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A trip to Vienna would not be complete without experiencing a performance at the Spanish Riding School, attending the Vienna Boys Choir mass and listening to Mozarts Requiem performed by the Choir and Soloists of the Salzburg Concert Society as well as by the Orchestra 1756, all featured in this short brochure. Visitors can also take in waltz music concerts and operettas or musicals and by paying a visit to the famous Opera Hall and on New Years Eve, Vienna comes alive with a dazzling display of concerts, operas, operettas, reworks, dancing and partying. Vienna Ticket provides you with tickets to all events in the city for all categories.

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Tickets for the Spanish Riding School performances lasting an hour and a quarter and can be bought at http:// www.viennaticket. com/english/ spanishridingschool. html. Prices range from 65 to 90 euros for the upper oor and from 120 to 210 euros for the lower oor.

ne performance that is a must-see for any visitor arriving in Vienna is the worldfamous Spanish Riding School and its Lipizzaner stallions. The school is the only riding institution where, for over 400 years and in the tradition of classical dressage, the High School of Classical Horsemanship has been preserved and practiced in its purest form, the worlds oldest. The Lipizzaner is a breed of horse that dates back to the 16th century, when the imperial Habsburg nobility developed and supported it to exhibit the haute cole or high school movements of classical dressage. The breed traces its roots back to the earliest stud farms in Lipica, in Slovenia, whose ancestors date as far back as 800 AD. Gala performances are held in this most striking baroque riding school, where the horses were once used to encourage aristocratic youths to take horse riding to an advanced level. The training of both rider and horse takes many years to perfect and only when the precision of movement of horse and rider is in absolute balance are they ready to be regarded as qualied to perform at the riding school. From the 1920s onwards, the Federal Stud Piber, whose home is in Kach, 45 kilometres west of Graz, is used for the Lipizzaners in the Spanish Riding School. They are oldest cultural horse breed in Europe, with their origin going back to 1580. Breeding is highly selective, which only allows stallions that prove themselves at the riding school to breed with the mares following arduous performance testing. This long training process is not just for horses but also for riders. Traditionally, boys were selected at the age of fteen and females were never admitted. However, in 2008 one of Austrias most rmly entrenched taboos were broken and the rst women were accepted into the Viennese elite. These period uniformed riders, bedecked in bicorne hats and spotlessly polished boots, salute before a portrait of Emperor Charles VI before they perform in front of packed audiences on their white stallions. The horses are the product of hundreds of years of breeding from Spanish, Italian and Arabian bloodlines and rearing the horses takes three years. Only at the age of ve does work under the saddle begin. The Lipizzaners movements are gracious and the horses have a supple gait with a high knee action, which is much needed to perform what is known as airs above the ground, or school jumps.
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SPANISH RIDING SCHOOL

Tickets for the performances of the mass with the Vienna Boys Choir are held every Sunday at the Hofmusikkapelle, Hofburg Palace, Schweizerhof, at 09:15am, lasting about an hour and can be bought at http:// viennaticket.com/ english/viennaboyschoir. html. Prices range from 21 to 52 euros.

he Vienna Boys Choir is one of the best known and possibly the oldest in the world with around a hundred choristers aged between ten and fourteen. There are four touring choirs, separated into Bruckner, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, which perform three hundred concerts a year. Austrias singing ambassadors can be heard every Sunday morning in Vienna. In 1498 the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Maximilian I, moved his court from Innsbruck to Vienna and issued the foundation charter calling for a singing master, two basses and six boy choristers to attend the imperial court as members of a new band, laying the foundation for the Vienna Boys Choir which was to provide musical accompaniment in mass, private concerts and on state occasions. When the Habsburg empire came to an close in 1918, the choir changed from its imperial uniform that included a dagger and adopted a blue and white sailor suit. Its survival and reformation was due to Rector Joseph Schnitt who changed it into a private institution in 1924, giving guest performances in famous concert halls around the world. On 26 September 1962, the Walt Disney lm Almost Angels was released about a boy who badly wanted to be part of the choir. His inspiration came from the VBC and was lmed in the Palais Augarten, a Baroque palace in the district of Leopoldstadt. Disney managed to persuade the Austrian government to allow the boys to wear the Austrian national emblem that continues to this day. In the opening of the lm Bridging the Gap, members of the Vienna Boys Choir, dressed in their traditional sailor suits, arrive in a boat on a beach of New Zealand and the angelic vocals perform Kyrie Eleison, meaning Lord, have mercy, in the time-honoured manner of the choir. In 1966 Benjamin Brittens wrote the vaudeville The Golden Vanity, which was composed for the Vienna Boys Choir. For the bi-centenary of Mozarts death the choir performed the Coronation Mass with the Academy of London chamber orchestra in St Pauls, Gloucester and Salisbury cathedrals in Britain. The choir perform every Sunday morning in Vienna where it motets, a highly varied choral musical composition for a church service sung by a choir without instrumental accompaniment, form the basis of its repertoire. The choirs pure, angelic sounds range from from Austrian folk songs to classical masterpieces and everything from medieval to contemporary music.
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VIENNA BOYS CHOIR

Tickets for Mozarts Requiem can be bought at http://www. viennaticket.com/ english/mozartrequiem. html. Prices range from 35 euros to 53 euros, with standing room (available for purchase only at the box ofce) at 14 euros.

olfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, the only surviving son of Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart, who started public performances from the age of six. His father was a highly successful composer and violinist, who was the Salzburg courts assistant concertmaster. From a very early age Leopold was a devoted music teacher who demanded a strong work ethic from Wolfgang in order for him to attain perfection. His son quickly showed signs of becoming a child prodigy, with a rare ability to play the clavinet and the violin and writing his rst composition at the tender age of ve. When Wolfgang was thirteen he accompanied his father to Italy, as Leopold was keen on displaying his son as a competent composer and performer, where he wrote a new opera, Mitridate, re di Ponto for the court of Milan. Four years later, Mozart and his father returned to Austria and the new archbishop appointed Mozart was appointed assistant concertmaster.

MOZART REQUIEM

But Mozart was highly ambitious and in the same year he tried his luck in Mannheim, Paris and Munich but to no avail. Back in Salzburg, Mozart was busy with his students and writing music for publication. In 1782, much to his fathers disapproval, he married Fridolin Webers daughter, Constanze and went on to have six children by her, although only two survived infancy. During this time, Mozarts mental and physical health deteriorated and the Requiem Mass was composed in 1791 but left unnished at the composers death on 5 December 5 1791 at age 35. Mozart is considered one of the greatest classical composers of all time and had perfected the forms of symphony, opera, string ensemble and concerto. Mozarts Requiem is a sublime choral masterpiece that marks one of his greatest works. In July 1791 Count Walsegg, who wanted to pass off the work as his own, commissioned the work, but on Mozarts death his wife Constanze had it completed by other composers under Mozarts explicit instructions. This years concerts of the Requiem are performed every Saturday between March 2nd and December 3rd by the Choir and Soloists of the Salzburg Concert Society as well as by the Orchestra 1756 just a few hundred metres from where Mozart died at St. Charles Church, one of the most impressive buildings in Vienna. The concerts all begin at 8:15pm.
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Bookings for New Years celebrations can be found at http:// www.viennaticket.com/ english/specialevents. html. Prices range from 135 euros to 720 euros.

n New Years Eve, Vienna comes alive with a dazzling display of concerts, operas, operettas, reworks, dancing and partying. There are many venues to choose from but the major events of glitz and glamour are held at Le Grand Bal at the Hofburg Vienna Palace, galas that take place at the Palais Ferstel and the Festsaal at the Vienna Town Hall and a round trip on the Danube on board a festively decorated cruise ship. Le Grand Bal One of the greatest highlights of the year is Le Grand Bal at the Imperial Hofburg Palace, with style and elegance as its main theme. It offers a glittering ball night in a breath-taking setting. As guests are admitted to this years gala dinner they will receive a oral arrangement of anthuriums and a welcoming cocktail reception, followed by the dynamically paced choreography of the Wo man lacht und lebt polka by Eduard Strauss. After the gala dinner, guests will then be entertained by soloists and be invited to join the dance ensemble with performances from the Vienna State Opera Ballet. Palais Ferstel Enjoy a memorable evening in the festively decorated halls of the Palais Ferstel, the former Imperial Stock Market Exchange, and listen to the original ball ensemble Johann Strauss and the swinging dance music Broadway. The hall was inspired by Venetian architecture, with its sophisticated ballrooms. Guests can enjoy a sumptuous dinner with champagne and wine to the sounds of the Pummerin and the traditional Blue Danube Waltz. The Festsaal Guests can enjoy their new years celebrations in the unique atmosphere of the magnicent Palais Ferstel, Viennas town hall, located in one of the oldest districts of the city and built in the Wilhelminian Era. The night begins with a lavish gala buffet and a striking musical programme featuring waltz music played by a classical ballroom orchestra and live band. At midnight, guests can experience a glorious reworks display from the main balcony. Gala evening on the Danube Some visitors prefer to welcome in the year with a river cruise on board the MS Admiral Tegetthoff or MS Prinz Eugen, two art-nouveau style boats. Guests can experience an exclusive gala buffet in a live musical atmosphere and enjoy stunning views of Viennas rework displays. The boat tour offers a sparkling wine entree, a gala buffet, snacks, live music and a magicians show.
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NEW YEARS EVE VIENNA