House of Music

The Haus der Musik in central Vienna opened on 15 June 2000 in the Palais Erzherzog Carl on Seilerstaette and is the city's big interactive sound museum. Four floors over 5,000 square metres take visitors from a newborn's cry to the acoustics of the universe; highlights are the Sonosphere staircase, the playable stair piano and the Virtual Conductor where you lead the Vienna Philharmonic in the Golden Hall - lose the beat and the orchestra hisses at you. The flat of Otto Nicolai, who founded the Philharmonic in 1842, is also preserved here. Families and school groups easily spend three hours among stations on Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and Mahler.