Börse concert: find the hall

Finding the palace

The building is one block with four street names: Schottenring 16, Börseplatz 2, Wipplingerstraße 34 and Börsegasse 11. The organiser gives Wipplingerstraße 34, 1010 Wien, so use that address in a map or route planner. The walls are brick-red with white stone frames, and the roofline carries a sculpted frieze and a group of horses and a chariot. Vienna's history wiki notes that the main front originally faced the Börseplatz rather than the Ring, which explains why the building looks so different from the corner. The block is large, so allow a few minutes to walk round it if you arrive at the wrong side, and read the street signs rather than counting on the facade alone.

How to recognise it from the street

Vienna's history wiki describes a raised central block with two great orders of columns, lower side wings and raised corner pavilions, with a relief frieze around the top. The walls are red except for the stone cladding, and the roofline is crowned with sculpture, a sculpted group of Poseidon, or Neptune, on a chariot drawn by horses. From the Ring the central front is the easiest part to spot, because of its tall arched windows and the columns between them. If you reach a plain modern entrance, you are probably at a side door, so walk round to the main front. The building also houses offices and a restaurant, so more than one door is in use, and the one for the concert is the one on your confirmation.

If your date is at the Konzerthaus

On some dates the concert is in the Schubertsaal of the Wiener Konzerthaus. The address is Lothringerstraße 20, 1030 Wien, in the third district, just beyond the edge of the first. The Konzerthaus opened in 1913 and has several halls, of which the Schubertsaal is the salon-style one. Nothing about the evening changes except the room and the route, and the practical steps below apply to both, but allow for the different address when you plan your route and your dinner. Your confirmation names the location, so keep it open on your phone and check it before you leave your hotel.

Read next: When the concert moves

Getting there

The Wiener Linien route planner at wienerlinien.at is the dependable way to plan the route, and it accepts either address. The Börse stands on the Ringstraße, the boulevard that replaced the old city walls, and trams run along parts of the Ring. For the Konzerthaus, enter Lothringerstraße 20. Leave a margin on the first evening, because the Ring is a three-lane, one-way road and a taxi may need to loop round to reach your door, and arriving flustered is a poor start to a concert. If you walk, the buildings along the Ring are worth the time, and the Ring's history is covered in the guide to the evening around the concert.

The evening step by step

A concert of this kind follows a simple order. Knowing it in advance means you can relax once you are inside, and it makes the margin you leave for arrival easy to judge. Plan to reach the door with time in hand, using the start time in the calendar and your confirmation, because the cloakroom queue is often longest just before the start. If you are coming from dinner, allow for the walk. If the schedule is tight, book the later start rather than hurrying a meal. The ticket's own inclusions, the seat, the programme and the cloakroom, line up with the first three steps.

• Arrive and leave your coat at the cloakroom
• Be shown to your seat by the staff
• Read the printed programme before the first piece
• Enjoy the music, with an interval partway through
• Collect your coat and walk out onto the Ring

What the room is like

The organiser describes the Festsaal, the main hall of the old Börse, as a room with a richly decorated stucco ceiling and outstanding acoustics, and it is the hall the organiser names for its concerts here. Guests on the booking page call the hall intimate and praise the sound. Hansen's great trading hall, with its columns and coffered ceiling, burned in 1956 and is gone, so do not expect that room. The Konzerthaus dates are in the Schubertsaal, which the orchestra's venue page calls a festive, salon-style room. Either way you are in a historic indoor hall, so expect a room made for acoustic music, where a quiet audience matters more than the seat you hold.

Read next: The Alte Börse in Vienna

Arriving, the cloakroom and your seat

The ticket includes a cloakroom, so you need not carry a coat or an umbrella into the hall. Leave them on arrival and collect them afterwards. Keep your confirmation to hand, on your phone or printed. You book a seat category, not a numbered seat, and the organiser says most historic Viennese venues have no fixed seat numbers, so staff show you to your place and groups can usually sit together. The nearer categories give the best view of the dancers. Drinks are not among the ticket's inclusions.

During the concert

Put your phone on silent before you go in and leave it in your pocket for the music. The programme alternates short orchestral pieces, arias, duets and dance numbers, so there are many natural pauses for applause, and the singers and dancers often draw a laugh. Guests describe the evening as light and varied, with the ballet numbers adding a comic touch, so there is no need to sit in solemn silence between pieces. The organiser says the programme changes with the season and the singers, so do not expect to hear a particular piece, and treat the printed programme as the list for your evening.

Dress, children and access

Smart casual is a safe choice for a historic hall: you are indoors the whole evening and the cloakroom takes your coat. Age limits, wheelchair access and step-free routes are matters for the booking page, because they depend on the room and the option, so read them there before you travel and ask the seller if anything is unclear. A concert of this length suits older children who can sit quietly, but the decision is yours, and a small child will find a 1.5-hour evening long. If you travel with a wheelchair user, confirm the route into the building and the seating before you pay.

Eating and drinking around it

The building has its own restaurant tenant, listed on the building's website, but opening hours and bookings are the restaurant's affair, so contact it directly if you want to eat there, and ask about the concert time when you book. The simplest plan is to book the early start and have dinner after the concert, along the Ring and in the old town. If you prefer to eat first, book the later start and leave a clear hour for the meal, because a good Viennese restaurant does not hurry you, and say when you book that you have a concert to reach.

Who this isn't for

Choose another evening if you want a full-length symphony, a single composer, silence from the first bar to the last or a formal concert hall. It is a mixed programme of short pieces with singers and dancers, in a former stock exchange. Nor is it right if you must know the exact pieces beforehand, since they change, or if you want a long night, because the ticket gives 1.5 hours. For a single great work, look at a full orchestra's own season instead. And if a formal dress code matters to you, know that nothing about this evening requires one.