Welcome to Vienna! My name is Wolfgang, and I’ll be your tour guide this evening…

Here, as we near the end of the nineteenth century, Vienna is the very heart of the famous Habsburg Empire. Caffeine addicts, worry not, this is a café society. Art lovers – this is a cultural centre. We’ll experience it all. Follow me!

However, please do not stray from the tour path. Or you may find yourself confronted with the erotic ‘pornography’ of artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Or telling your secrets to neurologist Sigmund Freud. Or lost down some dark alley listening to the radical new musical ideas of composers Arnold Schoenberg, Berg, or Webern. And if you really venture into the shadows, you might find lurking there a failed art student who will change the course of the twentieth century. Consider yourself warned!

But enough doom and gloom. I’m pleased to see you all dressed up as it’s very likely you’ll be dancing to waltzes by Strauss at some sumptuous ball before the night is through. Just another night here in Vienna!

Donald Armstrong, associate concertmaster for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, leads members of the Amici Ensemble and 2020 NZCT Chamber Music Contest winners Ravelation for ANOTHER NIGHT IN VIENNA – blending letters, ephemera and chamber music into a dramatic journey through one of the world’s most important cities during one of its most fascinating periods.