Börse Palace concert: booking

What you are booking

The concert is given by the Wiener Residenzorchester, the Vienna Residence Orchestra, a chamber orchestra founded in 1990 by the pianist and conductor Paul Moser and his wife Sylvia. It plays in different sizes depending on the programme. For this ticket it is joined by opera singers and ballet dancers, so the evening alternates between orchestral pieces, arias and dance. The organiser's own page calls its series Wiener Klassik Konzerte and promises over an hour of well-known works. The ticket you book through GetYourGuide covers three things, and nothing else. Anything beyond them, such as a drink at the interval, a taxi or a dinner, is your own to arrange, which is why the practical guides on this site cover the rest of the evening.

• Admission with a reserved seat in the category you choose
• A printed programme
• The cloakroom

Who plays and sings

The orchestra's own history page says it presents the works of the Viennese Classical period and the typical Viennese sound, from Mozart to Johann Strauss, and calls the ensemble a chamber orchestra with a long tradition. It names Rudolf Nureyev as its first guest conductor, from 1992, and lists guest artists over the years, among them the Vienna Philharmonic concertmaster Rainer Küchl. Which soloists sing and which dancers appear on your evening depends on the date, so the calendar is the place to look before you choose a date. The ticket describes the singers as opera singers and the dancers as ballet dancers, and guests mention all three groups in their reviews.

The two rooms

Which of the ticket's two meeting points applies depends on the option you pick. The main venue is the old Börse, the Palais alte Börse, which the organiser lists at Wipplingerstraße 34, 1010 Wien, in the first district. On some dates the concert is held in the Schubertsaal of the Konzerthaus, at Lothringerstraße 20, 1030 Wien, in the third district. Both rooms are real concert settings, but they lie in different districts, so look at the location line before you pay and again on your confirmation. If the room matters to you, choose the date by the room, and if the date matters more, accept the room that comes with it. Neither choice changes the programme, which the ticket describes in the same way for both.

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Choosing a seat category

You book a category, not a numbered seat. The organiser explains that most historic Viennese venues have no fixed, numbered seats, so staff guide you to your place and groups can usually sit together. The booking page shows the categories open for your date. In a room of this kind the nearer categories give the best view of the dancers and the singers, while a rear category suits someone who mostly wants the sound. If your party is larger, book one category for everyone. Front seats tend to go first on busy dates, so book those early, and if you are travelling in a high season, reserve your date before you fix the rest of your plans.

The building behind the ticket

The old Börse is worth a minute of background, because it explains the setting. Theophil Hansen and Carl Tietz built it between 1874 and 1877 in neo-Renaissance style, and Emperor Franz Joseph opened it on 14 March 1877. The Wiener Börse moved out in 1998, and the building's halls are now hired for events. The organiser names the Festsaal, the main hall, among its concert rooms and describes a richly decorated stucco ceiling and outstanding acoustics. The great trading hall that Hansen built burned down in 1956, so the concert is in a different room.

Read next: The Alte Börse in Vienna

Which date and time

The date decides the programme. The organiser says the programme changes with the season and with the vocal soloists, so two evenings in the same week can differ. Most days have more than one start time, and the calendar shows them; your confirmation repeats the time you chose. Pick the earlier start if you plan dinner afterwards, and the later one if you would rather eat first. Whichever you choose, check the location line, because the Konzerthaus dates sit among the Börse dates in the same calendar, and a quick look saves you from walking to the wrong district.

Length and what it feels like

The ticket gives the length as 1.5 hours. The organiser describes its series as over an hour of music, and guests mention an interval, so the evening runs a little longer than the playing time. A few guests found the music shorter than the listed length, so treat 1.5 hours as the outer limit of the evening rather than the playing time. The programme moves quickly between forms, so no single piece takes up much of it. That variety is the point: it is closer to an introduction to Viennese music than to a symphony night. Drinks are not part of the ticket's inclusions, so anything you buy at the interval is extra.

What guests say about it

Guests praise the skill of the ensemble, the mix of classical music, opera and ballet, and the intimate hall with good acoustics. Several describe the ballet pieces as light and a little comic, and one compares the mix of orchestra, singers and dancers to a small-scale show rather than a formal recital. The criticisms are modest: some wanted clearer information about drinks at the interval, and a few found the concert shorter than expected. Those two points are easy to plan around, which is why this guide covers both. The overall rating on the booking page is 4.6 from over a thousand reviews.

How it compares

Vienna has many concerts that sell on the same names, and this one is the staged choice: orchestra, voices and ballet together in a former stock exchange. The Freddie Mercury Opera Show is a different evening altogether, a separate candlelit concert by another organiser in which a soprano, a tenor and a pianist perform Queen songs in new arrangements alongside operatic arias, in a church or the hall beside it. Choose the Börse for waltzes, Mozart and dance, and the other for a rock-tribute programme sung with opera voices. They do not overlap, so some visitors book both.

Booking terms

On GetYourGuide you may cancel up to 24 hours before the concert for a full refund, and you can reserve now and pay later. The organiser also sells direct, under separate terms that include a different cancellation rule and fee. Choose one seller and read its terms, since they do not match. Nothing is sold on this site: each booking button leads to GetYourGuide, whose calendar is the dependable source for dates, start times, seat categories and fares, so check it again just before you pay and once more when you receive your confirmation. If anything on the two pages differs from what you read here, the booking page is right, because it is the live record of the organiser's programme.

Who this isn't for

A different concert will serve you better if you want a full symphony, one composer all evening or a celebrated concert hall. The Börse is a former stock exchange, not one of Vienna's great concert halls, and the programme is a mix of short forms. It also suits badly if you need numbered seats, a fixed programme to check months ahead, or a long night out. For church acoustics or one large work, try a church concert or a full orchestra's own season. A companion who dislikes classical music, though, may find the dancers and the humour an easier first concert than most.

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