At the end of the anniversary year marking 150 years of the Vienna World's Fair, Bösendorfer is presenting a look at the World's Fair and its contribution to the piano world as part of an exhibition in the Salon at the Vienna Musikverein. Austria presented itself as a piano country: 48 piano companies exhibited 83 grand pianos and 11 upright pianinos. The piano company led by Ludwig Bösendorfer since 1859 exhibited together with the piano maker Friedrich Ehrbar, because the two had united shortly before to form a Viennese piano factory corporation. They got into a dispute over a patent while still at the exhibition and remained irreconcilable.

Bösendorfer and Ehrbar showed 10 grand pianos and 2 upright pianos in the Palace of Industry. A grand piano by Bösendorfer, designed together with the exhibition architect Josef Storck, could also be admired in the rotunda. In order to demonstrate the instruments, concerts were held, where the focus was less on the artistic performance, but rather on the sound and the special features of the instruments. The world exhibition was immediately used by music publishers and dance music composers as an advertising medium. Music publisher Adolf Bösendorfer, Ludwig's brother, also published numerous "World's Fair Music" for the occasion.

24 November 2023 - 23 March 2024
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