Amid the hype - and the whipped cream - Austria's capital connects past, present and future as it marks 250 years since the composer's birth

David Perkins [News and Observer, 24 September 2006]

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - You would never know that Mozart had problems with Vienna. Not in this, his 250th birthday year, when the Austrian capital is awash in Mozartkügeln (chocolates), sold at special Mozart shops on the Kärntnerstrasse. Not when bewigged and liveried salesmen in the Hofburg push concerts at you, given by pick-up bands, as if they were used cars. Not when banners across the city proclaim, enigmatically (and in English) "The Spirit of Mozart."