There are many music societies but only one Musikverein. Music lovers throughout the world know it as the centre of Viennese musical culture, as the focus of the international concert circuit and as the Eldorado of classical music.

The Musikverein - a resonant name, a scintillating idea. Strictly speaking, it has a twofold meaning: the concert hall on Vienna's Karlsplatz and the society to which this building belongs, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Music Lovers) in Vienna. Two different things which belong inseparably together. What would the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde be without its magnificent concert hall and what would the concert hall be without the society?

One name encapsulates the interplay between these two elements and brings both together: the Musikverein.