A Little Night Music : Vienna’s glittering musical season lights up as winter blankets Austria’s city of maestros : Destination: Austria

Music is Vienna; Vienna is music.

This has been the way for centuries, and in this upcoming winter season--when, for most Viennese, music is as much a necessity as a woolen coat and warm hearth--there is opera, there is symphony. There is dance and ballet, and the Vienna Choir Boys in the Hofburg Chapel, and the fabulous Philharmonic in the Musikverein.

There is music beyond the classics: Maximilian Schell last summer donned the tweeds of Prof. Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” in the beautifully restored Ronacher Theater, where the strains of Sondheim and Loewe and Rodgers reverberate off the boards. This year “Grease--Das Musical” is in town.

“Music and Vienna; that’s no cliche but a true description of the city,” writes Andrea Schurian in the “Insight Guide to Vienna.” “From the cradle to the grave, the Viennese are accompanied by music. In the concert hall listening to the Philharmonic or drinking Heuriger (young wine) and swaying to typical Viennese Schrammel songs--life and love in Vienna is governed by music.”

Virtually every great European classical composer, excepting Russians and Italians, lived in or passed through Vienna, most during the golden days of the Hapsburg dynasty. Much of Vienna’s musical legacy was created by those not native to the city: The three composers central to Viennese Classicism were Mozart from Salzburg, Haydn from Lower Austria and Beethoven from Germany.

For visitors, there is no need to be deliberate in search of music in this city. Music--robust, delicate, intoxicating--will find you.

A piano medley of light classics--a little Mozart, a little Johann Strauss--wafted into my hotel room one midday as I tried to shed jet lag with an afternoon nap. An hour later on the Karntner Strasse, the pedestrian-only boulevard that runs from the Ringstrasse to St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom) and bisects the center city, an old woman in a long coat and a babushka played for schillings on her saxophone, a plaintive “Send in the Clowns.”

Passing by the City Conservatory, I heard from an open window a student grappling with the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. On a Sunday noon, I joined the crowds at the Hoher Markt to hear the old glockenspiel on the Art Nouveau “Anker” clock compete with the clomp of passing horses and carriages and the exhaust arias of BMWs. One night late--again from my hotel--a gathering of drunks in the street below serenaded us with an out-of-tune but thoroughly impassioned chorus from Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”

Consider these names, some past conductors of the Vienna State Opera: Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Karl Bohm, Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel and Claudio Abbado. The opera is a cherished form, and the Opera House a national shrine to culture. Critics rank it in the top five of Europe, and it ranks high as well with international stars: When Luciano Pavarotti played in the summer, scalpers had no trouble getting $800 for a ticket.

Tours of the State Opera, or Staatsoper, are offered daily for 40 schillings, about $4, in several languages, including English. Guides show off the artworks, the tapestries, the Grand Hall and the massive chandelier: three tons of Bohemian crystal.

The Musikverein, at Boesendorferstrasse 12, was built in 1870 and houses the Vienna Philharmonic during its season of concerts, while the Konzerthaus, at Lothringerstrasse 20, built earlier this century, accommodates rock and popular music as well as classical.

Most of Vienna’s better sounds aren’t free. On any given evening during the “season”--from September until late June--music lovers might have their choice of a half-dozen or more events. Obtaining tickets is quite another matter.

Despite the Vienna State Opera’s hard-to-get-into reputation, devotees can almost always gain entry to the Staatsoper via Stehplatz , or standing-room. These cheap spots are less than $3--but involve queues, waits and a rail to lean on in nosebleed territory.

Much more difficult to obtain are tickets to the Vienna Philharmonic’s concerts at the Musikverein; even the standing-room places go to subscribers. Visitors might get lucky and scarf a single seat at show time, but the better option is to hear the Philharmonic at the State Opera (where it is the “house band,” not playing concerts but accompanying the opera). While Vienna is never without crowds of visitors, in the coming months the traveler may find music more accessible than it is in summer, fall and spring. The Austrian National Tourist Office in Los Angeles offers monthly guides to musical events in its Vienna Scene magazine; telephone (310) 477-3332. Here’s what to look for this winter:

Opera: The State Opera, which traditionally opens in early fall, starts this year Dec. 14. The main stage has been under renovation for months, with engineers preparing a new hydraulic system. The opening promises much: The first night of Richard Strauss’ “Elektra” features mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, in her farewell performances. The second evening, tenor Jose Carreras appears in the premiere of a new production of Giordano’s “Fedora.” For ticket information, call from the United States: tel. 011-43-1-51444-2959 or 2960, or fax 011-43-1-51444-2969.

Alternatives for opera lovers: The Volksoper, Vienna’s second opera house, offers performances of “La Boheme,” “Die lustige Witwe” (“The Merry Widow”) and “Arabian Nights,” among others. Information is available at the above number. Also, the Vienna Kammeroper specializes in contemporary and historical chamber opera, and performs every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evening; tel. 011-43-1-513-6072.

Symphony: On New Year’s Day, the Vienna Philharmonic performs its annual Johann Strauss concert, conducted this year by Zubin Mehta. Tickets are impossible to get legitimately, but visitors may also consider concerts at the Konzerthaus (Beethoven’s 9th Symphony by the Weiner Symphoniker on Dec. 30 and 31) and the New Year’s Concert of the Wiener Hofburg Orchestra; tel. 011-43-1-712-1211. Other musical events of note: the Ninth Vienna Mozart Festival at the Konzerthaus, now to Dec. 22, and the Haydn Festival at the Musikverein, March 5-12.

Balls: Yes, the balls, where the star is the waltz. The most prestigious is the Vienna Opera Ball, a giant all-night party, attended by 4,000-5,000 ticket-holders, including royalty and high-profile people from all over Europe. This year the ball is on Feb. 23--bring gowns and tails. Do not despair if tickets are gone--about 300 balls take place in the city between New Year’s and mid-March, and the public is invited to most of them. There’s the Philharmonic Ball on Jan. 19, the Physicians’ Ball on Jan. 28 and a Magicians’ Ball for Children on Feb. 26. The Austrian Tourist Office in Los Angeles has information.

Events come and go, but Vienna’s musical legacy is permanent. A traveler could spend days contemplating the history of music and walking in the footsteps of great composers. From the 18th Century--Haydn, Brahms, Mozart and others--through the waltz and the Strausses, to Arnold Schoenberg and the “New School” of Viennese music, one might easily spend a lifetime studying the way music intertwines with daily life here.

A good place to begin is at the end, so to speak: the Central Cemetery. The Viennese, it is said, spend an inordinate amount of time reflecting on death, and planning for the end. A schone Leiche , or beautiful funeral, is what a Viennese saves for: The idea is to achieve the kind of grandeur in death that was so elusive during life.

The Central Cemetery--the Zentralfriedhof-- in the 11th District takes up an extraordinary 495 acres, but it is only a small section--Grove 32A, the Musiker section--that is the final resting place of giants. Here is the Rodin-esque tombstone of Brahms, with the composer resting his head on his hands; the marker to Beethoven, embellished with a golden harp and butterfly; the tombs of Johann Strauss and his wife, Adele; the graves of Schubert, Gluck, von Suppe, Josef Lanner and Hugo Wolf. It is a touching place.

There is no grave for Austria’s honored composer, Mozart, although there is a memorial to him in the Central Cemetery. Mozart died at the age of 37, impoverished and alone. There is a statue and plaque in the St. Marx Cemetery in the 3rd District over what may be his grave, but no one knows for sure where he lies.

If music is the soul of Vienna, Mozart is the essence of the music. His fluency in composition and interpretation are legend, and his work was prodigious. So were his homes: He had 13 addresses in Vienna.

Viewing Milos Forman’s film “Amadeus” is good preparation for seeking out Mozart in Vienna (even though it was filmed in Prague). The obligatory first stop is the Mozart House, or Figarohaus , at Domgasse 5, very close to St. Stephen’s. In this small apartment, where Mozart spent only three years, he composed “Le Nozze di Figaro,” 12 quintets, four quartets, three sonatas for piano and two for violin, and a fantasy in C minor. Mozart here received Haydn and Beethoven as visitors. The reconstructed building is now a seven-room museum.

There is a wealth of Mozartiana in Vienna. At Rauhensteingasse 8 is the site of Mozart’s “death house,” his 13th address in Vienna where he wrote “Die Zauberflote” (“The Magic Flute”) and Requiem and where he died Dec. 5, 1791. The avid Mozart lover also should not neglect Schonbrunn Palace, a short subway ride from the city center, to visit the concert room where the child prodigy, at the age of 6, astonished Empress Maria Theresa with his piano playing.

Another Vienna giant of music, Franz Schubert, the composer of the Biedermeier period, was born in a house at No. 54 Nussdorferstrasse, which now serves as the Schubert Museum, restored to its original state. His fans can also visit the Dreimadelhaus at Schreyvogelgasse 10 where, legend has it, Schubert paid court to three young ladies from the same family.

And, of course, Ludwig van Beethoven wandered among 30 or more addresses during his years in Vienna--much like Brahms, Schubert and Mozart. From the moment Beethoven arrived at age 22, he presented the city’s royalty and its patrons with a different dynamic: He was unimpressive physically, uncouth and didn’t dance in the city of the waltz. Yet when he died at 57, 20,000 Viennese turned out for his funeral.

In the Pasqualati House at Molker Bastei 8, Beethoven lived from 1804 to 1815. The city operates the fourth-floor flat now as a museum where visitors can view oil paintings of some of the composer’s friends and benefactors, and gaze on a piano typical of the kind Beethoven played.

If you listen closely--and assume a Viennese imagination--you may hear the master play.

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GUIDEBOOK

Vienna Nocturne

Getting there: There are no nonstop and no direct flights from Los Angeles to Vienna, only connecting. Among carriers with connections all the way are: Delta, KLM, Lufthansa, British Air and Swissair; American and United connect to other carriers in U.S. and European capitals. Current low-season fare with 14-day advance purchase and 7-day minimum stay is about $810 round trip.

For more information: The Austrian National Tourist Office (P.O. Box 491938, Los Angeles, Calif. 90049; tel. 310-477-3332, fax 310-477-5141) offers monthly guides to musical events in its Vienna Scene magazine.