Musikverein - Society of friends of music in Vienna
The Society of Friends of Music in Vienna
The society is older than the building. The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde was founded in 1812. The Musikverein building on Karlsplatz was completed in 1870. The building was the crowning glory of a story that began in 1812 with a daring innovation.
Viennas concert life, which up until the eighteenth century had been the domain of the aristocracy, demanded a new form. The requirements of a wider audience would have to be considered. The middle-class public wanted to take the'fostering of music into its own hands.
The extent of ihe interest was shown in 1812. Charity concerts, organised by the "Society of Aristocratic Ladies for the Promotion of the Good and Useful" helped the middle-class enthusiasm for music on its way. Almost 600 music enthusiasts came together in order to present Handel's oratorio "Alexander's Feast" not once, but twice, to an audience of 5000. lt was presented in Mozart's adaptation under the pretty title "Timothy, or the Power of Music".
The music had a powerful effect and was an enormous success. Josef Sonnleithner, secretary of the ladies' society and Beethoven's first librettist with "Fidelio", made use of this and set in motion the foundation of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. For two years the perinission of the Emperor was not forthcoming. At that time the spectre of Jacobinisin had come to haunt him and bourgeois ideas were regarded with suspicion.
But then, the foundation of the society was successfully carried through with the help of the aristocracy. In 1814 Archduke Rudolf, the brother of the Emperor and Beethoven's pupil, took the society under his wing and the "Society of Music Lovers of the Austrian Empire" was officially authorised.