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7 Places In Europe Every Fan Of Classical Music Should Visit

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Lovers of classical music know that Europe is the magical place where the genre was born. Classical superstars like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms composed the gorgeous, intricate music for courts and churches throughout the continent.

What’s more, their music has stood the test of time. We’re still familiar with many of their masterworks, including Beethoven’s “Für Elise” and Symphony No. 5 and Mozart’s The Magic Flute . If your bucket list includes visits to the places where these great musicians lived, worked, and performed their music, look no further. We’ve got you covered!

Here are seven places in Europe every fan of classical music should visit.

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1. Vienna, Austria

The undisputed crown jewel of Europe’s classical music scene is Vienna . Several generations of the greatest composers lived and worked in Vienna under the patronage of the House of Hapsburg. These composers included Mozart , who first performed for the Empress Maria Theresa at Schönbrunn Palace . After years of touring, he eventually settled there and married his wife, Constanze, at Saint Stephen’s Cathedral .

But it wasn’t just Mozart who made his mark on Vienna. Beethoven traveled to the city to study under Joseph Haydn (no slouch himself!) and lived there for 35 years. In the city, he kept an apartment at Pasqualati House , where he composed many of his most famous works. He eventually tired of the hubbub and settled outside the city in the verdant spa district of Heiligenstadt, and his rooms there were converted into a museum in 2017. The gorgeous spot outside the city center is easily accessible by tram. There’s even a charming wine tavern just steps away.

But Vienna’s musical heritage doesn’t stop there . You can visit the final resting place of many of these legends by taking a trolley out to the Central Cemetery , where Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, and Schoenberg are interred. Some modern-day music lovers are also opting for plots there for the chance to be buried among their idols.

Consider a curated walking tour of Vienna’s classical music monuments and sights, and get your fill of the city’s music live with a trip to the State Opera House . If you’re looking for an over-the-top classical music experience, consider snagging tickets to a waltz ball during the ball season from January through March. You’ll see just how important classical music is — even today — to Viennese culture and high society.

Tourismus Salzburg

2. Salzburg, Austria

Just a 3-hour drive west of Vienna is the charming UNESCO World Heritage site of Salzburg. Situated on the banks of the Salzach River, Salzburg lays claim to Mozart in a big way. This is the place where the musical prodigy was born, and the rockstar of the genre is celebrated here everywhere you look.

No visit to the town would be complete without a stop at the place he was born and the home where he moved with his family when he was 17 (and by then, well established as a prodigy). Both buildings are now museums that celebrate Mozart’s incredible career and life.

Also, be sure to stop by the Salzburg Cathedral , established in 774. It’s the spot where Mozart was christened and where he played the organ as a small child. As you can imagine, there are concerts featuring his music here year-round, and it’s an absolute delight to listen to Mozart’s masterpieces in the place where he grew up.

Fans of classical music already making the trip to Vienna should absolutely add Salzburg to their itineraries.

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3. Leipzig, Germany

Located in the eastern German state of Saxony, the city of Leipzig has more than its share of musical history.

Any music fan’s first stop in the town should be Saint Thomas Church , where Johann Sebastian Bach served as cantor from 1723 until his death in 1750. Here, he composed an enormous amount of baroque music, including both secular pieces and works for worship. Bach is now buried at the old Lutheran church, and the Leipzig Bach Festival , an internationally renowned music event, takes place there every June. Just across the way from Saint Thomas is the Bach Museum , which houses a collection of the composer’s original scores and manuscripts. Visitors can take a look at Bach’s impressive family tree and discover how music played an important role in his family through the generations.

Many years later, the acclaimed pianist Felix Mendelssohn arrived in Leipzig in 1835 to direct the Gewandhaus Orchestra. In Leipzig, he’d compose some of his most famous works, including his Scottish Symphony. Mendelssohn’s home is now a museum and furnished in period style.

Rezi Koudelkova / Shutterstock

4. Prague, Czech Republic

Mozart adored Prague , and its citizens adored him. It was in Prague that The Marriage of Figaro grew in popularity. After its success, his Don Giovanni premiered at Prague’s Estates Theatre , where you can still hear classical music today.

Mozart aside, a number of great Czech composers left their mark on the capital city . Bedrich Smetana composed lush music focused on his homeland, and a small museum dedicated to his work is located in a villa near the Charles Bridge.

Smetana’s contemporary Antonín Dvorák was born near the capital city, and today the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra performs in a hall that bears his name. As with Smetana, there’s a museum housed in a villa that celebrates — and often hosts concerts featuring — the music of Dvorák, which was distinct for combining orchestral music with traditional folk melodies.

5. Saint Petersburg, Russia

The imperial Romanovs loved music and were well known throughout Europe and around the world for their patronage of both composers and musicians. They commissioned operas, ballets, and orchestral compositions, which created a hub of incredible musical talent in Saint Petersburg .

Today, visitors can listen to the music of Russian greats like Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff at a number of stunning venues in the city. If possible, purchase tickets to a concert at the Saint Petersburg Academic Philharmonia or the Saint Petersburg Chamber Opera .

The Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music , located in the former management offices of the Imperial Theatres, gives visitors a nice overview of the Russian dramatic tradition. With its more than 3,000 artifacts, the Museum of Music , housed in a former palace, is also worth a stop.

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6. Budapest, Hungary

Hungary was once a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and there are some incredible places still around where fans of classical music can listen to their favorite genre live in the capital city of Budapest . The Hungarian State Opera routinely performs masterworks in its gorgeous, lavishly decorated hall; Gustav Mahler served as its director for several years. If you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to catch a chamber concert at Saint Stephen Basilica , don’t think twice — just get tickets!

Hungary produced several important musicians, including Franz Liszt, who was known globally during the 19th century as one of the world’s best pianists and composers. A museum dedicated to his life and music is located in the flat where he lived in Budapest. Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók wrote classical orchestral pieces in the 20th century and incorporated folk melodies and flavor into their works. Their museums in Budapest are also popular stops for classical music aficionados.

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7. Bergen, Norway

If your travels take you up to Norway, consider a stop at the home of Edvard Grieg, one of the country’s most famous composers.

Edvard Grieg was a leader during classical music’s Romantic period, and his music is part of the canon of the genre, including his Piano Concerto in A minor and Peer Gynt . This native son did much to elevate Norway’s status as a musical city, and Bergen, located in the southwestern fjords, pays tribute to him in a big way. Here, you’ll see lots of statues and monuments dedicated to Grieg, but the real showstopper is Troldhaugen outside the city center. This is the place where Grieg and his wife spent their summers. You can tour the estate where Grieg wrote his gorgeous music (including the composer’s hut, where Grieg could work in absolute silence) and get a feel for what life was like for the 19th-century maestro. It’s also Greig’s final resting place: Both Grieg and his wife are buried here. Troldhaugen hosts international piano competitions and concerts throughout the year.

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When she’s not training for her next race or packing for another trip, you’ll find Erika hanging out with her husband, son, and personal zoo, which includes a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, two cats, and a grumpy pygmy hedgehog.

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Music, Opera & Ballet tours

From the Nationaltheater Munich  to  Drottningholm's 18th-century Court Theatre , our music, opera and ballet tours offer access to the world’s greatest venues, pre-existing festivals and musical programmes. We plan meticulously so that you can relax and enjoy our trademark experience of top-category seats, the companionship of fellow music-lovers and lectures from leaders in their field. We offer a range of musical experiences, from the intimate chamber music and Lieder of a Schubertiade , to spectacular opera in Verona   and  Glyndebourne , and the world's finest soloists and orchestras in Lucerne .

On a grander scale, Martin Randall Festivals feature world-class performers in the finest and most historically apt venues. The cornerstone of every festival is the union of music and place, in glorious destinations such as Salzburg , Lincoln and Sicily ,  and in the form of journeys – along the Rhine Valley, or through central Germany in the footsteps of J.S. Bach.  They are organised and operated solely by MRT and are exclusive to our clients. Although numbers are much larger than on small-group tours – from 100 to 250 people – the principles of care, detail and intimacy, far from being diluted, are simply applied on a grander scale. 

Finally, our  Chamber Music Breaks in the UK  offer the opportunity to hear – up-close – chamber music performed by leading ensembles and solo artists, all the while staying in comfort at famous and well-run hotels.

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Salzburg String Quartet Festival Exploring the string quartet in all its diversity and richness in one of the loveliest little cities on the Continent

The Ring in Berlin Wagner in the German capital

Holborn: a London Choral Day Three choirs and three churches

Leipzig Bach Festival Music by the Bach family and their Baroque contemporaries

The Schubertiade Music and mountains in the Vorarlberg

The Grange & Glyndebourne L’incoronazione di Poppea, The Rake’s Progress, Die Zauberflöte and Giulio Cesare

Trasimeno Music Festival Angela Hewitt and friends in Umbria

West Cork Chamber Music Festival Concerts on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way

Lofoten Festival Chamber music above the Arctic Circle

Savonlinna Opera The annual summer festival in lakeland Finland

London Organs Day Four fine instruments in the City and Westminster

Opera in Munich & Bregenz Debussy, Wagner, Puccini, Weber

The ring in the alps wagner in the austrian tyrol, mozart along the danube a musical voyage through habsburg heartland via europe’s most sublime waterway.

Walking the Danube Concerts and country walks

The Sibelius Festival All seven symphonies in Lahti

Historic Musical Instruments Museums and private collections in northern Italy, with recitals

The Divine Office: Choral Music in Oxford A unique event of exceptional musical intensity and spiritual potency

Opera in Sicily Five performances in historic theatres in beautiful Baroque cities

Opera at Wexford Rare operas the speciality

Music of the Czech Lands the Janáček Brno Festival

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective with Matthew Rose Brahms & Beyond

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective with Matthew Rose tickets to individual concerts

Vienna at christmas art and architecture in the habsburg capital.

Paris at Christmas Art and music in the Ville Lumière

Dresden at Christmas Art, architecture and music in the Saxon capital

Mahler in Amsterdam Ten symphonies in Amsterdam for the first time in 30 years

Cotswolds Choral Festival a celebration of the finest vocal music in England’s prettiest region

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Relaxing Evenings with Zeb Soanes 7pm - 10pm

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Concerted Symphony in Eb major (2) Johann Christian Bach Download 'Concerted Symphony in Eb major (2)' on iTunes

Discover Music

The most glorious classical driving playlist to accompany your commute

23 July 2021, 14:21 | Updated: 4 January 2024, 16:35

By Rosie Pentreath

We handpick the most uplifting, expansive and beautiful music ever written, to accompany your long or regular drives.

Nothing improves a long drive or regular commute like a fine soundtrack.

Great music helps hours spent in the car feel glorious, uplifting and epic. We’d go as far as saying these drives become events in their own right, nay something to look forward to, with the right music.

And whether it’s a fine opera aria you can belt along to at the top of your lungs, or a violin concerto that has the energy to keep you going mile after mile, we recommend keeping the musical selections upbeat.

Here’s our suggestion for a playlist of the very finest classical music to keep you company on your next glorious commute.

Listen to Margherita Taylor on Classic FM for the perfect afternoon relaxation >

Aaron Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man

Start your road trip with the most magnificent brass fanfare from the father of 20th Century American music, Aaron Copland .

Copland’s short piece for brass and percussion conveys expansiveness, hopeful horizons and forward-propelling strength that’s perfect for getting any drive off to the right start.

Read more: The 15 most famous tunes in classical music

Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man - National Symphony Orchestra

Clara Schumann: Scherzo No. 2 in C minor

Keep the energy at the right level with this fiery Scherzo from 19th century great, Clara Schumann .

Schumann’s piano work dashes and dances across the keys, and has the level of speed that we hope your journey has got to at this point. The minor key also keeps the energy up while also inviting a sense of existential awe during your ongoing journey.

Isata Kanneh-Mason | Clara Schumann‘s Scherzo No.2 in C Minor | Classic FM Session

Antonio Vivaldi: ‘Summer’ from the Four Seasons

The third concerto from Vivaldi ’s enduringly popular set of four violin concertos, the Four Seasons , contains an energetic third movement ‘storm’ and, although we don’t want anyone’s journey hampered by a bad break in the weather, we recommend this for its sheer vigour.

With ‘Summer’ from the Four Seasons blasting, we guarantee that you will feel enlivened, and energised, ready to take on anything in this glorious drive of yours.

Mari Samuelsen: Vivaldi - "Summer" from Four Seasons

Philip Glass: Violin Concerto (second movement)

Sticking with heroic violin concertos for a minute, and minimalist composer Philip Glass violin concerto will pick up from the Vivaldi in terms of bombast, but it will take the mood around a corner into more reflective drive time.

The second movement from this concerto is heart wrenchingly beautiful and spacious, but with a power that lends itself to any positive journey.

Philip Glass Violin Concerto Movement II

Gustav Holst: ‘Jupiter’ from The Planets

English composer Gustav Holst gifted us seven wonderful and distinct orchestral pieces when he composed The Planets , an astrological representation in music of the seven planets of our solar system visible from Earth at the time the piece was written (1914).

‘Jupiter’, dubbed by Holst as ‘the Bringer of Jollity’ by Holst is a brilliant, glittering orchestral piece that transforms into a dignified, swelling melody with an inspiring mood. The melody is also known for being set into the patriotic hymn, ‘I Vow to Thee, My Country’.

Holst The Planets – Jupiter | YORK2 On Holst’s Broadwood | Classic FM Sessions

Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations

Let the countryside expand out around you as you stick on Elgar ’s enduringly beloved Enigma Variations .

This set of fourteen ravishing orchestral variations following an original theme will make for a reflective, uplifting drive.

Edward Elgar - Enigma Variations (Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Jacek Kaspszyk)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River

Keep the mood reflective and heartening with English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor ’s poignant and beautiful arrangement of the spiritual song, ‘Deep River’.

The swelling melody and wonderful harmonies of this work evoke landscape, tradition and an opportunity for deep contemplation.

Read more: 10 of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s all-time best pieces of music

Traditional: Deep River (Arr. Coleridge-Taylor, Kanneh-Mason)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

After a moment of rumination on your journey, pick the mood back up with Vaughan Williams ’ beloved orchestral piece, The Lark Ascending .

Often voted to the top of the Classic FM Hall of Fame , the Lark is an orchestral tone poem with a solo violin part that sets George Meredith’s poem about the flight of an English songbird over a meadow landscape. Sublime.

London Mozart Players & Tasmin Little perform ‘The Lark Ascending’ | LMP Live! | Classic FM

Léo Delibes: ‘Flower Duet’ from Lakmé

From the lark’s song to that of Delibes ’ duetting soprano and mezzo in the opera Lakmé ... we think it’s about time for the ‘Flower Duet’.

Made synonymous with travel by British Airways’ TV commercials, the wonderful aria takes flight with an incredibly uplifting melody. A magnificent piece of music for moving to, you’ll feel you can take on anything calmly and serenely with this one.

Delibes: Lakmé - Duo des fleurs (Flower Duet), Sabine Devieilhe & Marianne Crebassa

Antonin Dvořák: Slavonic Dance Op. 72 No. 2

Czech Romantic composer Dvořák ’s second Slavonic Dance from the Op. 72 collection sways and swells with stunning melodies.

Its phrases carry you, and the music seems to positively will any journey to go swimmingly. This piece is a treat for any driver with a few more miles left to go.

Antonin Dvorák - Slavonic Dance op 72, Nr. 2, Berliner Philharmoniker, Silvesterkonzert 2018

Giacomo Puccini: ‘Nessun dorma’ from Turandot

Channel your inner Pavarotti , wind down the window and blast the powerful operatic number, ‘ Nessun dorma ’, to get the blood flowing again.

The invigorating tenor aria became a signature piece for Italy’s most famous opera singer, the aforementioned Pavarotti, and since he performed it at the FiFA World Cup in 1990 it has become synonymous with football and sporting events.

Warning: questionable-but-triumphant singalong may occur.

Luciano Pavarotti sings "Nessun dorma" from Turandot (The Three Tenors in Concert 1994)

Florence Price: The Oak

American composer Florence Price ’s orchestral work The Oak is powerful and evocative.

Tremolando, scalic strings work busily under steadfast brass, while woodwind glimmers add sparkle and energy in this energetic piece.

Florence Price was a prolific composer of orchestral music, chamber pieces and songs who made history as the first Black female composer to have a work performed by a major US symphony orchestra, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed her Symphony in E minor.

Anthony Parnther Conducts The Oak by Florence Price

Ludwig van Beethoven: ‘Ode to Joy’ from Symphony No. 9

As you’re completing that final mile or two, opt for classical music’s most vast and joyous symphonic movement: ‘Ode to Joy’ from Beethoven ’s ‘Choral’ Symphony No. 9.

The magnificent piece of music will finish your journey on a high, and put you in an uplifted, inspired mood, ready to take on the world once you get to your destination. There’s nothing else quite like it.

Read more: This absolutely epic Beethoven ‘Ode to Joy’ flashmob is still the greatest

Flashmob Flash Mob - Ode an die Freude ( Ode to Joy ) Beethoven Symphony No.9 classical music

And if you’re in need of the company of a presenter with your music selection, join our very own Margherita Taylor on your next drive. Margherita has all the finest music, news and information to accompany your commute every weekday evening from 4–7pm.

Classic FM is available across the UK on 100-102 FM, DAB+ digital radio and TV, and via Global Player, the official Classic FM app.

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Keytours Vacations Blog

Classical music destinations.

For classical music lovers, Europe offers a wealth of options for walking in the footsteps of your favorite composer, visiting famous concert venues, and enjoying outstanding performances in beautiful settings.  

It would be hard to find a city more closely associated with classical music than Vienna. Home to many of the great composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms, Mahler, and many others, Vienna has been a hub of European culture since the 18th century. Today, visitors can stroll through the city’s Stadtpark and enjoy statues and monuments dedicated to native composers Schubert and Strauss, tour the house where Mozart lived and composed some of his most famous pieces, and visit the Zentralfriedhof cemetery to see the final resting places of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert. And of course, a music lover can’t leave Vienna without attending one of the countless concerts throughout the city performed by groups large and small, from local chamber music to the renowned Vienna Philharmonic or Vienna Boys Choir.

We Suggest: 11 Day Jewels of Central Europe

2. salzburg.

If Vienna is the king of classical music, Salzburg is surely the queen. The city celebrates its native son Mozart at every turn: both his birthplace and home where his family lived are now museums detailing his life and career, and there are frequent concerts at the Salzburg Cathedral, where Mozart was christened and where he played the organ as a boy. Fans can also enjoy a Mozart Dinner Concert where visitors can step back in time to the 18th century, dining on a historical menu while a chamber group and opera singers offer a splendid performance while dressed in fashions of Mozart’s day. In addition to the plentiful Mozart concerts, Salzburg also hosts an array of music festivals, including the famous Salzburg Festival which celebrates its centennial in 2020.

We Suggest: Jewels of Austria By Rail

Though Paris is often more closely associated with visual art than classical music, its music bona fides are a mile long. With venues like the Palais Garnier, Opera Bastille, Theatre des Champs-Elysees (it was here that Stravinsky's Rite of Spring premiere set off a riot!), and Opera Royal Versailles, there's no shortage of elegant and opulent places to enjoy a concert. The city has also been home at one time to many important composers, including Frederic Chopin, Franz List, Georges Bizet, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Sergei Prokofiev and even Mozart. 

We Suggest: 6 Day London and Paris Escapade 

Prague has played a major role in classical music through the years. Famous Czech composers like Antonin Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana and Leoš Janáček all made it their home, often inspired by the romantic spirit of the Czech people. But other composers also found themselves drawn to Prague. Mozart was a frequent visitor, and chose the city for the premiere of his opera Don Giovanni, believing that audiences in Prague would be more sophisticated than those in Vienna. Gustav Mahler was the conductor of the Prague German Opera and saw his music performed here for the first time. The city's music scene is still vibrant, with countless chamber, symphony, and opera concerts performed at stunning venues like the Estates Theater and St. Nicholas's Church. 

We Suggest: 10 Day Unforgettable Czech Republic and Hungary 

5. st. petersburg.

When great pianist and conductor Anton Rubinstein founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1862, he began a cultural legacy that would last more than a century (and counting). Luminaries such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, and NIkolai Rimsky-Korsakov all studied or taught at the conservatory, establishing St. Petersburg as a key city for classical music. Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was even premiered here while the city was still under siege by German forces in World War 2.  

We Suggest: 9 Day The Tsar Route Finland and Russia Escorted Vacation

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Since 1992, 145 countries, 6 continents; and now Virtual International Education.

“Classical Movements moves the music around the world”

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HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY CLASSICAL MOVEMENTS

Classical Movements is the premier concert tour company for the world’s great orchestras and choirs , creating meaningful cultural experiences through orchestra tours and choir tours with their music in 147 countries . An industry leader since 1992 , we understand both the travel and the performance needs of professional symphony orchestras and choruses, as well as conservatory, university and youth ensembles. Producer of two international choir festivals— Ihlombe! in South Africa and Serenade! in Washington, D.C.—and the Prague Summer Nights: Young Artists Music Festival. Through our Eric Daniel Helms New Music Program , we’ve commissioned over 97 works from Grammy, Oscar, Pulitzer and MacArthur-winning composers. Since our founding in 1992, as a truly global enterprise, Classical Movements remains committed to facilitating cultural diplomacy across the world.

In 2022, there was a rapid return to touring and we planned 27 significant tours for orchestra and choirs in record time. We are looking at full seasons for 2023 and 2024.  In 2020, after 40 orchestra and choir concert tours were canceled, Classical Movements was recognized for several innovative projects as was the first to present small live, in person, classical music concerts in the US. These were in the Secret Garden of our office, The Rectory on Princess Street with concerts from June to December 2020 and March to August 2021. We created our own Choir of Hope & Harmony  as well as the Hope & Harmony Ensemble made up of professional musicians from 14 major orchestras . In addition, we launched many other programs like “Ossia” , a virtual educational program for orchestral students, and partnered to create a virtual choral Festival “Vox Virtual” and the celebrated Fanfares for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris featuring 14 celebrated orchestras across USA and conducted by Marin Alsop . Finally, by using our resources and expertise in the fields of music and travel, we have developed a wide range of national and international tours for individuals and small groups including itineraries highlighting the Civil Rights Journey .

Classical Movements Turns 30!

Watch this video of well wishes and friends from around the world from our anniversary celebration.

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Classical movements presents, secret garden live concerts.

2023 Upcoming Tours

Morgan state university in west africa.

BOSTON PHILHARMONIC YOUTH ORCESTRA IN SOUTH AFRICA

As the world’s premiere concert tour company since 1992, Classical Movements has been providing both the travel and the concert arrangements for several of America’s top-tier orchestras: Atlanta , Baltimore , Boston , Cincinnati , Cleveland , Dallas , Minnesota , National , New York , Philadelphia , Pittsburgh , Seattle, St. Louis . International clients have included everyone from Dresden Staatskapelle to Wiener Philharmoniker , London Philharmonic to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment , Royal Concertgebouw to Swedish Chamber ,  Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar and both YouTube Symphony Orchestras .

Since 1992, Classical Movements’ choral client list has named professionals such as VocalEssence and MasterVoices (né Collegiate Chorale), symphonic choruses from Atlanta to Oslo , Ivy League glee/alumni clubs at Harvard and Yale , big university choirs like Maryland , Michigan,   Morgan State and   William & Mary as well as sacred youth from Grace Cathedral to Church of the Transfiguration , secular ones from Young People’s Chorus of New York City  to Los Angeles Children’s Chorus , boychoir academies from Pacific to Drakensberg  and girls’ groups from Phoenix to Medicine Hat , Canada to Cape Town , South Africa to name but a few.

Cultural Diplomacy

Ever since 1992, across the entire globe, Classical Movements has been using the unbridled joy of music-making as a catalyst for true social transformation. With each concert tour and every music festival, we strive hard to remain responsible corporate citizens, not only through the organization and implementation of our clients’ participation in cultural diplomacy with large, but through our own kind of donations, exchanges, education and service.

While performing new music is a priority for all ensembles, commissioning new music is all too often out of reach for most non-profit groups. Thus, in 2006, Classical Movements endowed the Eric Daniel Helms New Music Program as a means to assist our loyal clients in the creation of brand-new works—both choral and orchestral, male and female voices—while also supporting the craft of contemporary composition worldwide.

Music and Performing arts

Music & performing arts small group tours for mature travellers.

In small groups o f 6 to 12 like minded people with specialist program leaders and expert guides, opera lovers can enjoy a diverse range of music and performing arts programs typically across Europe from Germany to Austria, France, England, and more! Odyssey seeks out programs for small group music tours that reflects historic performances of significance or the new up and coming performers for the future for your listening pleasure. Each trip has an itinerary for classical music lovers led by a knowledgeable tour leader and a good local tour guide that seeks to provide a concert program often built around a festival in Europe for the couple or solo traveller to enjoy.

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New York small group tour

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Embark on a 10-day small group tour, centrally based in midtown Manhattan, exploring the vibrant cultural landscape of New York City. Each day brings fresh adventures, from the iconic streets of Manhattan to the eclectic neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Delve into renowned landmarks like Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center, while also venturing off the beaten path to discover hidden gems and off-Broadway shows, providing rich insights into the dynamic essence of contemporary New York.

This tour is meticulously curated to immerse you in the artistic tapestry of the city, with a particular focus on its world-class museums and galleries. Marvel at the masterpieces housed in institutions like the Guggenheim and MoMA, showcasing a diverse array of artistic treasures gifted by patrons from across the globe, including merchants and bankers.

Additionally, indulge in four captivating performances or concerts, offering a spectrum of cultural experiences. As a special highlight, the itinerary includes an overnight excursion to Florida, where you'll explore the extraordinary Dali Museum. Here, over 70 works by the visionary artist Salvador Dali await, providing an unforgettable journey into the surreal and sublime.

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World of Shakespeare | Small Group Tour

Visiting England

This small group tour for mature couples and solo travellers visits Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford upon Avon and Anne Hathaway's cottage all form part of this small group tour escorted by a tour director and local guides sharing their knowledge on this guided tour. Included are performances in London at the Globe & RSC in Shakespeare's Stratford upon Avon.

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Bach Classical European Music Festival small group tours

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Enjoy the best of Bach travelling with mature couples or solo travellers in a small group tour . We take time to appreciate not just the music but also to explore Bach's history and influences in Germany. The program spends 16 days visiting the locations that where influences on his life as well as attending the Bach Music festival in Leipzig .

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European Ballet escorted small groups tour for senior travellers

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For couples and solo travellers who enjoy the ballet and the arts this 16 day program from Amsterdam to Hamburg and finishing in Paris is a dance delight. Programs and actual performances will vary, but the structure and fabric of the experiences to be enjoyed within a small group remains the cornerstone of your experience on this program.

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Discovering the Life of Beethoven | Small Group Tour

Travellers on this small group tour will have the chance to gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of Beethoven’s life and music . Beginning in the city of Bonn , where Beethoven was born, we visit the city precincts and buildings where Beethoven’s unique artistic sensibility was formed. In Vienna , we explore many of the concert halls and churches where his work was performed. In each city visited we attend performances of his work.

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Habsburg Art and Classical Music small group Tour

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From the mediaeval jewel of Cesky Krumlow to the grandeur of the Habsburg’s summer palace in Vienna , our small group will embark on a 21 night journey to learn about these vibrant and artistically rich cities . We delve into the history of the famous artists, musicians, writers, architects and composers from Austria , Hungary , Poland and the Czech Republic.

From A$15,245 AUD

Opera Tour Europe | Theatre-Opera-Ballet and Classical Music Small Group Tour for Seniors

This 22-day small group program visits the major arts centres of Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris , and London . We travel in winter avoiding crowds and enjoy a different perspective of the places visited. At Odyssey Traveller we have sought to assemble entry and show tickets to what many will consider the best arts experiences available in those cities during each program.

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Richard Wagner Ring Cycle, Leipzig | Small Group Tours Germany

The small group tour will see the opera performed in the city of Richard Wagner’s birth, Leipzig . Our tour starts in Dresden and we also visit Bayrouth and Munich . We will not only experience his music in these 4 operas, but also be shown the influences of culture and family on the extraordinary composer’s life.

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George Enescu Festival small group tour of Romania

Visiting Romania

Discover the work and world of this neglected twentieth century musical giant on Odyssey's small escorted group tour . Explore Enescu’s native Romania before settling down to a feast of his music performed by a host of international stars in Bucharest and immerse yourself in his work with like minded people . Odyssey hopes to provide the group with the opportunity to attend some 30 concerts over 16 days. The next festival is September 2023.

From A$14,950 AUD

Italy Puccini Festival small group Tour

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The Puccini festival is an escorted tour complete with local guides as part of our small group travel program, we will also visit Rome, Siena, Florence , Lucca, Viareggio, Genoa , Milan, Verona, and Venice . Join like minded people on this European tour in Italy . For solo travellers there is a nominal single supplement charged.

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Contemporary Germany & Oberammergau Passion Play 2030

Enjoy the authentic experience of the Oberammergau passion play on this small group escorted tour. One of the best small group tour companies Europe, the destinations and itineraries provide small group journeys for like minded people. For solo travelers a minimal single supplement applies.

From A$19,995 AUD

It is an itinerary that combines an educational base sightseeing city tour of spectacular scenery and history with a music tour. These small group tours in Europe will seek to go beyond the music to look at the influences on the artist or composer and how they interact with the unique musical history of cities diverse as London, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, and Bucharest amongst much more.

Often the history of the venue or opera house is shared with you and your companions to add to the unique experiences when you book on a 2021 small group classical music tours to Europe. The small group classical music tours offered each year to Europe are diverse. The itinerary of a tour package may range from a walking tour through the old town of a musical capital such as Vienna or Budapest, to musical performances of Europe‘s greatest composers. On our small group tours Germany opera houses remain a particular attraction where you can experience some of the best performances in the world in a range of cities outside of the capital Berlin, such as Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the the opera house theatre designed by Wagner in Bayreuth, Bavaria. Unique experiences are an important part of the cultural tours offered, ranging from Choral music, to a string quartet ensemble or piano recital, to jazz or a trip to Mozart’s birthplace with a great local tour guide. New music such as Phillip Glass may feature but music performances of Schubert, Bach, Satie or Mozart will also feature typically, because in small group tours Germany opera, as well as the composers of Austria and France, remain particularly popular.

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Classical KING is delighted to be partnering with  The Grand Tour  to offer you a wonderful opportunity this summer to join Dave Beck and fellow Classical KING listeners on a thoughtfully curated international trip that combines art, history, culture and, yes, classical music!

Explore the world with the Classical KING Travel Club and connection the music that moves you with the places that inspired it.

Music in the Alps

The Lucerne Festival and Menuhin Festival with Classical KING

August 28 – September 7, 2024 | from $8,465

Classical KING is heading to the Alps! The tour takes place amid the splendor of mountains, lakes, and wonderful historical Swiss towns. You will see four of the finest orchestras in the world perform at two major European festivals, the Lucerne and Menuhin Festivals. We will revel in the luxurious sounds of the Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, and Longdon Symphony Orchestra led by world-renowned conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Christian Thielemann, and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Request your registration and secure your spot by emailing us at  [email protected] .

For all questions regarding itinerary and logistics about this trip, please contact The Grand Tour, our travel partner, at (800) 727-2995 or  [email protected] .

For all other questions, please contact us at (206) 691-2975 or  [email protected] .

We hope you will join us and look forward to seeing you on this unforgettable musical journey!

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Music inspired by travel

Music gives us the ability to travel beyond our confines, to discover worlds, planets and cultures through a journey of sounds, moods and motion. From string quartet to orchestra and opera, we have carefully selected a list of works by composers such as Michael Nyman, Joby Talbot, Kaija Saariaho and many more that take the listener to new and different realms.

Movement, other lands and other cultures are great sources of inspiration when composing and listening to music. For this selection we have chosen to focus on works about and inspired by the journey, by foreign lands and cultures, and by the stars and beyond.

During times of hardship and uncertainty such as these, where movement and travel are not readily available to us, it is music that can help us and move us, taking us to foreign lands, foreign cultures, even all the way to the stars!

As a personal playlist or inspiration to your work, listen to our playlist, discover our chosen highlights below and browse the full list.

Highlights from our music inspired by travel selection The journey

MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse) (2003) 29’ Michael Nyman Large Orchestra

MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse) was commissioned by the Festival de Lille for the inauguration of the TGV North-European line.

MGV runs continuously but was conceived as an abstract, imaginary journey; or rather five inter-connected journeys, each ending with a slow, mainly stepwise melody which is only heard in its 'genuine' form when the piece reaches its destination. Path of Miracles (2005) 60' Joby Talbot Chorus and perc Inspired by the mediaeval pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela “A trip to northern Spain over ten magical days) we visited many of the important points of the Camino, including four of its greatest churches: the abbey at Roncesvalles in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and the great cathedrals of Burgos, Leon and Santiago itself. The impressions these places left on me became the basis for the musical structure of the work" – Joby Talbot

Oltra Mar (1999) 22' Kaija Saariaho Large orchestra and mixed choir Oltra Mar means “across the sea” in the ancient French language. Parts 1, 3, 5, and 7 are about travelling and about the sea, and in these parts, the choir sings without words as a part of the orchestral texture. These sea sections take us from one time / place / musical texture to another. Parts 2, 4, and 6 are called (in French) Love, Time, and Death. The themes of love and death are connected to Saariaho's opera L’amour de loin, as is the idea of sea, and crossing the sea.

Foreign lands and cultures

Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout (2001) 24’ Gabriela Lena Frank String Orchestra

Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout draws inspiration from the idea of mestizaje as envisioned by Peruvian writer José María Arguedas, where cultures can coexist without the subjugation of one by the other. As such, this piece mixes elements from the western classical and Andean folk music traditions.

(This piece was originally written for string quartet )

Travel to the stars and beyond

Solar-Trilogy Gong (1992) 17’, Zenith (1993) 25’ & Corona (1995) 21’ Poul Ruders Large Orchestra

The Solar-Trilogy is a huge symphonic triptych about the life and behaviour of the Sun. Comprised of three ‘panels’, the first Gong depicts the birth, life and final collapse of our nearest star, the second Zenith describing in its ultra-slow tempo the patient rise of the Sun toward midday ferocity and its subsequent setting, and the last Corona a symphonic ‘portrait’ of the phenomenally hot whispy brim encircling and radiating from the Sun, a sizzling halo of electrons and photons visible only during a total eclipse.

View the full list here

Listen to our Wise Music Travel playlist

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Opera & Classical Music Tours personally designed and managed by Music Lovers Tours International       

** Please note this is the international site for Music Lovers Tours. For the Australian site, please visit musicloverstours.com.au                                                                                                                                                                          

The Italy Opera Tour specialists, also offering other parts of Europe, United Kingdom, Australia & New Zealand. Opera ‘Mini-Breaks’ and longer, hosted tours.

Music Lovers Tours is now available to a wider client base outside of the Australia and New Zealand region, where it was founded a decade ago. For many years, clients from the United Kingdom, United States and even Singapore have found us online and joined tours such as our ‘Road to Mandalay Cruise Charter’ in Myanmar, ‘Southern Passion’ in Sicily, ‘Viva Verdi’ in Italy and ‘Opera on the Harbour’ in Sydney. Now Australian-born soprano Jennifer Parish and New Zealand-born baritone Stewart Cameron welcome you to all their thoroughly-unique premium tours for lovers of opera, classical music and ”the good life.’

As well as these  fully-hosted group tours for independent, like-minded people we also offer ‘ Opera Mini-Breaks ‘ for couples and small groups, who are in close proximity to Italy.  These Mini-breaks offer premium opera tickets, our choice of hotel and dinner restaurant plus other services.

Each year 3 or 4 boutique tours of around 3 weeks are offered, all hosted and of course created by Jennifer and Stewart. Other tours ( including our Opera Mini-breaks ) are managed by our local tour directors and guides. In addition we create ‘Tailor-Made’ tours for travel retailers, groups, choirs or societies with a primary interest in opera and/or classical music.

Our  tours are unrivalled, offering every aspect of travel, from our favourite hotels and restaurants to visits and performances, booked personally, direct with suppliers. This ensures smooth running and consistently high standards. Excellent value for money is a further benefit. It is no surprise that our tours boast an extremely high percentage of repeat clients.

Whether a group tour or a ‘mini-break’, the sparkling itinerary takes in various attractions and visits relating both to music and to broader fascinations in the cities, towns and regions visited. A favourite and ever-popular tour is to the annual Festival Verdi in Parma, often parcelled with a stay in Milan for La Scala and/or Venice for La Fenice. All Festival Verdi tours and Parma Opera mini-breaks take in the main performances and explore the life of Verdi, Pavarotti and other greats. Excellent seats are guaranteed.

We have wonderful long-standing relationships with the various Opera Houses and theatres featured. It is satisfying to know our clients attend  performances in some of the greatest opera houses in the world. Hearing of their excitement on entering the theatre and settling into premium seats is great reward for our hard work and relationship building.

Our longer 3-week hosted group tours are now so popular, clients avoid missing out by ‘Reserving a Place’ well before tours go on sale. Every tour offered is ‘guaranteed departure,’ and they always sell-out! Subscribing to our secure email newsletter ensures you are up to date with our future plans as well as current news. Subscribe 

If you are a travel agency or corporate entity aiming to put together a group for either Musical travel to Australia or Italy, or general interest group tours to Italy and other Mediterranean countries ( including our prestige 5 star ‘Classical Villa’ tours, please email our wholesale division CLICK HERE   and visit our associated business, Classical Destinations  CLICK HERE

Please note we are currently updating this site to reflect planned tours for 2024 onwards. Please ensure you have subscribed to our newsletter. CLICK HERE .  

Hosted Tours

Italy & europe.

Join us from anywhere in the world as you meet us at the arrival airport or first hotel.  Truly unique and acclaimed tours that are hosted and created by us. Visit some of the great opera houses and festivals of Italy & Europe.

Opera Mini-breaks

Italy & london.

Our premium opera breaks of 3 days or more include prime seats to two performances, a dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, transfers & our guide ( if required ) plus our chosen 4 or 5 star hotel.

Australia & NZ

Join us from anywhere in the world as you meet us at the arrival airport or first hotel.  Truly unique and acclaimed tours that are hosted and created by us. See performances at the Sydney Opera House or elsewhere.

Sydney Opera House

Our premium opera breaks of 3 days or more include prime seats to two performances, a dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, transfers & our guide ( if required ) plus our chosen 5 star hotel.

Tailor-made Tours

Specially for your group..

Our unique relationships in the world of opera, classical music and travel enable us to create something special for your musical-interest group or society. Minimum of 15 people over 10 plus days.

Why travel with MLT?

A boutique, ‘hands-on’ company, we personally create each tour or mini-break ‘from scratch’. This ensures keen-pricing, smooth running and experiences filled with hand-picked inclusions.

Tours Gallery

Future tours in photos.

“A picture paints a thousand words…” Our personally-hosted tours enjoy an exceptionally high rate of return clients. Enjoy our little photo preview… dream a little, then join us!

Future Tours

Coming soon.

In the planning are several new hosted tours, including Historic Singapore, Musical Melbourne, A European Opera Grand Tour and Carnevale in Venice. These cover Oct 2021 – March 2022.

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Enjoy notable virtuosi in intimate perfomances at sea while cruising to magnificent ports. Serious music fans will enjoy live performances for fewer than 300 guests on one of Ponant’s ships. Peruse the choices and contact us to arrange your classical music cruise.

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Travel Guide

Guitar ensembles usually have at least a whiff of Roland Barthes’s ‘musica practica’ about them in that while their music exists to be listened to, it tends to be by other guitarists. This trio is a more interesting beast and its presentation on the ECM roster (Ralph Towner is a veteran, Wolfgang Muthspiel a newcomer but widely recorded elsewhere, Slava Grigoryan likewise and slightly less so) bodes well for the project.

BBC Music Magazine

COMPOSERS : Towner; Muthspiel; Grigoryan LABELS : ECM ALBUM TITLE : Travel Guide WORKS : Travel Guide PERFORMER : Ralph Towner, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Slava Grigoryan CATALOGUE NO : 372 9508

Guitar ensembles usually have at least a whiff of Roland Barthes’s ‘musica practica’ about them in that while their music exists to be listened to, it tends to be by other guitarists. This trio is a more interesting beast and its presentation on the ECM roster (Ralph Towner is a veteran, Wolfgang Muthspiel a newcomer but widely recorded elsewhere, Slava Grigoryan likewise and slightly less so) bodes

well for the project.

What the three guitarists have in common is a grounding in multiple aspects of this mercurial instrument, producing a music that happily stirs jazz, Baroque, Latin, folk and contemporary influences into a likeable mix that manages to be entirely unselfconscious simply because the guitar inhabits all these traditions anyway. The compositions are nuanced and detailed and reward repeated listening, but the recording quality loses a couple of stars due to what sounds like an odd rounding-off of the upper frequencies in places.

Roger Thomas

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The History of Classical Music: Pythagoras through Beethoven

Rediscover the beauty of classical music.

Music has been part of man’s experience since our earliest days. It has accompanied the greatest achievements in history. It swells our hearts in love, fills us with awe of the Divine, drives us into battle, and comforts us in moments of despair.

From the time that Pythagoras developed the science of music in Ancient Greece, it took over two millennia for the greatest minds in science, philosophy, politics, and religion to discover the proper tuning of a chromatic scale. From that moment, music has been able to express the fullest range of human experience and formulate in sound elements of the human experience that cannot be articulated in words.

In “The History of Classical Music,” concert pianist and Hillsdale College Distinguished Fellow Hyperion Knight explains how music has developed and what distinguishes the greatest musical achievements through the life of Beethoven. Join this course, whether you are a music novice or an aficionado of the classical style, to learn what makes music great.

The course includes four lectures, each approximately 30 minutes long, and a 45-minute concert performance. Complete the course and receive a certificate by watching the lectures and taking the short quizzes that follow. These are supplemented with additional question-and-answer videos, study guides for each lecture, and a discussion board where you can engage in conversations with other students. Take the course at your own pace and in a manner that best fits your schedule.

Preregister today to discover the stories behind the greatest achievements in music in “The History of Classical Music.”

Enroll now!

To enroll in “ The History of Classical Music: Pythagoras through Beethoven ,” please enter your email address.

What students say

Takes the student through the full context of the course subject matter. Wonderful insight into how we strayed and its consequences and offers a solution.

It's refreshing listening to ideas and thoughts that would be discussed in a classroom setting.  It's been quite a few years since I have been in that type of setting.  It's nice to be back.  It gets the creative juices running in the brain again.

Content is well presented; the students are stellar in their responses and questions. Prof. Arnn does a fabulous job balancing teaching and allowing students to participate. Above all he makes complex ideas easy to understand.

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A musical tour of Manchester: from the Hallé to the Happy Mondays

Every genre of music has made its mark on Manchester, including dialect ballads, classical, TV theme tunes and all the strands of post-punk. Welcome to the north-west sound

M yth distorts any city’s musical history, and in Manchester myth looms as large as the new Co-op Live , a £365m, 23,500-capacity mega-venue that opens today and will soon be staging big-name acts, including Take That. So, for every occasion a music fan mentions the hit-making boy band or, for that matter, 10cc or the Hollies, a thousand more bark back: Joy Division, the Fall, Happy Mondays. Not that 10cc were a small Manc band, but they peaked before punk and a wall went up at the end of the 1970s that relegated all that had passed prior to 4 June 1976 – the night the Sex Pistols performed at the Lesser Free Trade Hall – to prehistory, as in dinosaurs, fossils, folk musicians. New hagiographies about music impresario Tony Wilson (1950-2007) are no doubt at the printers as I write. But how about we spend half an hour mooching round the Rainy City aboard the free buses and trams in search of the underplayed, surprising and tangential – with a few Gen X/6 Music standards for when we’re stuck at the lights.

You might not think Coronation Street a promising departure point, but it gives us an in to Bowton’s Yard. It’s one of those ditties that may prompt unpleasant memories of the BBC TV series Sit Thi Deawn, but listen carefully and you’ll hear it is in fact a Victorian reality show made song. Written by Marsden-born, Stalybridge-based Samuel Laycock, it inspired Tony Warren when he was devising the characters for his Weatherfield/Salford-set soap opera. Granada Studios on Quay Street also played a leading role in disseminating the north-western sound, from regional accents to theme tunes to the Beatles’ first TV appearance , in October 1962.

Dialect ballads spoke truth to power after Peterloo – memorialised in 2019 by Jeremy Deller’s burial mound-like stone tump – and during the cotton famine . To spread the word, broadsides were run off at printers around the Oldham Street-Swan Street junction. Lancashire songs were central to the folk revival of the 1960s. Harry Boardman, a singer and collector from Failsworth, unearthed many anonymous songs of protest and historical record. Edward II has recorded a reggae version of the Great Flood, about the time the Medlock burst its banks in 1872. Jennifer Reid , from Middleton, performs The New Poor Law Bill a cappella on her album Gradely Manchester.

The most famous folk number, Ewan MacColl’s Dirty Old Town , alludes to a “gasworks wall” or “gasworks croft”, depending on the version. The works were in Ordsall, bounded by West Egerton Street, Liverpool Street and Regent Road. Prior to their demolition in 2019, a prosaic infographic (not quite a “ muriel ”) was placed on the West Egerton Street wall. The Working Class Movement Library is a repository of MacColl’s work and life and has significant holdings of sheet music and song lyrics.

The Hallé Orchestra was founded by Sir Charles Hallé, who was conductor for the first concert at the Free Trade Hall on 30 January 1858. The Hallé premiered Elgar’s Symphony No 1 and Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No 8. The latter, dedicated to the orchestra’s celebrated conductor John Barbirolli, took place at the Kings Hall , a converted tea house at Belle Vue (demolished to make way for a car auction centre) on 2 May 1956. The BBC recorded it a few days later. The third movement, a cavatina, is a swirl of lark-like ascents and descents.

Since 1996, the orchestra’s HQ has been the purpose-built, vibration-proof Bridgewater Hall , with former St Peter’s church in Ancoats, a hulking redbrick Romanesque building, used for rehearsals, recordings and intimate shows. Manchester has an opera house , originally known as the New theatre. Recent shows include The Full Monty and Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out, but it may get weightier fare as the ENO relocates to Manchester over the next five years. The region’s greatest opera singer was, like so much Manchester talent, from way outside town. Tom Burke, a miner from Leigh, was known as the “ Lancashire Caruso ”. What used to be the city’s Hippodrome is now a Wetherspoons named after him.

The Manchester School includes Accrington-born Harrison Birtwistle, Salford’s Peter Maxwell Davies and German immigrant Alexander Goehr, who met at the Royal Manchester College of Music in the 1950s. They founded the New Music Manchester group with pianist John Ogdon, who had attended Manchester Grammar School, and trumpeter Elgar Howarth. Exponents of avant-garde experimentation, they shunned cotton-themed concertos and any kind of parochialism.

If Unesco dispensed rosettes for demolition, Manchester would have many. Most of the old taverns that hosted turns, popular dance salons and music hall venues have been razed, together with mills, warehouses and factories. Concert halls and fun palaces were removed to make way for multistorey car parks and office blocks. The Free Trade Hall , where locals including Gracie Fields, Van der Graaf Generator and James played, as well as Dylan (AKA “ Judas ” as he was called at a gig there in 1966 ), Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Genesis, is now a hotel . Does a ribald, rollicking spirit live on from the boozy days of industrial Manchester? Certainly the refurbished Band on the Wall – which reopened in March – celebrates its location on the foundations of the George & Dragon and nearby Rising Sun pubs.

Every genre of popular music surfaced in Manchester between 1950 and the present, including big band, beat, rhythm and blues, soul, chart-oriented pop, punk, goth and all the strands of post-punk. There are not as many landmarks as songs, partly because, as mentioned, the wrecking ball is unsentimental and also, because pop stars have generally used their art to get away – lyrically first, and then physically. The Bee Gees, who claimed to have practised harmonising at their childhood home at 51 Keppel Road , Chorlton-cum-Hardy, never knowingly screamed a word about the town.

Northern soul, which arrived via Liverpool docks and Burtonwood airbase, drew large followings in Stoke, Wigan, Blackpool and, before any of those , Manchester. The Twisted Wheel on Brazennose Street and, later, Whitworth Street, had gigs by the Hollies and Freddie and the Dreamers, and less well-known bands such as Powerhouse 6 , but is best known for its legendary northern soul nights. The building has gone but Twisted Wheel “lives on”, according to a members-only Facebook page , at Area, 50 Sackville Street. The Ritz, on Whitworth St, survives as an O2 franchise. Originally opened as a dance hall (with a sprung floor) in 1927, it hosted a Dancing in the Dark evening in the 50s and 60s, fronted by Crumpsall’s Phil “King of the Ritz” Moss and his Band (which later became a stalwart on TV’s Come Dancing), and went on to transition through beat, northern soul, disco and mainstream rock scenes. The mobile phone firm also owns the famous art deco-style Apollo , long a fixture for bands on tour. Stockport’s MoR hitmakers 10cc were a classic art school, let’s-go-to-London-asap outfit, but they played here when they came home, as did Sad Café.

The Pistols concert in 1976 made the Lesser Free Trade Hall a holy-of-holies in Manc muso circles, but the Electric Circus , in Collyhurst (birthplace of pianist and crooner Les Dawson), earned its credentials through many seminal punk performances, including the first gig by Warsaw (Joy Division’s first name), and shows by Buzzcocks, John Cooper Clarke, the Fall, the Nosebleeds and Slaughter and the Dogs, among others. The fact it had previously been a cinema, Bernard Manning’s Top Hat club and a bingo hall should surely have made it one for the heritage buffs to list.

Richard Boon and Howard Devoto launched the New Hormones label in 1977 at a then ramshackle, now listed former hat merchants’ warehouse at 50 Newton Street . The first release, the Spiral Scratch EP , was a punk watershed and a declaration that bands needed neither London nor major labels. In 1980, Boon and others started up The Beach Club (a reference to the Situationist slogan “Under the pavement, the beach!”) at Oozits on Newgate Street. In 1978, Factory Records began as a WFH DIY disruptive startup at Alan Erasmus’s first-floor flat at 86 Palatine Road (now blue plaqued), only moving to a proper HQ on Charles Street in 1990 – where it was officially incorporated with the catalogue number FAC 251 (the name of a venue for cover bands on the site, part owned by Peter Hook). The Factory was the name of a night at the Russell Club on Royce Road in Hulme that ran from 1978-80; two years later the Haçienda (FAC 51) opened in a former yacht builders’ shop and warehouse on Whitworth Street West, beside the Rochdale Canal. The site is now occupied by “ iconic ” apartments.

The last Factory catalogue number, FAC 501, was used for the plaque on Wilson’s coffin, and no number adorns designer Peter Saville’s headstone for his business partner in Southern Cemetery . Fabled producer Martin Hannett is also buried at the necropolis – said to be entered via the Smiths’ Cemetry Gates.

There’s no better terminus than a musical graveyard. Inevitably, dozens of Manchester music sites are missing from this hop, skip and jump, including Rochdale’s recording studios, Festival of the Tenth Summer venues and countless bedrooms, garages and rave locations. But most tell versions of the same story, just as some songs seem like Venn diagrams of influence; Oasis by Happy Mondays sounds like New Order with lyrics by Morrissey or Ian Curtis, on a bad day (“You went too far, and it’s gone all the wrong way”). If you want to aurally vacuum up every Manc motif in a single song, steam on in to Mike Garry and Joe Duddell’s St Anthony: An Ode to Anthony H Wilson (Andrew Weatherall Remix; lyrics here ), perhaps while walking from the thrusting Aviva Studios/Factory International behemoth to the Epping Walk Bridge to search hopelessly – à la 80s – for Hulme Crescents and the dead souls of yesteryear.

• Manchester holidays
• England holidays
• Joy Division
• Northern soul
• Cultural trips
• City breaks

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Our Newest Course: The History of Classical Music

I can’t imagine a world without music. It’s akin to a world without great paintings, poems, or prose. Indeed, a world without music would be a world without beauty—or, I should say, a world with much less beauty. The thought of this tells us what a central part of our world great music occupies. I’ll wager that you can’t remember a time when you didn’t know the opening of Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik or the “Ode to Joy” melody of Beethoven’s 9 th . You probably still hum them every now and then.

More than convenient tunes to whistle, great music enhances the great moments in human history. Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven’s 9 th Symphony to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The morse code transcription of “V,” signaling the Allies’ victory in World War II— dot-dot-dot-dash—the four-note motif that figures so prominently in Beethoven’s 5 th Symphony. You probably have attended more than a few weddings where the bride walked down the aisle to Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” And I’d guess you’ve cradled your little ones to sleep with the notes of Brahms’s “Lullaby.” Even the cinema isn’t immune. Try to picture Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” without John Williams’s famous ostinato for the shark. Or “The Magnificent Seven” without Elmer Bernstein’s iconic theme. Similar examples abound.

Music thus pervades our lives, our very history. That an art form that reached its maturity at a later point in history than the Protestant Reformation could exert such influence on us testifies to its power to stir our souls. Some have called music “the universal language,” and not without reason. The sublime compositions of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven are heard the world over, and perhaps even above us. Karl Barth famously hypothesized that when the angels in Heaven praise God, they play Bach, and amongst themselves, they play Mozart. Such is the power of music, even to those who devote their lives to studying the things of God.

To know music, then, is to know a key part of western civilization. This brings us to our newest online course, “ The History of Classical Music: Pythagoras through Beethoven .” The first in a two-part series on the great music of the West taught by professional pianist, Hyperion Knight, this first course traces western classical music from its origins in ancient Greece through its elegant pronunciations in the 1820s by Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Students will learn the thrilling story behind music’s early development. First uncovered with the ingenuity of Pythagoras’ mathematical approach to investigating reality, music and its notes occupied the minds of many of history’s most consequential figures, among them Charlemagne, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo. You’ll learn why the seemingly mundane task of tuning a piano came as a monumental product of millennia of thought and labor.

Those new to music will gain an understanding of the basics of the art form. Fundamental elements such as scales, tonality, tempo, sonata form, and the basics of the sonata, symphony, and concerto, will be reviewed.

Best of all, Professor Knight will introduce you to some of the greatest sounds ever composed, and the men who authored them. Often, we simply think of the great composers as pure fountains that simply gushed melodies and chords. Professor Knight shows us that these composers were men living in, and responding to, their times. Bach’s religious music resonated with the popular piety that pervaded his native Germany. Mozart’s opera buffas poked fun at the societal divides of late 18 th century Europe. And Beethoven’s symphonies inspired those born in unfavorable circumstances to ascend to excellence and transcend the hereditary order of early 19 th century Europe. Moreover, Professor Knight shows us the personal lives and struggles behind these great composers. We discover Bach’s personal tribulations with his family and employers; Handel’s unlikely ascent to stardom in Great Britain; Haydn’s friendship with Mozart; and Beethoven’s titanic battle against his deafness.

The composers emerge to us as what they were: humans. Like us, they had their favorite hobbies and were agitated by daily inconveniences. But they spoke to us with the voices of angels. Professor Knight plays many of their best works on the piano, highlighting for us details in the pieces that escape the notice of the casual listener.

And to conclude this first part of the series, Professor Knight gives us a piano concert featuring full performances of some of the greatest pieces written by the composers he analyzes in the previous lectures. Listening to these pieces with new knowledge of music itself and the composers, you’ll find these pieces have an even greater, deeper beauty. I hope you learn with us in this course on classical music.

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