Getting Mozart on the line

ADDING to the plethora of products and performances in Austria occasioned by the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, 50 bright-red “Calling Mozart” information pillars went up around Vienna last week in parts of the capital where the composer is known to have spent time working or relaxing.

Using their mobile phones, visitors can call a special number emblazoned on the pillars and be connected to a website, www.callingmozart.at, where they can listen to works by Mozart or information about his life and times. In addition, it offers audio tidbits on what he did at a particular location.

The site can be also accessed by audio guides available at the opera house (along with maps to the pillars’ locations) or can be downloaded onto a portable music player -- since the project’s organizers warn that foreign mobile-phone users may incur onerous roaming charges.