THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Day 1

Sunday 28 July

Passau

Fly from London Heathrow or Manchester or make your way to Passau independently. For travel options, see page 20.

The ship is ready for boarding from 4.00pm. Afternoon tea is available upon arrival.

Piled up on promontories at the confluence of three rivers, the Bavarian city of Passau is crammed with historic buildings, dominated by the great Baroque cathedral. It was one of the most important episcopal seats in Central Europe and served as a refuge for the Habsburg court in times of danger.

The ship sails at 6.30pm. A reception is followed by dinner.

Walkers: fly at c. 9.00am from London Heathrow to Vienna. Drive to Dürnstein, perhaps the loveliest little town on the river, where two nights are spent. Walk up to the ruins of a castle where Richard the Lionheart was once imprisoned, and which cling to a steep hill behind the town.

Day 2

Monday 29 July Grein, Melk

More about the concerts: see page 11 for what to expect.

Moor at Grein, a charming little town squeezed between the Danube and the hills with a 16th-century Schloss rising to one side. The series of daily lectures begins.

It is a short walk from the ship to the main square where the tiny theatre lies hidden within the town hall. Constructed in 1791, it is the oldest working theatre in Austria.

Concert, 10.45am Grein, Stadttheater Michael Collins clarinet Minetti Quartet Clarinet Quintets

Inspired by his friend Anton Stadler, Mozart was the first composer to exploit the full potential of the clarinet, that beautiful latecomer to the woodwind family. His ever-popular quintet, rich in alluring melody and capped by a Papagenoish finale, is complemented by the entertainingly theatrical quintet by Carl Maria von Weber, whose Fantasia slow movement gives a distant pre-echo of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Return to the ship for lunch and sail downstream through the Wachau, one of the most beautiful stretches of the Danube.

Day 3

Tuesday 30 July

Vienna, Klosterneuburg

In the early afternoon, the domed abbey of Melk appears ahead on an outcrop beside the river. Its formidable bulk presents to the world an image of awesome power, and there is no diminution of this impression inside. Stone, stucco, paint, gold and all the media at the disposal of craftsmen and artists in the 18th century combine to create some of the giddiest heights ever attained in Baroque art.

A tour of the abbey passes through a sequence of ceremonial courtyards, guest apartments, hall and library, culminating in a church of unsurpassed decorative richness.

The concert takes place in the Kolomanisaal, the summer refectory of the abbey. Walls and vault are covered in frescoes by Gaetano Fanti and Paul Troger, the leading fresco specialists of their time in the Austrian empire.

Concert, 4.45pm

Melk Abbey, Kolomanisaal

Vienna Chamber Orchestra

Wolfgang Redik violin, concertmaster

Mozart Symphonies

While it is a romanticising fallacy to view No.s 39, 40 and 41 as Mozart’s symphonic testament, he does seem to have designed the trilogy as a showcase for the fullest range of his art. No. 40 in G minor veers between lyrical pathos and a violence unmatched in eighteenthcentury symphonies, while the ‘Jupiter’, No. 41, with its stupendous contrapuntal finale, crowns a long Austrian tradition of ceremonial symphonies in C major. In more relaxed mode are the delightful violin Rondo and Adagio, composed for the Salzburg concertmaster Brunetti.

Return to the ship for dinner and sail overnight to Vienna.

Walkers: a morning walk (c. 6km) begins in woods of pine, beech and birch to the sound of tumbling streams before descending through upland pastures and farmland. Walk on moderately gentle woodland paths and quiet roads, with glimpses of the Danube, the few steep sections being fairly short. An included lunch precedes the short journey to Melk, a guided tour of the abbey and the first concert for this group. Return to Dürnstein for dinner and the second of two nights.

Wake up at a mooring 20 minutes from the centre of Vienna.

Principal seat of the Habsburgs for over 600 years, Vienna became capital of a vast agglomeration of territories that encompassed much of central and eastern Europe. The fabric of the city is a glorious mix of the magnificent and the charming, the imperious and the unpretentious. It remains one of the world’s greatest centres for the arts, and has no rivals for its dominant place in the history of music.

The morning is free to explore the city and visit a museum or two. The Kunsthistorisches Museum should not be missed, the Belvedere Palace has paintings by Klimt, the Beethoven apartment is fascinating, MAK an exciting museum of decorative arts. We will give guidance.

In the early afternoon there is a short coach journey to Klosterneuburg Abbey, where guided tours precede the lateafternoon concert.

Founded in 1114, Klosterneuburg

Abbey is best known as the ‘Austrian Escorial’, a Baroque monastery-palace begun by Emperor Charles V in 1730 but left incomplete 100 years later. From the Middle Ages there remain a beautiful cloister and some astonishing artworks. The concert takes place in the Augustinus Hall, a charming Rococo room off a quiet courtyard.