Musikverein Wien

This guide to Musikverein Wien traces architect Theophil Hansen's 1863 commission from Emperor Franz Joseph to build a concert hall on the new Ring Road, and the gamble he made designing a gilded Greek temple with no science yet to explain how a room should sound. You'll hear about the sixty-four caryatids lining the walls and the guesswork of plaster, wood and geometry that went into the room when it opened in 1870. Stand beneath the gilded ceiling and look up at Apollo and the muses overhead.