Vienna, Austria: does any other metropolis in the world have as many streets and squares named after composers– Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and Brahms? Each one of these musicians is a strand in the city’s DNA and their faces can often still be seen on the city’s many advertising pillars.
Commemorative plaques, too, grace the various houses in which they lived and composed. Mozart resided in fourteen different apartments in the Old Town, of which only his last abode remains, Domgasse number 5, where he composed The Marriage of Figaro (1786). Johann Strauss the Younger went ‘into exile’ at 54 Praterstrasse and crafted The Beautiful Blue Danube, better known as simply The Blue Danube (1867). Some of these residences have become veritable sanctuaries, even pilgrimage sites, for discerning music lovers.
The neo-Renaissance Vienna State Opera House, rebuilt after being bombed in 1945, is one of the three largest opera houses in the world. The prestigious Musikverein is where the Wiener Philharmoniker performs the annual New Year's Concert, always devoted to works by members of the Strauss family and broadcast live in more than 90 countries.
Vienna State Opera © Wien Tourismus \ Christian Stemper
Just steps away from these places of legend, behind an impressive white 19th-century facade, lies the superb The Amauris Vienna. This palace, once a gathering place for nobles, has been transformed into a luxury boutique hotel. Located on The Ring– the string of boulevards encircling the city–and recently renovated from top to bottom, the property subtly dovetails the splendor of the past with the sleekness of modern design. The remarkable original elevator finds companionship in period moldings and Italian marble, juxtaposed against contemporary craftsmanship and furniture. Each of the 62 guestrooms and suites is decorated with distinctive paintings, striking lighting and inviting art books, armchairs and sofas.
Inside the hotel’s gourmet restaurant Glasswing and Glasswing Bar & Bistro, a collection of rare paintings gives enriching glimpses of Austrian art from the early 1900s. Works by famed landscape painter Emil Jakob Schindler, Carl Moll, a friend of Gustav Klimt and co- founder of the Viennese Secession, and Olga Wisinger-Florian, Austria’s most important painter, are showcased here– the backdrop to innovative dishes by Executive Chef Alexandru Simon that honor art de vivre and the pleasures of fine dining. In Vienna, art is everywhere, a universal theme that delights in many forms, in countless, subtle notes and colors.
© Stefan Gergely
