An English Guide in Vienna

Vienna
2,000 years
of European history,
in one city

Music

Image: iStock

Vienna, one of the music capitals of the world.

Did Mozart meet Beethoven, in the city?
(Very) possibly. (Almost) certainly. Okay, yes he did.

Did Haydn know Mozart?
Yes, he was a friend and a father figure.

Did Mozart teach Beethoven?
Almost.

Did Haydn teach Beethoven?
Yes, he did.
And did they get on?
No, they did not.

Did Schubert admire Beethoven?
He hero-worshipped him. Schubert was so in awe of Beethoven, that when he once saw him sitting alone in a Viennese coffeehouse he was unable to approach him to introduce himself.

Did Schubert meet Beethoven?
Yes, and Beethoven admired Schubert right back. It was Schubert who would carry Beethoven on his shoulder (Schubert was a pallbearer at his funeral).

What happened next?
Well, after Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert were gone the Habsburgs were finally challenged by a second family who would surpass it in popularity and eventually outlast it.

Cue Strauss dynasty.

Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, the Strauss dynasty (including Johann Strauss, the son), Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg and many others all lived and worked in Vienna making the city from the 18th century into a cultural centre of Europe rivalling Paris and London.

Where Haydn lived (and died)
	Where Mozart wrote The Marriage of Figaro
		Where Beethoven wrote his Heiligenstädter Testament
		Where Beethoven wrote Fidelio
			Where Schubert was born
			Where Schubert lived (and died)
				Where Strauss wrote The Blue Danube Waltz