My family and I recently made a three-day visit to Vienna. I had initially planned to visit the Bösendorfer factory, but couldn’t make it because there were so many things to do and so little time. So that remains a plan for the future.
Still, we had interesting experiences with many different pianos while we were there which I’d like to share here as I think some of you might be interested.
One of the first museums we visited is the House of Music. My teenage son is generally reluctant to go to any museums. But this one is very interactive and it kept him interested and engaged throughout. The museum houses the pianos that once belonged to Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, among others. There’s some interesting discussion about the historical pianos in another thread. Here are some photos I took 
One highpoint at the museum is that one gets to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, virtually of course! Here is my son conducting the Blue Danube at their new year concert. Boy, he was horrible: he was following the orchestra rather than directing it. The musicians rebelled at the end and went on strike 
I don’t know how to upload videos. It was really funny to hear the mess.
Here is a piece of music that my son and I composed. It doesn’t sound too bad 
A free music event was scheduled at the end of the day. This Yamaha grand was set up in the lobby/courtyard for that purpose. BTW, there were probably over 20 music related events every day while we were there. Many of them were free. I will post more about that later.
On our way out, I got the permission from the front desk to let us play a bit on the Yamaha. The acoustics was amazing with the large open space. The teenager had a lot of fun and applause.
Wonderful! Thanks for the report and for sharing the photos!
Our next stop was the Steinway House. I have heard a lot about the differences between New York and Hamburg Steinways but never had the opportunity to play any Hamburg models. So I made sure this visit fit in our schedule.
The store carries just about every Steinway model. We were like kids in a fancy candy store. To my surprise, shortly after we got in, the store manager/sales person announced, “Only look, no play, please.” My son and I were disappointed: we were hoping to check out how the Hamburg Steinways would feel and sound like.
Kids in a candy store
Limited Edition - Noé
We were told that the price is about half million euros.
You are absolutely right! But I don’t easily give up. 
So I asked nicely, “oh no, how come? We were so looking forward to trying out the pianos.” The manager replied, “All the pianos here are over hundred thousand euros. If everyone plays on them, they will be old pianos and no one would want to buy them.” I thought that was kind of funny: There were no other people in the store except a couple who turned out also came from the States. I murmured, “I heard it’s desirable to have pianos played in.” (this is certainly true with our own rebuilt piano). “No, the pianos will turn old. We can’t let that happen.” He declared.
That couple was more understanding than me. They suggested that since a lot of music lovers visit Vienna and that Steinway is (in their words) the most prestigious brand, so many people would come to wait in line to try it out. So it makes sense that the store does not let people play the pianos.
After they left, we lingered around a little more in the store. I started a conversation with the manager, telling him about our New York Steinway. And I talked about our plan to visit the Bösendorfer gallery and factory later. Then he suddenly said, “OK, you can play the piano over there, but only two minutes. Two minutes!”
This is the piano that we were given the permission to play for two minutes.
I let my son, a much better pianist than myself, have the two minutes precious playtime. He ended up playing over four minutes, playing the Rachmaninoff g-minor prelude. The manager was kind enough not to stop him in the middle . So all in all, we had some fun at the Steinway house. We went back there the next evening to attend a concert which I will write about later.
That's a beautiful piano! How did it sound?
