Mozart Along the Danube

Mozart Along the Danube Overview

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

The stretch of river between Passau and Bratislava is one of the loveliest lengths of riparian scenery anywhere in the world.

To write about the Danube is to embark on the life story of a large part of Europe. Unlike every other long river between the Urals and the Bay of Biscay, this majestic stream has never been the possession of any single state or even of any single empire – whether Frank or Slav, Magyar, Teuton or Turk. Through all geo-political obsessions, the Danube has moved with serene impartiality.

This is simply the biggest river of Europe. From its origins in south-western Germany, the Danube flows to the Black Sea over a course of about 1,750 miles, gathering force from waters which drain 300,000 square miles and passing through ten countries. More than 300 often furious tributaries pour their national waters into the Danube, but the river placidly swallows them all.

To travel with the Danube is a European experience. There may be no better way of growing into the knowledge of why Europe, even this middle Europe of so many conflicts in the past, has been more than the sum of its parts; and of why these parts, however little they may have seemed to belong to each other (much less love each other), have remained members of one body and segments of one civilisation.

A wonderful diversity of scene complements the ethnic, linguistic and national variety. The stretch between Passau and Bratislava is one of the loveliest lengths of riparian scenery anywhere in the world. Its monuments are many and remarkable. And nowhere on Earth can match the Danube region for its contribution to the canon of classical music over the course of several hundred years.