Carnegie Hall

Vienna: City of Dreams was a three-week citywide festival in February and March 2014 that celebrated the cultural splendor of the great Austrian city. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played an unprecedented seven concerts at the Hall—both on its own and as the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera—a testament to Carnegie Hall's stature as a destination for great artists. The festival featured symphonic and operatic masterpieces, chamber music, lieder, and new music; in addition, Carnegie Hall partnered with leading New York City cultural institutions to present film series, art exhibitions, and panel discussions.

Led by conductors Franz Welser-Möst, Andris Nelsons, Christoph Eschenbach, and Zubin Mehta, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna State Opera anchored the festival, performing masterpieces from the Austro-Germanic tradition that spanned Haydn to Johannes Maria Staud. The concert performances of Berg's Wozzeck and Strauss's Salome marked only the second time ever that the Viennese musicians have performed opera in concert at Carnegie Hall.

Other festival highlights included violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Enrico Pace playing the complete Beethoven violin sonatas, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout performing works by Mozart and C. P. E. Bach, and baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Christoph Eschenbach in Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin. A Discovery Day event focused on Schubert's final years. In a delightful turn during an encore in the festival's closing concert, Maestro Zubin Mehta handed his baton to soprano Diana Damrau, who joined him to conduct the orchestra in Johann Strauss Jr.'s Unter Donner und Blitz.