians in Vienna. There are a few things besides the touristic Hofburg and Mozart Orchestras, however.

On the 31st of August there are some fine pianists and singers performing Beethoven and Wolf at the Boesendorfer-Saal (piano manufacturer's showroom). At the same venue on the 25th, some pianists from the Summer Academy Vienna-Budapest-Prague will perform.

The Vienna Chamber Orchestra is playing at the Cathedral on the 20th, 26th, and 27th.

There is a summer series at the Schubert Church, Lichtenthal, on the 16th, 21st, 23rd, 26th and 30th.

There is an event database on http://info.wien.at.