Musical Danube River Cruise with Martin Randall Travel

DAY 1: PASSAU

Make your way to Passau independently.

The ship is ready for boarding from 4.00pm. Afternoon tea is available upon arrival.

Piled up on promontories at the confluence of three rivers, the Bavarian city of Passau is crammed with historic buildings, dominated by the great Baroque cathedral. It was one of the most important episcopal seats in Central Europe and served as a refuge for the Habsburg court in times of danger.

The ship sails at 6.30pm. A reception is followed by dinner.

DAY 2: GREIN, DURNSTEIN

Moor at Grein, a charming little town squeezed between the Danube and the hills with a 16th-century Schloss rising to one side. The series of daily talks begins.

It is a short walk from the ship to the main square where the tiny theatre lies hidden within the town hall. Constructed in 1791, it is the oldest working theatre in Austria.

Concert, 10.45am:

Grein, Stadttheater

‘Early String Quartets: Music With Friends’

Butter Quartet

In the 1780s Haydn, Dittersdorf, Mozart, and Vaňhal would gather to play string quartets, and this programme celebrates these four musical minds working together in this special format. The Vaňhal Op.21 No.1 is of a shorter type, focused on sweetness of melody and elegant decorations. Mozart’s K421 is darker and more expansive, building on Haydn’s own pathbreaking Op.20 quartets. The sublime opening of No.4 in D major from the latter set leads to a melancholy slow movement, a rollicking gypsy dance, and a scurrying finale.

Return to the ship, which during the afternoon passes through some of the most gorgeous riverine landscape in Europe, the wine-producing region of the Wachau.

Moor at Dürnstein, perhaps the loveliest little town on the river. The ruins of a castle in which Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned cling to a steep hill which rears behind, while a gorgeous Baroque abbey church perched above the river signals the monastery, venue for the evening concert.

Concert, 6.00pm:

Dürnstein Abbey, Abbey Church

Austrian Choral

Vienna Chamber Choir

Program to be confirmed.

Return to the ship for dinner.

DAY 3: KLOSTERNEUBURG

Sail until lunchtime, with a talk on the music mid-morning.

Founded in 1114, Klosterneuburg Abbey is best known as the ‘Austrian Escorial’, a Baroque monastery-palace begun by Emperor Charles V in 1730 but left incomplete 100 years later. From the Middle Ages there remain a beautiful cloister and some astonishing artworks. The concert takes place in the Augustinus Hall, a charming Rococo room off a quiet courtyard.

Recital, 4.00pm:

Klosterneuburg, Augustinus Hall

Haydn & Mozart

Kristian Bezuidenhout fortepiano

The invention of the fortepiano in 1700 was a huge technological leap from its predecessors, and by the 1770s and 80s composers were starting to tailor their music to its expressive capabilities. What was especially exciting for composers of this era is how quiet it could be compared to the consistent noise of a harpsichord. Some of the most special moments in Haydn and Mozart’s piano works come when they step back from the grandeur or drama and aim instead for delicacy, sparkle, or light wit.

Return to the ship for dinner. Sail throughout the evening, to Hainburg.

DAY 4: SCHLOSS ECKARTSAU, BRATISLAVA

The ship moors in the early morning in the little Austrian town of Hainburg. Haydn went to school here.

Disembark for the short drive to Schloss Eckartsau. Though only 25 miles from Vienna, the Marchfeld is surprisingly rural, an alluvial plain ringed by mountains, and significant in Austrian history as a hunting ground and field of battle.

Schloss Eckartsau is an enchanting Baroque hunting lodge which was extended for Archduke Franz Ferdinand (he of the Sarajevo assassination in 1914) and became the final Austrian residence of Charles, the last Emperor of Austria.

Recital, 10.30am:

Schloss Eckartsau

Schubert’s Four Seasons

Carolyn Sampson soprano

Joseph Middleton piano

‘Schubert’s Four Seasons’ is a cycle through the natural world and the most personal aspects of the human condition, tracing the turning of the year through songs of renewal, stillness, longing, and light. We begin with the wintery longing of Sehnsucht and the peace of Der Winterabend. Spring bursts into life with Frühlingsglaube and a scent of violets in Nachtviolen.

The warmth of Die Sommernacht and the lush meadows in Schäfers Klagelied hide darker thoughts of lost love, which move into the wilting flowers of autumn in Herbst, albeit with the joy of the harvest in Erntelied. Framing well-loved Lieder alongside lesser-known gems, this programme offers a journey both familiar and revelatory.

Sail downstream to Bratislava.

Now capital of Slovakia, Bratislava was for 70 years the second city of Czechoslovakia and for 300 years before that the capital (as Pressburg) of the Habsburg rump of Hungary while Ottoman Turks occupied most of the country. Its compact historic centre is a dense mesh of unspoilt streets, squares and restored façades. There is a choice of museums and historic buildings to visit before an early-evening concert.

Concert, 5.00pm:

Bratislava, Primatial Palace

Czech Piano Trios

Smetana Trio

The composers in this programme illustrate the changing fortunes of Czech music. Smetana’s lamenting and nostalgic Piano Trio was prompted by the death of his eldest daughter in 1855. But he was still comparatively unknown, so the piece was not published for two decades. By the time of Dvořák’s Piano Trio No.4 (‘Dumky’) in 1891, Czech music had international standing. Audiences thrilled to its radical form and harmony, full of rhapsody and passion. Suk’s mournful Elegie from 1902 then built on the foundations of his artistic predecessors, memorialising the national poet Julius Zeyer.

Remain moored in Bratislava until the early morning.

DAY 5: EISENSTADT

Sail throughout the morning, with a talk on board.

Drive to Eisenstadt, an attractive country town to the south-east of Vienna. It is dominated by a vast 17th-century mansion, the principal seat of the Esterházy family. Many of Haydn’s works were first performed here. The concert takes place in the great hall, the Haydnsaal.

Concert, 4.00pm:

Eisenstadt, Schloss Esterházy, Haydnsaal

Haydn Symphonies

Haydn Philharmonie

During the symphony’s transformation from a synonym for ‘overture’ to the grandest instrumental form, there was much scope for experiment and playfulness. Haydn’s early Symphony No.59 started as a piece of lively concert music, but sections of it were then used as incidental music for a play, from which it gained its current nickname of ‘Fire’. Haydn then turned to politics for the later Symphony No.45 (‘Farewell’): during the poignant final adagio, the performers left the stage one by one, letting their employer know that they were keen to go home.

Return to the ship for dinner.

DAY 6: VIENNA

Wake up at a mooring 20 minutes from the centre of Vienna.

Principal seat of the Habsburgs for over 600 years, Vienna became capital of a extensive agglomeration of territories that encompassed much of central and eastern Europe. The fabric of the city is a glorious mix of the magnificent and the charming, the imperious and the unpretentious. It remains one of the world’s greatest centres for the arts, and has no rivals for its dominant place in the history of music.

The morning is free to explore the city and visit a museum or two. The Kunsthistorisches Museum should not be missed, the Belvedere Palace has paintings by Klimt, the Beethoven apartment is fascinating, MAK an exciting museum of decorative arts. We will give guidance.

The winter palace of the Habsburg emperors, the Hofburg is a vast complex which grew during the course of six centuries of building and refurbishment. Our concert takes place in the Rittersaal, a mid-18th-century hall with white and gold Rococo stucco and woodwork and red silk wall hangings.

Recital, 3.00pm:

Vienna, Hofburg, Rittersaal

Musical Fantasias

Imogen Cooper piano

Legendary pianists Wilhelm Kempff and Ferruccio Busoni brought considerable creativity to their transcriptions of Bach chorale preludes, showcasing their impressive technique. Schubert’s two sets of Impromptus (mostly published posthumously) invoke the idea of spontaneous creativity. The eight movements are outpourings of almost Classical grace and lyricism, though unmistakably marked with Romantic harmonic twists and melancholy. Among the Schubert comes the Beethoven Bagatelles Op.33, even smaller-scale pieces that nudge and wink as they push at the edges of what was possible for music in 1801.

Return to the ship for dinner. Sail upstream, from Vienna to Linz.

DAY 7: LINZ

Sail throughout the morning, arriving in Linz just after lunch.

The historic capital of Upper Austria, Linz is a picturesque maze of streets, alleys and historic buildings grouped around a huge market square, only yards from the mooring. There is time for some independent exploration before coaches depart for the afternoon concert.

The Palais Kaufmännischer Verein, opened in 1898, is a building of a sort that was a peculiarity of the Habsburg Empire, a suite of richly ornamented rooms and halls for meetings, receptions, balls and concerts. The concert is in the Bildersaal, so called because of wall paintings of historic scenes.

Concert, 4.00pm:

Linz, Palais Kaufmännischer Verein

Beethoven’s Septet

Wigmore Soloists

Michael Collins artistic director, clarinet

The Septet Op.20 shows Beethoven at the peak of his early period. The six movements in a serenade format (usually background music for parties) draw on the structures of his classical predecessors, as do the balanced, charming melodies and the interplay between instruments. However there are also hints of the Beethoven to come, with the emotional depth, a striving for symphonic grandeur even in small-scale contexts, and more challenging parts for all instruments equally. It’s no surprise that this was his most popular work during his lifetime.

Sail upstream overnight from Linz to Passau, with a reception and dinner against a backdrop of river and wooded hills receding into the dusk.

DAY 8: PASSAU

The ship moors at Passau and coaches leave for Munich city centre and the airport between 8.30 and 9.30am.

The MS Amadeus Imperial, chartered exclusively for this festival, was launched in 2020, and is and one of the most comfortable river cruisers in Europe. The multinational crew is dedicated to the highest standards of service.

With a floor area of 16m2 (Haydn deck) or 17.5m2 (Strauss and Mozart decks) the cabins are reasonably spacious by the standards of river cruisers. All have windows to the outside and are equipped with the facilities one would expect of a first-class hotel such as adjustable air-conditioning, telephone, TV and safe.

Bathrooms have showers only. Special attention has been paid to noise insulation.

In layout and furnishings the cabins are identical, the significant differences being the size of windows and height above water level (higher cabins enjoy better views and fewer stairs). All cabins have twin beds that can be separated or pushed together.

Cabins on the top decks (Mozart and Strauss) are the most desirable, with floor-to-ceiling windows which drop down to open, and minibars. There are twelve suites (Mozart) measuring 26.4m2 with a corner sofa area and small balcony. Cabins on the lowest (Haydn) deck have smaller windows which do not open. There are no single cabins as such but we are allocating some twin-bed cabins for single occupancy.

The public areas include the lounge and bar, a library area and a restaurant which can seat everyone at a single sitting. The sun deck has a tented area for shade.