The Danube Music Festival
The Sixteenth Annual Austro-Hungarian Music Festival
- Nine Concerts in palaces, theatres, churches and manor houses which are all related in some way to the music.
- Stay on board a first-class river cruiser on the Danube.
- Musicians are among the finest from Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
- Talks by renowned musicologist Roderick Swanston.
These festivals combine music and architecture in a singularly beguiling way. All the concerts take place in historic buildings – palaces, abbeys, churches, theatres – which are among the most beautiful, magnificent or charming in Vienna and the Danubian region.
Most are of the same period as the music performed in them, and in some cases there are specific historical associations between the two. Matching music and place – that is the governing principle of these festivals.
We have engaged musicians of the highest calibre from Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, lands of the former Habsburg Empire whose music these festivals explore. Many are among the leading specialists in their particular field.
Celebrating Haydn
By the time of his death in 1809, Josef Haydn had become the most internationally celebrated composer in history. He had the advantage of relative longevity (he was 77 to Mozart’s 35 and Beethoven’s 56), but the verdict of his contemporaries is amply justified by his exceptional productivity, his innovativeness
and by the quality of his creations: many of his compositions rank among the supreme masterpieces in their category.
There is scarcely a genre in the classical canon to which he did not make a major contribution, and to some – the symphony, the string quartet and the piano trio – he set the course for future developments far beyond his own era and that of his immediate successors.
But too often nowadays Haydn is relegated to the warm-up slot in a concert. These festivals aim to enhance appreciation of his music by removing it from the shadow of the more boisterous and extrovert compositions of the Romantic and later eras.
Haydn’s genius consists of melodic brilliance, extraordinary fecundity of ideas, infinite subtleties and self-effacing cleverness. Even his most expressive moments are tempered with humanity and intelligence. For sheer life affirming beauty he has no rival. Musicians tend to gravitate more and more towards Papa Haydn, though promoters remain wary and mainstream audiences diffident.
‘The Danube Music Festival’ has much by Haydn, but a larger proportion of the music is by others, mainly composers from the lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from JJ Fux to Janáček.
Other composers’ anniversaries
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born in the year that Haydn died, and ‘Haydn in Vienna’ pays due homage by including two major pieces by him. Exhibiting grace, wit and cleverness, Mendelssohn is perhaps the nineteenthcentury composer closest to Haydn.
‘The Danube’ admits a piece by Handel by reason of the 250th anniversary of his death. 1759 was also the birth year of Franz Krommer, a fact which may have passed you by, but you will be delighted by his wind octet in the final concert.
Vienna Imperialis, capital of music
As capital of a vast, multinational agglomeration of territories which after six hundred years of haphazard growth came to encompass much of Central Europe, Vienna is a city of appropriately imperial magnificence and one of the world’s foremost centres of historic art and architecture. There is also much
unspoilt streetscape of charm and unpretentious beauty, the layout revealing its mediaeval or Roman origin.
Moreover, Vienna has been Europe’s most important centre of music for most of the last four hundred years.
A rare intensity of musical communication
The audiences are small, and so are the venues, enabling a closeness to the musicians which engenders a rare intensity of musical communication.
Musicians love playing for these festivals. Not only are the venues an inspiring change from modern concert halls, but the audiences are among the best in the world – attentive, knowledgeable, appreciative.
An important ingredient are the lectures on the music which take place daily. With
Roderick Swanston on the ship it would be difficult to do better.
More about the Concerts
Private events. The concerts are planned and administered by Martin Randall Travel, and the audience consists exclusively of those who have taken the full festival package. The concerts are therefore private.
Seating. Specific seats are not reserved. You sit where you want. At small venues the audience is split and the concert performed twice.
Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with authenticity and ambience than acoustical perfection. While some of the venues have excellent acoustics, some have idiosyncrasies not found in modern concert halls.
Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues change their mind, rivers flood (or run dry), the tide turns: there are many unforeseeable circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme. We ask you to be understanding should they occur.
Read about the concerts