The Danube Music Festival
The Sixteenth Annual Austro-Hungarian Music Festival
The Daily Programme
Day 1: Travelling to Passau Flights from the UK. We are offering a choice of four scheduled Lufthansa flights to Munich, from Manchester and London. It may be possible to arrange connecting flights with bmi (British Midland) from Edinburgh; please enquire. Connections from other regional airports were
not scheduled at the time of going to press.
Option 1. Fly from London Heathrow to Munich at c. 9.30 am. Break the journey to Passau with lunch at Landshut, a former capital of Bavaria. There are two or three hours here, and it should be possible to see the main street with its Renaissance and Baroque house fronts, the great Gothic church of St Martin or the precociously Italianate Renaissance ducal palace. (LH 4751, departing London 09.35 arriving Munich 12.20.)
Option 2. Fly from London Heathrow to Munich at c. 11.00 am. Drive directly from Munich Airport to the ship at Passau, a journey of under two hours. (LH 4753, departing London 11.05, arriving Munich 13.50.)
Option 3. Fly from Manchester to Munich at c. 11.15 am (there is a supplement of £120 for this flight). Drive from Munich Airport to the ship at Passau, a journey of under two hours. (LH 4861, departing Manchester 11.15, arriving Munich 14.15.)
Option 4. You can choose not to take any of these flights and to make your own arrangements for joining at Passau, boarding the ship between 4.00 pm. and 6.00 pm. There is a price reduction of £150 for this. You are welcome to join one of the group transfers from Munich Airport.
Passau
MS Amadeus Classic is ready for boarding from 4.00 pm. Afternoon tea is available.
Piled up on promontories at the confluence of three rivers, the Bavarian city of Passau is dominated by a great Baroque cathedral and crammed with unspoilt streetscape and historic buildings. It was one of the most important episcopal seats in Central Europe and served as a refuge for the Habsburg court in times of danger.
After sailing at 6.45 pm there is an introductory talk, a reception and dinner.
Day 2 Grein, Melk: Moor at Grein, a picturesque little town squeezed between the Danube and the hills with a 16th-century Schloss rising to one side. It is a short walk to the main square where the 1791 theatre lies hidden behind the town hall.
The first concert is here with the Oman Consort: chamber music by Haydn and some of his predecessors and contemporaries.
Sail downstream after the concert and moor at Melk. Dramatically situated on an outcrop rising above the Danube, Melk Abbey is one of Europe’s greatest Baroque creations and venue for the second concert: Capella Savaria and Capella Cantorum perform Mass settings by Haydn.
Sail downstream overnight from Melk to Hainburg.
Day 3 Schloss Hof, Bratislava: Moor at Hainburg, a picturesque town where Josef Haydn went to school. Drive across the Danube to the Marchfeld, a broad plain which, despite its proximity to two capitals, Vienna and Bratislava, remains stubbornly agricultural. A range of hills to the east marks the border with Slovakia, formerly part of Hungary.
Schloss Hof, a grand 18th-century hunting lodge situated on a wooded hillock, is the setting for the third concert: wind quintets from Austria-Hungary performed by quintett.wien.
Return to the ship for lunch and sail downstream to Bratislava, since 1993 the capital of the Republic of Slovakia and, during the Ottoman occupation, capital (then known as Pressburg) of the Christian rump of Hungary. With its well-restored streets and squares and fine palaces, it is one of the most attractive of Danubian towns. There is some free time here before an early pre-concert dinner.
The fourth concert, with the Wihan Quartet, takes place in the evening at the former Archiepiscopal Palace: string quartets by Haydn, Janáček and Dvořák.
Moor overnight in Bratislava.
Day 4 Vienna: Sail at 6.30 am from Bratislava to Nussdorf, one of Vienna’s Danube ports.
Principal seat of the Habsburgs for over six hundred years, Vienna became capital of a vast agglomeration of territories which encompassed much of Central and Eastern Europe. The city duly acquired magnificence appropriate to its imperial status, but tucked behind the aristocratic palaces and the mighty institutional edifices there remain streets and alleys of unpretentious charm.
In the morning there is a visit to the Liechtenstein ‘Garden’ Palace, one of the grandest Baroque palaces in Central Europe. Still owned by the family, it has recently been restored to display what is perhaps the finest art collection in Continental Europe in private hands. Coaches continue into the centre of Vienna for those who would rather have free time.
The afternoon is free; shuttle buses ply between the ship and the centre of Vienna.
For the fifth concert, return to the Liechtenstein Gartenpalais where the Wiener Akademie plays symphonies by Haydn and CPE Bach.
Return to the ship for dinner and moor overnight at Nussdorf.
Day 5 Eszterháza, Eisenstadt: Drive into Hungary and to Eszterháza (now Fertöd), summer residence of Prince Nikolaus of Esterházy and hence Haydn’s principal place of work for nearly thirty years. Perhaps the most spectacularly beautiful country house in Central Europe, this late-Rococo and early-Neoclassical confection is gradually being restored to its former glory.
Eszterháza is the venue for the sixth concert: the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt performs piano trios by Haydn and Schubert.
Lunch is provided here under a grove of horse chestnuts (or indoors in the event of inclement weather).
Drive to Eisenstadt, an attractive country town south-east of Vienna. Dominating the townscape is a vast 17th-century mansion, the principal seat of the Esterházy family. The Great Hall of the Schloss saw the première of many of Haydn’s orchestral works, and still retains the wooden floor that Haydn insisted be laid on the marble original for acoustical reasons.
The seventh concert is Haydn’s The Seasons, performed in the Great Hall of Schloss Esterházy.
Return to the ship for dinner and remain moored at Vienna-Nussdorf overnight.
Day 6 Vienna: Free morning. Again, shuttle buses are provided between the ship and the centre of Vienna, and there is the option of a guided tour. Among the many museums are the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, one of the world’s finest art galleries, the Imperial Treasury in the Hofburg and the Leopold Collection with works from the turn of the 20th century.
The eighth concert is held in the Hofburg, the Habsburg Palace in the centre of Vienna. The programme is a reconstruction of a Haydn benefit concert in London in 1795.
Return to the ship for dinner and sail upstream overnight.
Day 7 St Florian: Sail all morning through one of the most attractive stretches of the Austrian Danube before mooring at Linz, capital of Upper Austria. From here drive the short distance to the Abbey of St Florian. Almost entirely rebuilt between 1686 and 1751, it is one of the largest and most glorious of Baroque monasteries.
The ninth concert is at St Florian: Collegium Viennense performs wind pieces by Krommer, Smetana and Mozart.
Sail upstream from Linz to Passau, with a reception and dinner against a backdrop of wooded hills which gradually slips into the night.
Day 8 Passau, Munich: The ship arrives at Passau c. 8.00 am, and coaches leave for Munich city centre and the airport between 9.00 and 9.30 am.
Option 1. Those who flew from Heathrow at c. 9.30 am join a return flight which is scheduled to arrive in London at c. 2.15 pm. Coaches take you directly from Passau to Munich Airport. (LH 4756, departing
Munich 13.20, arriving London 14.20.)
Option 2. Those who flew from Heathrow at c. 11.00 am join a return flight which is scheduled to arrive in London at c. 7.15 pm. Coaches take you first to the centre of Munich, where you have about five hours of free time, before continuing to the airport. (LH 4762, departing Munich 18.20, arriving London 19.20.)
Option 3. Those flying to Manchester have about two hours in the centre of Munich before being taken to the airport. The flight is due to arrive at Manchester International Airport at c. 4.30 pm. (LH 4864, departing Munich 15.30, arriving Manchester 16.35.)
Option 4. Those who have made their own flight arrangements are welcome to join one of the transfers to Munich and the airport.