Church concert or Musikverein?

The short answer

Decide by the kind of evening you are after. The church concert is one hour of chamber music under a painted dome, in the pedestrian heart of the old centre. The Musikverein concert runs about two hours in a hall that Wikipedia places among the best concert halls in the world. If you have one free evening and want the famous room, book the hall. If you want a short, intimate hour before dinner, book the church. Each concert has its own calendar of open dates, so which night is free can decide the matter as much as taste.

• Short and atmospheric: the church
• Longer and grander: the Musikverein
• Both fit in one trip if you have two evenings

The setting: baroque church or 1870 hall

St Peter's Church was begun around 1701 and consecrated in 1733, and Wikipedia calls it the first domed structure in baroque Vienna. The Musikverein was inaugurated on 6 January 1870 and designed by Theophil Hansen in a neoclassical style, on land granted to the Society of Friends of Music during the building of the Ring Road. One is an intimate baroque interior with a frescoed dome. The other is a purpose-built concert building. The church is a working place of worship, and the concert takes place among its altars. The hall is a building made for listening, with a stage, rows of seats and an organ, which the photographs here show.

Length and shape of the evening

The church concert lasts about one hour, so it leaves most of the evening free. The Musikverein concert is listed at about two hours, which fills the evening on its own. If you like to eat after a concert, the hour in the church makes that easy; with the hall, plan dinner before or leave it until late. The booking calendar for each concert shows the start times for the day you choose, and your confirmation repeats them. If you are travelling with someone who tires of long sits, the hour in the church is easier to persuade them into. If you are travelling with a committed music lover, the longer hall concert may be the point of the trip.

Read next: Church concert: worth it?

Atmosphere against occasion

A church concert gives you atmosphere: a painted dome, gilded altars, a small ensemble close at hand. A hall concert gives you occasion: a famous building, a formal setting, a longer programme. Wikipedia says the Musikverein's Golden Hall is considered one of the best concert halls in the world, and that the building houses the Vienna Philharmonic. If the name of the room matters to you, the hall earns it. If the feel of the room matters more, the church is the better choice.

The music

The church concert is played by a chamber ensemble, and its ticket names Vivaldi, Schubert, Beethoven and Haydn, with Mozart and Bach in the description. The Musikverein concert is a classical programme, and its booking page shows the current one. Both operators may change a programme, so read your confirmation. If you care about hearing one particular piece, check the programme for your date on the booking page rather than assuming. Whichever you choose, the programme can change, so the date you pick matters more than the composer you hope for. The composers guide explains who the names on the church ticket were and what they had to do with Vienna.

Read next: The composers and Vienna

The sound

Wikipedia describes the Musikverein's Golden Hall as having lively acoustics, which it credits to the shoebox shape, thick plaster walls and reflective surfaces. It gives the hall's size as roughly 49 by 19 metres in plan and 18 metres in height, with 1,744 seats and standing room for about 300. A church is a different instrument: stone, an oval space and a dome shape the sound. Neither is better. They suit different tastes, a hall's clarity against a church's atmosphere.

Seats and comfort

Church seating is in wooden pews, and recent visitors mention that they can be hard. A concert hall offers seats of several kinds, and the booking page shows what is open for your date. Check which seat you are buying, since the view and the sound differ across a big hall. In the church, the whole room is small enough that most pews see and hear the ensemble well, so choosing is simpler there. The Musikverein's Golden Hall has standing room for about 300 as well as its seats, according to Wikipedia, which gives a sense of its scale next to a church pew room.

Where each sits

St Peter's Church stands on Petersplatz, next to the Graben, in the pedestrian zone. The Musikverein stands on Musikvereinsplatz, which is part of the Ring Road district. Wikipedia says the Musikverein has housed the Vienna Philharmonic since it opened and is the venue for the annual Vienna New Year's Concert. If you plan a day around one or the other, the map matters more than the music. The two sit in different parts of the city, so shape the rest of your evening around whichever you book. The getting-there guide covers the walk to the church. Booking both means two confirmations to keep, one for each start time.

Read next: Getting to Petersplatz

Doing both

The two concerts do not compete for the same evening if you have two. A common plan is the short church concert on a night you want to stay in the old centre, and the hall concert on a night you want a longer, more formal outing. They have different dates and different booking pages, so check each calendar for your days. If you only have one evening, pick by length first and setting second.

Who this isn't for

Neither concert is for everyone, and the comparison is easier once you rule yourself out of one of them. If these describe you, look at another evening, or at the other concert. The two tickets are built for different tastes, so knowing your own taste matters more than picking the more famous name. A famous hall and a small baroque church each disappoint a visitor who wanted the other.

• Anyone who wants a single famous name in one specific work, since programmes can change
• Anyone who needs a very short outing: the church is the shorter of the two, at about one hour
• Anyone who wants to film the performance: the church concert does not allow video recording

Booking

Each concert has its own page and its own calendar. Both show their cancellation terms for the date you pick. Open both calendars for the days you will be in Vienna before you decide, and read your confirmation for the start time and the hall or church. This guide stands apart from the church, the Musikverein and every operator, with no affiliation to any of them; bookings go through GetYourGuide. If you are comparing seats and prices, use the open dates on each page rather than assuming, since each shows the options for the day you choose.