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 Mozartk¸geln (chocolates), sold at special Mozart shops on the K‰rntnerstrasse. 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.”