AITO: The Association of Independent Tour Operators
Mozart Along the Danube

Mozart Along the Danube

Mozart Along the Danube Overview

A musical voyage through Habsburg heartland via Europe’s most sublime waterway.

Eight private concerts in appropriate historic buildings, world-class artists, illuminating talks, a daily diet of beautiful landscape and picturesque streets, the comfort and convenience of a first-class river cruiser: this iteration of Music Along the Danube follows the winning formula that we first launched in 1994. .

The key feature is the singularly beguiling combination of music and place. Concerts take place in buildings that are among the most beautiful in the Danube valley – palaces, churches, monasteries and country houses. But the value of the juxtaposition goes deeper: the buildings are often of the same period as the music, and in some cases there are potent historical associations between the two.

Some of the greatest composers of the Western classical tradition were either Austrian or made their home in Vienna. Music and place align here in such a rich and varied way, and at the festival’s core are some of the most beautiful and beloved works by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven.

We hear Haydn symphonies in the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, where he worked for most of his life; Mozart string quartets in the tiny jewel of a theatre in Grein, Austria’s oldest working theatre (1791), and Kristian Bezuidenhout performs works for fortepiano in the handsome Augustinus Hall of Klosterneuburg Abbey.

Sublime soprano Carolyn Sampson presents Schubert songs in a countryside hunting lodge, and renowned pianist Imogen Cooper plays his lyrical Impromptus in the majestic palace of the Habsburg emperors, Vienna’s Hofburg.

In Bratislava the superb Smetana Trio introduces a Czech flavour to our journey through the former Habsburg Empire, and in Linz the Wigmore Soloists perform Beethoven’s elegant and deservedly popular Septet as part of our grand finale.

The MS Amadeus Imperial serves as our floating hotel throughout, eliminating the need for hotel changes or long drives between venues. There is no onboard entertainment, no assigned seating, minimal announcements – and absolutely no piped music.

All performances are private, being exclusive to the participants who take the festival package, which leads to an intimacy that engenders a rare intensity of musical communication, and a proximity to world-class musicians which is rare and wonderful. Combine this with daily talks by music expert Dr Paul Max Edlin and an itinerary which takes us through some of the most enchanting riverine landscape in Europe, and this really is an unmissable experience.

Find out more about the Mozart Along the Danube