There was the realm of the pre-classical, of sensibility touched by the music of spheres, of perfect, unaffected hearing, at whose gate sublime inspirations would turn up…

Then lived on earth an Albinoni, a Pergolesi, a Marcello, a Vivaldi, a Corelli, a Haendel, a Bach. They lived, they composed, they accomplished, meeting the universal stillness with whispers of the genius dressed in transparency and serenity, and from a certain moment they disappeared in the turmoil of a world who had begun moving its armors.

Never again will there be a servant more modest and humble than the composer of paradisiacal callings which we can hear – graceful blessings for the spirit – in the four seasons of perfect music…

Pre-classical.

Georg Friedrich Händel: 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759

On a stormy evening in February 1785, the elite of Vienna gathered to hear a new work of Austria’s leading virtuoso pianist, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The importance of what lay within this masterpiece was known to only one man: Leopold Mozart, the composer’s estranged father…   

The d Minor Piano Concerto was first performed by Mozart at the Mehlgrube Casino on 11 February 1785 (one day after he had entered the work in his Thematic Catalogue). This was the first of six weekly ‘Friday concerts’ given by Mozart during spring 1785. Leopold Mozart arrived in Vienna, after a very difficult trip, just in time for the Premiere of The d Minor Concert. In a long letter written between 14 and 16 February, Leopold described the event to Nannerl, Mozart’s sister:  

“On 11 February we drove to his first subscription concert, at which a great many members of the aristocracy were present. Each person pays a souverain d’or or three ducats for these Lenten concerts. Your brother is giving them at the Mehlgrube. … The concert was magnificent and the orchestra played splendidly. … we had a new and very fine concerto by Wolfgang, which the copyist was still copying as we arrived, and the rondo of which your brother did not even have time to play through, as he had to supervise the copying.”   

Mozart played The d Minor Concerto again – this time in rather less haste – at a concert on 15 February in the Burgtheater, organised by the singer Elisabeth Distler. Leopold reported that on this occasion Mozart “played his new grand concerto in d minor magnificently”.   

 “We never get to bed before one o’clock and I never get up before nine. We lunch at two or half past. … Every day there are concerts (note: either Mozart’s own, or performances that he gave in concerts arranged by others); and the whole time is given up to teaching, music, composing and so forth. … If only all the concerts were over! It is impossible for me to describe the rush and bustle. Since my arrival (note: on 11 February) your brother’s fortepiano has been taken at least a dozen times to the theatre or to some other house. He has had a large fortepiano pedal made, which stands under the instrument and is about two feet longer and extremely heavy. It is taken to the Mehlgrube every Friday, and has also been taken to Count Zichy’s and Prince Kaunitz’s.” (Leopold Mozart – letter to Nannerl)  

Mozart’s piano concertos were performed in a variety of settings during his lifetime. Since relatively few halls in the eighteenth century were built expressly for presenting concerts, places originally designed for other purposes were most commonly used. Setting aside the option of outdoor concerts, Neal Zaslaw has identified three settings in which piano concertos were performed: the salon (a room intended for social gatherings of various kinds in a middle-class or aristocratic home), the hall (a large room with a high ceiling, such as might be found in palaces, stately homes, colleges, monasteries, taverns) and the theater. 

The Premiere of the Piano Concerto in D minor, K 466, took place in a hall: a large room on the second floor of the Mehlgrube, a city-owned building located on the Neuer Markt. A restaurant occupied the ground floor, and the large room on the floor above was used not only for concerts, but also for banquets and balls. In smaller adjoining rooms food and beverages were served, and gaming tables were available. According to Leopold Mozart’s reports, there were more than 150 subscribers, including “a great many members of the aristocracy”, to the concert series that Mozart presented at the Mehlgrube between 11 February and 18 March 1785. Since Leopold seemed so pleased with the attendance, we might estimate a seating capacity for the hall of around 150-200. 

If we take a look on the Subscriber List to Mozart’s Concerts of 1784, we have reason to believe that many of them were among the subscribers for the 1785 Concerts, so we can just imagine them taking their seats in the Mehlgrube Hall: Prince Kaunitz, Prince Galitsin, Therese von Trattner, Baroness Waldstatten, Count and Countess Thun, Princess Lichnowsky, Prince Lobkowitz, Prince Liechtenstein, Count Zichy, Count Esterhazy, Count Nostitz, Baron van Swieten, Councillor Greiner, Countess Waldstein, Count Zinzendorf, Baron Wetzlar, Princess Auersperg, Count Banffi, Ignatz von Born, Count Czernin, Prince Schwartzenberg, Countess Hatzfeld, Count Esterhazy… and many others, all people of importance and position in the Viennese society.  

Iconographic evidence suggests that in halls like the Mehlgrube the players would probably have occupied a low platform situated not at the end of the room, but against one of the long walls. The seating plan for K.466 would probably have been similar to the one recommended in 1802 by the piano-maker and Mozart pupil Nannette Stein Streicher: 

“In performing concertos, especially Mozart’s, one should move the fortepiano several feet nearer (the audience) than the orchestra is. Directly behind the piano leave just the violins. The bass-line and wind instruments should be further back, the latter more than the former.”  

“For concerts like Mozart’s, for which the featured artist actually hired the orchestra, it was usual to have only a single rehearsal, the morning of the performance. For the Premiere of The d Minor Concerto, on 11 February 1785, there was not even time to read through the finale, since Mozart was busy supervising the copying of the parts. Leopold’s report that “the orchestra played splendidly” is hard to believe, given the circumstances. (In contrast, when Leopold’s seventeen-year-old pupil Heinrich Marchand rehearsed the concerto for a performance in Salzburg on 22 March 1786, it took three playings of the finale to get the orchestra to play together and keep up with the soloist.) Adalbert Gyrowetz, one of whose symphonies was programmed in Mozart’s Mehlgrube series, noted in his presumed autobiography that Mozart had hired a “full theater orchestra” for these concerts. This was most likely the orchestra of the Burgtheater, where, four days later, on 15 February 1785, Mozart again played The D-minor Piano Concerto, in a concert given by the singer Elisabeth Distler.”   

The next day, Joseph Haydn, visiting Mozart’s apartment on Domgasse for a celebration that included a reading of Mozart’s last three quartets, met Leopold and remarked to him: “Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name…”, gratifying praise from the master Europe now acknowledged as supreme. The following evening at the Burgtheater Leopold sat in a box near that of “the very beautiful” Princess of Wurttemberg. “Your brother”, he reported to Nannerl, “played a glorious concerto, which he composed for Mlle Paradis to perform in Paris… Tears of sheer delight came to my eyes… When your brother made his exit, the Emperor saluted him with his hat and called out: “Bravo, Mozart!”  

Mozart sent Leopold his autograph score of the work (along with that of K 467, the 21^st Concerto, and engraved copies of the six string quartets dedicated to Haydn) at the end of November 1785. The solo part of The d Minor Concerto was sent to Nannerl (in St Gilgen) early in 1786. Describing a subsequent performance in Salzburg by Heinrich Wilhelm Marchand on 22 March 1786, Leopold remarked that:

“As you have the clavier part, he (Marchand) played it from the score and (Michael) Haydn turned over the pages for him and at the same time had the pleasure of seeing with what art it is composed, how delightfully the parts are interwoven and what a difficult concerto it is… We rehearsed it in the morning and had to practise the rondo three times before the orchestra could manage it, for Marchand took it rather quickly.” 

A rather later performance of The d Minor Concerto is recorded by Thomas Attwood in a letter to an unnamed correspondent, probably dating from 1828-1830 (Eisen). According to Attwood’s recollection of events occurring some forty years previously, Mozart “was very kind to all of Talent who came to Vienna and generally played at their Benefit Concerts with the Pianofortes … The last time I heard him, He play’d his concerto in D minor & ‘Non temere’ (…) at Storace’s Benefit (concert).” This was probably Nancy Storace’s farewell concert at the Karntnerthortheater on 23 February 1787 (Erich Deutsch).”  

The autograph of The d Minor Piano Concerto (on 12-stave ‘Querformat’ paper) is in the collection of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna . It bears, on the first music-page, the legend ‘Concerto Di Amadeo Wolfgango Mozart’. Previously, it was owned by Mozart’s colleague, the Abbé Maximiliam von Stadler (1748-1833). After Mozart’s death, Stadler, at Constanze’s request, began to put the remaining autograph manuscripts in order, completing a few fragmentary compositions, and cataloguing others. The first edition was published by André (Mozart, 1796), that is, three years before he purchased from Constanze a large quantity of autographs upon which his early editions of Mozart’s works were based (the exemplar for this print is not known). The autograph of The d Minor Concerto was not among those autographs purchased by André in November 1799. Possibly it had already been given to Stadler by this time. A set of playing parts survives at St Peter’s, Salzburg, in which detailed instructions for ‘ripieno’ performance appear in the violin parts. Although no cadenzas to this work by Mozart are known, Beethoven composed examples for the first movement and finale. Beethoven performed the work at a benefit concert for Mozart’s widow (also attended by Count Zinzendorf) in the Karntnerthortheater, Vienna, on 31 March 1795. 

(Excerpts from Robert W. Gutman – Mozart: A Cultural Biography, John Irving: Mozart’s Piano Concertos,  David Grayson: Mozart’s Piano Concertos nos. 20 and 21) 

On the site where Mozart premiered some of his most beautiful piano concertos, the Mehlgrube has turned into Hotel Ambassador. A timeline of this change can be seen on the History page the Ambassador Hotel.  

It is Mozart’s entry in his hand-written catalogue of works, on a Thursday the 10^th of a cold, harsh February, in Vienna. Two lines announcing the birth of one of the most beautiful musical creations that humanity has ever known: The d minor Piano Concerto.  

Of all his wonderful piano concertos, it’s the d minor I love the most. It is in resonance with my profound being. I sense each note deep in my heart… the music is breathtaking, majestic, tremendous, it moves and troubles my soul, leaving within it a longing I am not able to understand…  

To turn the pages of Mozart’s Thematic Catalogue is pure emotion!  The manuscript is Mozart’s record of his compositions in the last seven years of his life. Thanks to The British Library, we can feel this emotion, even without touching the precious paper.  

“Mozart wrote the Piano Concertos K.466 and 467 for his own use during the 1785 Lenten season, a period of hectic concert activity. He began K.466 during the third week of January, immediately after he had completed the String Quartets in A major, K.464, and C major (the so-called “Dissonant” or “Dissonance” Quartet), K.465, the last of the six quartets later dedicated to Franz Joseph Haydn. The D-minor Concerto, K.466, was completed on 10 February, the day before its premiere, which was given at the first in a series of six weekly concerts that Mozart was presenting at the Mehlgrube on successive Friday nights.

These concerts proved to be quite lucrative, attracting more than 150 subscribers, each of whom paid a souverain d’or for the series. (As a point of reference, Mozart’s annual rent for his “upper-bracket” furnished apartment was 460 gulden, or around 35 souverains d’or.) Of course he had expenses connected to the concert series, including payments to the orchestra musicians, though the hall rental for each concert was only half a souverain d’or.” (David Grayson – Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21)  

Advocate Peter Gutmann, on Classical Notes, writes about the 20^th Concerto. “A piece”, he calls his  work, “an essay of the heart”, I would call it, because apart his very fine writing and excellent research, this page was written from the heart! With the generous permission he himself expresses, I will end my post with excerpts from his Classical Note on the 20^th Concerto.   

227 years have passed since the Birth Day of The d minor Concerto. Its beauty will last as long as the idea of humanity will.  

I call to you, Music,  

I close my eyes and see 

the Mehlgrube, 

the guests have arrived,  

the hall is filled with their murmur,  

impatient as they are for 

the concert to start, 

the musicians are holding their instruments,  

their eyes on the precious score 

lighted by the golden glow of candles,   

and then He appears…  

Peter Gutmann – Mozart’s Piano Concerto in d Minor  

“Friederich Blume pinpoints its unique historical importance as the moment in which the decisive turn to the modern concerto took place. For Blume, K. 466 was the very first concerto in which conventionalisms cede to the spontaneous expression of artistic individuality and “the language of the heart.” 

The impulse for Mozart to have created the 20th is curious indeed and perhaps forever beyond our knowledge. While it is tempting to relate it to a newfound maturity or dark events in his life, biographers caution that such efforts are deceptive – Mozart wrote many of his most upbeat works at times of depression and searching ones during periods of contentment. Indeed, he often wrote his piano concerti in pairs and the very next one, # 21 in C Major, K. 467, given only weeks later, is among his most delicate and affirmative. (…) In any event, Arthur Hutchins warns that since we don’t know how long a given work gestated before it appeared, a precise set of stimuli is impossible to trace.  

Alone among the Mozart concertos, the 20th cast a strong and lasting influence. Veinus notes that it served as a springboard for the turbulence of Beethoven’s capitulation to the tragic muse which, in turn, revolutionized serious music as we know it and paved the way to the music of the next century. Indeed, it comes as no surprise that Beethoven played the work, going so far as to write out his own cadenzas which, as reflections of his own overpowering personality, exploit the dramatic implications of the material at the expense of its inherent elegance and occasional charm, bearing less stylistic similarity to the cadenzas Mozart left us for other of his concerti, which tended to be bright and often a brief fantasy built on a subsidiary theme. 

Mozart never wrote out cadenzas for this work, as he had for his nine prior concerti, for a simple and practical reason – preparations for the February 11, 1785 premiere were so rushed that the copyist was still working on the orchestral parts as the audience arrived, and so Mozart improvised on the spot. (Nor did he get a chance to rehearse the rondo, so even with the usual allowances for first performances of unfamiliar music, this one must have been especially rough.) As most concerts of the time boasted new work, and as this one was an academie – part of a subscription series in which Mozart introduced his music to well-heeled patrons – Mozart may have never performed the 20th again but merely moved on to introduce other concerti in subsequent concerts. Indeed, John Culshaw has suggested that the thinness of the solo part in the andante is deceptive, as it may not reflect the full piano role that Mozart had intended and actually played, but rather is a mere outline that he planned to flesh out during the performance and never bothered to complete. Even so, we know that at least one member of the audience was hugely impressed – the next day, Joseph Haydn, the most respected musician of the time, proclaimed Mozart to be the greatest composer he knew.  

Mozart was widely considered the greatest pianist of his time. How did he play his own work? While others’ descriptions often are partisan, vague and of varying reliability, fortunately Mozart left us copious correspondence in which he freely praised and disparaged his colleagues and thus provides a remarkably full portrait of his own ideals, which presumably he followed when performing himself. (After all, he wrote nearly all of his piano pieces for the purpose of personal performance, and so clearly they suit his own aesthetic intentions and exhibit his own strengths and inclinations.) As catalogued by Harold Schonberg, Mozart straddled and served as a transition between the rigid mechanics and florid ornamentation of his Baroque forebears and the expressive freedom and permissive inflection of the Romantic age that was to follow. While he insisted upon technical accuracy and precision, he had no tolerance for virtuosity unless it was to be applied with moderation and taste and placed at the service of the music. Yet, the result was not to be dry or mechanical, nor slavish adherence to the written score, as Mozart was known for liberally embellishing his own work during performances as a famed improviser. He sat at the center of the keyboard and maintained a calm demeanor without facial gestures. Tempos were to be strictly maintained, with no speed or slowing for emphasis or variation in repeated sections. All legato was to be in the right hand, and then temperate and regulated, so the notes “flowed like oil” without distending the basic pulse. Each extended note was to be held for its full value, without emphatic clipping. 

The fascinating question still remains, of how (or even if) Mozart would have structured and scored K. 466 (and much of his other work) had he lived a generation or two later – not in the classical era which he epitomized, but rather in the heart of the Romantic era which he anticipated and enabled in so many ways, and never as much as with his 20th piano concerto.”

Copyright Peter Gutmann, 2008

Mozart’s own fortepiano

A fortepiano after Walther, wonderfully crafted in our time! Visit the site of harpsichord maker Keith Hill, to see a Walther fortepiano similar to the one on which Mozart composed and played. 

Or click here for a sound sample of one of Keith Hill’s Walther fortepianos in a Mozart Piano Concerto, played by Robert Hill with orchestra.  

Then go wander through the Vienna of Mozart’s time… 

Every year in January, to celebrate the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg hosts the Mozart Week: a series of opera performances, orchestral, chamber and soloist concerts. World-renowned Mozart interpreters sustain the peerless reputation of this unique event. Between 27 January – 5 February 2012, classical music lovers from all over the world are invited to rejoice in the everlasting beauty of the great composer’s music. 

Mozarts Geburtshaus, the house in which Mozart was born on 27 January 1756, on Getreidegasse, is now one of the most frequently visited museums in the world. The exhibition, which spreads over three floors, carries the visitors into Wolfgang’s world, telling when he began to make music, who his friends and patrons were, how the relationship with his family looked like, how strong was his passion for the opera… Here can be seen portraits, original manuscripts and documents, as well as personal objects and musical instruments on which he has played: his childhood violin and the clavichord on which he composed a few of his wonderful works.

In Makartplatz there is Mozarts Wohnhaus, the residence where Mozart lived between 1773 and 1781 (the year when he left for Vienna). The building was severely damaged in the Second World War’s bombings, but it was faithfully reconstructed and today hosts the second important Mozart museum in Salzburg.

In the spacious rooms visitors can see portraits and original documents, manuscripts of Mozart’s works from the Salzburg years, Wolfgang’s original fortepiano, as well as the famous Family Portrait in the Master’s Dance Hall (Tanzmeistersaal).

Salzburg is a city of music: during the year extraordinary performances take place in churches, in palaces, in concert halls… Salzburger Schlosskonzerte is one of the biggest musical events in the world: the concerts take place in the marble hall of the Mirabell Palace, there where, in another time, young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played himself! 

On Mozart Week, or whenever you are in Salzburg, give yourself the joy of discovering the beauties of a city whose cultural, historical and memorial values have always been respected by its rulers and inhabitants!

The car is stuck in the parking, so yesterday I walked a long way 

to the post office, 

and it felt wonderful! 

I had not walked for a long time, 

so long it felt like I was just discovering 

the sensation of delicate snow flakes 

touching my skin… 

I walked  

on a long, quiet street, 

an old street, 

with old houses, 

some of them remnants of a time when Bucharest 

was called “The Little Paris”.  

I walked for a long time, 

with Mozart’s music playing in my mind… 

(whenever I’m alone his music starts to play inside me, 

and then I’m not alone

anymore) 

I only stopped to freeze some images 

of a past long gone, 

when people needed beauty 

more than they do today, 

and so they built beautiful houses  

in stone, 

not skyscrapers 

in metal, 

and they carved the stone 

and adorned their houses 

with beauty.  

And as I stood in front of this ornamented house,

looking at the statue on the facade, 

for one second, 

for just a blink of an eye, 

I thought of Vienna, 

the majestic city where He wrote the music 

that keeps playing inside me. 

On Mozart’s Birthday, 

melancholy has no place. 

Only the joy for his coming into being!  

Thank you, Mozart, for the gift of your uneven music!… Eternal gratitude, flowers and tears… a moving homage carrying within it all the loving thoughts which wend your way today and for ever…  

Leopold Mozart from Salzburg, 9 February 1756 

“… on January 27, at 8 pm, my wife fortunately gave birth to our son. Praise God, at this moment both mother and son are alright. We have named the boy Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb.”  

Vienna, 16 October 1762  

“The order to go to the Court arrived immediately after it was known we had arrived in Vienna. We were received with such extraordinary kindness by their majesties that if ever I tell them about it, people will say I have made it all up. Suffice it to say that Wolferl jumped up into the empress’ lap, grabbed her round the neck and kissed her right and proper. In short, we were with her from 3 till 6, and the emperor himself came in from the next room and took me to hear the infant play the violin.” 

 Paris, 1 February 1764  

“You can easily imagine, then, how impressed and amazed were these French people, who are so infatuated with the customs of their court, when the king’s daughters stopped stock still not only in their apartments but in the public gallery when they say my children and approached them…  But the most extraordinary thing of all in the eyes of these French people was that at the grand couvert after nightfall on New Year’s Day, not only was it necessary to make room for us all to go up to high table, but my Herr Wolfgangus was privileged to stand next to the queen, speaking to her constantly, entertaining her, repeatedly kissing her hands and consuming the dishes that she handed him from the table.”  

Paris, 1 February 1764  

“4 sonatas by Monsieur Wolfgang Mozart are currently being engraved. Just imagine the stir that these sonatas will make in the world when it says on the title-page that they are the work of a 7-year-old child. You’ll hear in due course how good these sonatas are; one of them has an Andante in a very unusual style. And I can tell you that every day God works new wonders through this child. He is always accompanying other performers at public concerts. He even transposes the arias while accompanying them a prima vista; and everywhere people place Italian and French works before him that he has no difficulty in sight-reading.”  

London, 28 May 1764  

“The kindness with which both their majesties – the king as well as the queen – received us is indescribable. Their common touch and friendly manner allowed us to forget that they were the king and queen of England; we have been received at every court with extraordinary courtesy, but the welcome that we were given here surpasses all the others . All will be well as long as we stay healthy with God’s help and if He keeps our invincible Wolfgang in good health. The king gave him not only works by Wagenseil to play, but also Bach, Abel and Haendel, all of which  he rattled off prima vista. He played the king’s organ so well that everyone rates his organ playing far higher than his harpsichord playing. He then accompanied the queen in an aria that she sang and a flautist in a solo. Finally he took the violin part in some Haendel arias and played the most beautiful melody over the simple bass, so that everyone was utterly astonished. In a word, what he knew when we left Salzburg is a mere shadow of what he knows now. You can’t imagine it.”  

Munchen, 15 November 1766  

“God – who has been far too good to me, a miserable sinner – has bestowed such talents on my children that, apart from my duty as a father, they alone would spur me on to sacrifice everything to their decent education.Every moment I lose is lost for ever. And if I ever knew how valuable time is for young people, I know it now. You know that my children are used to work: if – on the excuse that one thing prevents another – they were to get used to hours of idleness, my entire edifice would collapse; custom is an iron shirt. And you yourself know how much my children, especially Wolfgangerl, have to learn. But who knows what’s being planned for us on our return to Salzburg? Perhaps we’ll be received in such a way that we’ll be only too pleased to shoulder our bundles and go on our way. But, God willing, I shall at least be bringing my children to their fatherland; if they are not wanted, it won’t be my fault; but people won’t get them for nothing.”   

Vienna, 30 January 1768  

“Now, in order to convince the public of what is involved here, I decided on a completely exceptional course of action, namely, to get him to write an opera for the theatre. And what kind of an uproar do you think immediately arose among these composers?… What? Today we are to see a Gluck and tomorrow a boy of 12 sitting at the harpsichord and conducting his own opera?… Yes, despite all those who envy him! I’ve even won Gluck over to our side…”   

Vienna, 30 July 1768  

“His Grace has no liars, charlatans and swindlers in his service who with his prior knowledge and gracious permission go to other towns and like conjurors throw dust in people’s eyes; no, they are honest men who to the honour of their prince and their country announce to the world a miracle that God allowed to see the light of day in Salzburg. I owe it to the Almighty God to see this through, otherwise I’d be the most thankless of creatures: and if it were ever my duty to convince the world of this miracle, it is now, when people are ridiculing all that is called a miracle and denying all such miracles. And so they have to be convinced: and was it not a great joy and a great triumph for me to hear a Voltairean say to me in amazement: ‘For once in my life I have seen a miracle; it is the first!’”  

THE VOICE OF GOD 

“It may be that when the angels go about their task praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille they play Mozart” (Karl Barth)   

Photos courtesy of Vienna Tourist Board 

If you’re looking for the perfect guide to Vienna, look no further than Vienna.info – the online travel guide to the wonderful city!  

Today the doorbell rang and  when I opened I saw the postwoman holding a small envelope and a big one, “too big to fit the mailbox”, she said, smilingly. The small envelope had travelled over the ocean, from my beloved aunt: adorned with delicate Christmas figures, it nested a beautiful card with her loving thoughts and Christmas wishes. The second envelope wore the mark of the Austrian Post, and was coming from Wien Tourismus, offering me the wonderful surprise of a book, “Wien Walks” (won in Wien.info’s competition, a few days ago), and the excellent 2012 magazine of Vienna Tourist Board  

Together with Merisi’s beautiful blog, the Vienna.info page is one I visit each day, because it is the perfect place to keep in touch with the news and most of all with the feeling of the Great City! Through their page my eyes see Vienna and my heart feels it. And today, when I received “the big envelope”, it was that special emotion of touching the letter, and with it a little part of Vienna… I  hope to be able to use “Wien Walks” next year – it is a precious wish on my Wishlist! 

Heartfelt thanks to Ms Birgit, to the Vienna Tourist Board, for their dedicated and professional work, for everything  they are doing to bring Vienna closer to us!  

If you haven’t decided yet which city to visit before Christmas, maybe this wonderful image of the Vienna Rathausplatz dressed in Christmas lights will show you the way!  

(photo courtesy of www.wien.info)