One of our favorite events during all our quartet conferences is David Clampitt’s lecture on the inner workings of our piece in focus. Dr. Clampitt will guide us into the secrets of form, structure and harmony in Beethoven’s Opus 127. David will lead us into the composer’s mind and offer a vitally important perspective towards our interpretations. His unique gift is to make analysis enlightening, applicable and enjoyable for the performer, using demonstrations by the Manhattan Quartet. Be sure to bring your score and a pencil!

Gustav Klimt: Death and Life, Leopold Museum

On this first day of our stay in Vienna, take a guided tour of Vienna’s City Museum, with its highly-praised collection that spans three floors, documenting the city’s evolution from Roman times to the present day. This is a great introduction to the art and politics that shaped Vienna’s history (and for our music-lovers, includes the famous expressionistic painting by Arnold Schönberg of his student, Alban Berg.) Then continue next door to the Leopold Museum, which houses one of the world’s most important collections of Austrian art, focusing on the second half of the nineteenth century and subsequent Modernism. The intersection of art with the intellectual world of “Vienna around 1900” is on vibrant display, starting from the Biedermeier period through Atmospheric Impressionism, Expressionism and New Objectivity. The museum’s holdings are based on the collection of Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold, two ophthalmologists who amassed art over the course of five decades, beginning in the 1950s. Their extraordinary knowledge enabled them to collect artists such as Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt – whose works, up until the 1960s, were considered taboo.
$85 per person
Minimum 6 people

The Imperial Pleasure Palace Schönbrunn, Courtyard Side

This extraordinary Unesco World Heritage site was the summer home of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1569, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II purchased a large floodplain of the Wien River and ordered the area to be fenced and filled with pheasants, ducks, deer and boar for hunting and recreation. The Schönbrunn Palace in its present form was built and remodelled during the 1740–1750s during the reign of empress Maria Theresa, who received the estate as a wedding gift. Following the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy in November 1918, the palace became the property of the newly founded Austrian Republic and was preserved as a museum. This guided tour will explore buildings and gardens rich with the history and glory of the Habsburg Empire.
$85 per person
Minimum 6 people

Haus der Musik

Haus der Musik is an interactive museum in the heart of Vienna that brings the world of sound and music to life through fascinating exhibits and hands-on experiences. Explore Vienna’s rich musical heritage and its legendary composers Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Interactive exhibits allow visitors to experiment with sound, rhythm, acoustics, and even conduct their own virtual orchestra. This guided tour provides an entertaining and informative introduction to Vienna’s musical traditions while revealing the museum’s unique and surprising features.
$85 per person
Minimum 8 people

Kunsthistorisches Museum

A guided tour of Vienna’s magnificent Kunsthistorisches Museum introduces visitors to one of Europe’s most important collections of art and antiquities. The tour explores masterpieces by artists including Bruegel, Rubens, Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Caravaggio, highlighting the museum’s extraordinary imperial collections. Along the way, learn more about the Habsburg dynasty and their role as collectors of art. The experience combines art, history, and the spectacular architecture of one of Vienna’s most celebrated museums.

$85 per person
Minimum 6 people

Sigmund Freud Museum

A guided visit to the Sigmund Freud Museum takes you to Berggasse 19, where Freud lived and worked for nearly five decades and developed many of the ideas that transformed our understanding of the human mind. Explore his former home and practice, including the preserved rooms of the Freud family and the spaces where both Sigmund and his daughter Anna Freud practiced psychoanalysis. The museum also confronts the family’s experience under Nazi rule, including the 1938 raids on their home, Freud’s forced flight into exile, and the tragic fate of his four sisters. The tour offers fascinating insight into Freud’s life and work while placing his legacy within the turbulent history of Vienna and Europe in the years surrounding World War II.
$85 per person
Minimum 6 people

Bratislava has a fascinating history shaped by its position at the crossroads of Central Europe, with influences from the Romans, Hungarians, Austrians, and Slovaks. For centuries, the city was known as Pressburg and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, where Hungarian kings were crowned in St. Martin’s Cathedral, giving Bratislava a remarkable connection to the history of the Habsburg Empire.

Melk Abbey has been a center of Benedictine life and learning for more than 900 years and became one of the most important spiritual and cultural institutions in Austria. Its magnificent Baroque complex, rebuilt in the early 18th century, reflects the wealth and influence of the Habsburg era and remains renowned for its historic library and important collection of manuscripts.