MAY 2016
Our City Bikes are again ready to roll!
„Our hotel AUSTRIA - CITY BIKES are again ready to roll!“
Do YOU also want to visit and get to know Vienna by "having fun whilst getting fit at the same time"? Our comfortable high-tech CITY BIKES are eagerly waiting for new "RIDES"!
- „THROUGH THE CITY“
(Passing St. Stephen's Cathedral, the moat, the Vienna State Opera...!) - „AROUND THE RING“
(All sights on the ring road...!) - „DANUBE BIKE PATH“
(from the City up to the National Park Donau-Auen/Lobau...!) - „VIENNA VALLEY BIKE PATH“
(From the Naschmarkt to Schönbrunn Palace, and perhaps further...!)
Our bicycles can be hired for a half or whole day. Our front desk staff will be glad to take your reservation, and will also provide you with a helmet and cycling map, and help you plan your tour.
„RADIANT "SUNSHINE" on the 4th FLOOR!“
For the last few days, the hallway on our 4th floor has been gleaming in the "sunshine"! Even if outside the sun no longer shines…
Mr DAUTI - our "man in white" - has been working tirelessly for many days! Sanding, priming, filling, painting and once again painting…
And suddenly- "the sun" shines in the corridor on the 4th floor!
„Two-coloured DECORATIVE upholstery in our comfort rooms!“
In our COMFORT rooms, you will from now on be greeted with colours reflecting POSITIVE ENERGY!
Decorative upholstery in orange, red & gold welcome you in accordance with Goethe's colour theory - with "LIGHT", "SUN", "ENERGY", "HAPPINESS" - or just "COSINESS…"?
Take a moment to pause and admire the colours a little…
„Mr PHILIPP - our MARATHON man!“
During the day, our night porter Mr Philipp studies and writes his scientific work.
Twice a week, during the night, he provides for the well-being of our guests.
At some point - in between - he found time to train and took part in the Vienna City Marathon Half-MARATHON for the first time!
Neither headwinds nor strong cramps could stop Mr PHILIPP! He COMPLETED HIS first half marathon!
Very warm CONGRATULATIONS to Mr Philipp!!!!
„Current and upcoming EVENTS in Vienna in May 2016“
Interested in music, theater, the opera, museums, and exhibitions?
We’ll be happy to keep you informed about all the dates / schedules and perhaps even let you in on a few secrets too…
Vienna Festival 2016
From 13 May, the Vienna Festival will be showing six weeks of contemporary stage art: 36 productions from 25 countries, from drama to dance and opera, accompanied by a series of concerts in the Musikverein.
The opening of the Vienna Festival takes place at Vienna's City Hall Square on 13 May. The free open-air concert has delighted thousands of people year after year and is broadcast around the world. The center for artists and audiences during the festival is the Künstlerhaus.
The Vienna Festival will focus on new productions of popular classics as well as premieres of contemporary works by international directors. Artists and ensembles from around the world present celebrated works, often in the original language. Audiences can look forward with excitement to four premieres in 2016. Other highlights include:
- The new production of Beethoven's great opera of liberation Fidelio by the Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov – with Marc Minkowski conducting at Theater an der Wien.
- The sensation of Moscow's theater scene comes to Vienna with Konstantin Bogomolov's production of An Ideal Husband, a furious social satire based on Oscar Wilde's stage play.
- Director Frank Castorf presents Tschewengur. Die Wanderung mit offenem Herzen – his stage adaptation of Andrei Platonov's novel about a journey through the Russian steppe.
- Corinna Harfouch can be seen as a white clown in the powerful variety show Der Auftrag. Erinnerung an eine Revolution.
- Jan Fabre shows a 24-hour theater marathon entitled Mount Olympus.
- Mezzosoprano Anne Sofie von Otter sings in Christoph Marthaler's theatrical evening of song Isoldes Abendbrot.
From 8 May to 26 June, the Musikverein hosts 41 concerts with the best orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. The program includes a number of Mahler's symphonies, Beethoven sonatas and his "Ninth".
Vienna Festival 2016, 13 May - 19 June 2016, various venues
www.festwochen.at
Bodies in the Leopold Museum
The Leopold Museum shows two exhibitions of two sculptors from different epochs.
What the works by Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919) and Berlinde de Bruyckere (born 1964) have in common is the human body, which stands at the center of their works. Lehmbruck numbers amongst the most important representatives of modern, European sculpture in the years around 1900. Approximately 50 sculptures and 90 paintings, drawings and etchings can be seen in the retrospective at the Leopold Museum. The exhibition traces Lehmbruck's artistic development from his years at the Kunstgewerbeschule (school of arts and crafts) and as a student of the Düsseldorf Art Academy until his suicide in 1919. Lehmbruck's most important works include those that were produced during the First World War. They reflect the sensibility and fragility of Lehmbruck's character and his humanitarian attitude. Emotional states such as a despair, sadness, shame and melancholy charge his bodies sculpted in stone.
Difficult topics such as death, pain and suffering are also central topics in the work of the Belgian artist Berlinde de Bruyckere. Her impressive sculptures, which focus on the human body in its raw beauty and vulnerability, make her one of the best-known sculptures of the present day. The fragmented bodies of her waxy sculptures are exposed to a constant process of transformation between genesis and decay. The Leopold Museum is showing the first comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist in Vienna with key works and series of the past 20 years.
Wilhelm Lehmbruck. Retrospective, 8 April - 4 July 2016
Berlinde de Bruyckere. Suture, 8 April - 5 September 2016
www.leopoldmuseum.org
Jewish world stars
The exhibition "Stars of David" in the Jewish Museum Vienna turns the spotlight on world stars of the music business.
Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Amy Winehouse, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed are just some of the artists who have written musical history. Jewish musicians have characterized the music business of the 20th and 21st centuries and made an important contribution to entertainment culture. The exhibition "Stars of David" focuses on different genres, portrays important exhibits and returns to the time of the Imperial and Royal monarchy. Because that's where the important roots of musical history are to be found.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the USA and Europe exerted a reciprocal influence on entertainment music. However, the emigration of many Jewish artists during the Nazi era clearly shifted creative innovation into the Anglo-American domain after 1945. Because most of the emigrants who had enjoyed success in Hollywood never returned to Europe. But their music did. This "internationalization" is also the topic of the exhibition at the Jewish Museum and is illustrated with reference to important composers such as George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and a variety of genres such as the musical, jazz, rock and pop. In addition to the international stars, the Israeli, French and Viennese scenes are also highlighted: from Serge Gainsbourg to the Sabres as well as Arik and Timna Brauer.
Stars of David, 13 April - 2 October 2016
www.jmw.at
Summer Night Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic
On 26 May, the Vienna Philharmonic, conductor Semyon Bychkov and pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque invite you to enjoy musical delights in Schönbrunn Palace park. Admission is free!
At the Summer Night Concert, the Vienna Philharmonic play open-air in Schönbrunn Palace park and to the familiar high standard. What is unusual is that they play this concert, held each year since 2004, with free admission: it is a way for the famous ensemble to give around 100,000 visitors and the global TV audience a special experience.
Semyon Bychkov from St. Petersburg takes up the baton for the Summer Night Concert. He has enjoyed success with leading orchestras such as the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the WDR Symphonieorchester Köln and as senior conductor of the Semperoper in Dresden.
Semyon Bychkov is married to Marielle Labèque. She and her sister Katia form a famous French piano duo – both are guests of the Vienna Philharmonic at this year's Summer Night Concert as soloists.
Program of French composers
- Georges Bizet: Farandole from L'Arlésienne, Suite No. 2
- Hector Berlioz: Rákóczy Marsch from "La Damnation de Faust", op. 24
- Francis Poulenc: Concert for two pianos and orchestra, d minor, FP 61
- Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2
- Maurice Ravel: Boléro, ballet for orchestra
2016 Schönbrunn Summer Night Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic
26 May 2016, 8.30 pm, Alternative date in case of bad weather: 27 May 2016
Admission is free, no reservations required
www.sommernachtskonzert.at
Ich war noch niemals in New York (I’ve never been to New York)
The hit musical with 20 songs by Udo Jürgens returns to guarantee full houses at Vienna’s Raimund Theater. But only for a while, from 17 April to 3 July 2016.
"Ich war noch niemals in New York" is a must for fans of the musical and for fans of the great musician, composer and singer Udo Jürgens, who died in December 2014.
Jürgens' well-known songs such as "Aber bitte mit Sahne", "Mit 66 Jahren", "Vielen Dank für die Blumen" and "Ich war noch niemals in New York" get the first-class show swinging.
The book is by hit author Gabriel Barylli ("Butterbrot"). The story tells of a fun-loving old lady, who - neglected by her career-obsessed daughter - travels to New York with her new love in order to get married at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. On the cruise ship, the "elopers" meet all sorts of relations who want to hold them back. The turbulent story with mix-ups and self-awareness runs its course ...
"Ich war noch niemals in New York" was previously on at the Raimund Theater from March 2010 to June 2012 and is one of the theater’s most successful productions, with 592 performances and more than 600,000 visitors.
Ich war noch niemals in New York (I’ve never been to New York), 17 April - 3 July 2016
Tickets: www.wien-ticket.at, www.musicalvienna.at
Donaukanaltreiben
The three-day music and culture festival will draw about 30,000 guests to the Danube Canal in Vienna again for the tenth time, from 27 to 29 May 2016. The watercourse running through the city center, which is normally a popular local recreation area, becomes the stage for numerous live concerts by mostly Austrian Indie bands on this weekend.
There is a brilliantly colorful program from the Spittelau to Franzensbrücke, with free admission to 17 venues, including the Summer Stage, Strandbar Herrmann, the Schützenhaus and the Badeschiff. The DJ sets, dance workshops, fashion shows, sports and numerous culinary specialties at the Donaukanaltreiben will evoke a vacation feeling - as, of course, will any number of live concerts by high-caliber, predominantly Austrian bands.
Ten years of the Donaukanaltreiben - that’s something to celebrate. The line-up includes the extraordinary live band Kreisky, which gave its first concert ten years ago at the rhiz in Vienna and continues to enjoy great success. Also well-known in these parts is Der Nino aus Wien with his simultaneously quiet, penetrating and virtuoso style.
The four members of Einhorn from Burgenland combine Funk, HipHop, Indie and Electronic into a sound that’s a lot of fun. Destroyed but Not Defeated from Vienna supply peacefully coexisting opposites such as Indie Rock and Rhythmic Gymnastics. The music of the Austrian Electro-Pop band Julian & der Fux is a mixture of stylish pop and energetic club music. Avec, a young singer-songwriter, evokes emotions and images with her delicate guitar sound, which work like a balm on the soul.
The three lads of Trümmer are guests from Hamburg. Their musical point of departure is rousing Rock’n’Roll. The German musician and author Thees Uhlmann reads from his debut novel "Sophia, der Tod und ich" (Sophia, death and me), a fast-paced, comical roadtrip.
The yellow Wiener Bootstaxi will transport visitors across the water to the individual locations for free. Late in the evening, there are indoor after-show parties at selected venues such as the Loft, designed by Jean Nouvel and situated on the 18th floor of the Sofitel with a fantastic all-round view.
10th Donaukanaltreiben, 27-29 May 2016
Danube Canal Promenade from the Spittelau to the Franzensbrücke, 1010 Vienna
Free admission
www.donaukanaltreiben.at
