Book Reviews: Vienna for the Music Lover

“David Nelson’s beautifully illustrated guide offers potential visitors to the city an impressively comprehensive survey of Vienna’s musical sites.”
BBC Music Magazine

“The author, David L. Nelson, certainly knows his stuff and, having spent so much time there, Vienna can safely be considered his second home. His comprehensive knowledge is soon apparent in the logical layout of the book.”
The Travel Magazine

“An American has published a travel guide for the city [of Vienna] which covers points of interest and tours of more than 400 residences and workplaces of the most important Viennese composers, from Beethoven and Mozart to Hungarian Kalman and the Finnish Sibelius.  This travel guide is for anyone who is interested in the music world of Vienna.”
Kurier

“Musicologist and conductor David L. Nelson has made Vienna his second home.  Since 1992, he has concentrated on the music history of his favorite city, which he has visited many times.   One feels his infatuation on every page of his comprehensive and handy book, Vienna for Music Lovers.  There is an unbelievable wealth of material covering all composers and performance venues.  Not only that, the author offers a personally-led tour which includes countless details about living conditions, context, institutions, buildings and neighborhoods, and the circumstances surrounding the creation of compositions.”
Schweizer Musikzeitung

“It may be surprising that an American has put out a guidebook for the purported world’s music capital.  But in case of David L. Nelson, a specialist in Austrian studies teaching at the University of North Carolina, Vienna has become a second home.  His familiarity with his beloved city is evident on every page and in every sure step of his guide.”
Das Orchester

“It’s rare to feel confidence in the authority and value of a music-destination publication before one turns the first page. Here is an exception. This modest-sized book impressed me the instant I picked it up. For where a publisher displays such exacting production values — the paper, the print, the half tone and colour illustrations (each feature positively imbued with quality), it’s fair to assume the content will be of a matching standard.

And so it proves; American author David L Nelson is evidently besotted with Vienna and his straightforward, detailed, ‘hands on’ text shows how thoroughly he has studied his topic.

One soon discovers the guide is ‘packed to the gunnels’ with priceless information for the serious music-lover who finds her/himself in Austria’s vibrant musical nerve centre; home to Germanic and Austro Hungarian composers, the Strauss dynasty, fin de siècle masters, and ‘broad spectrum’ 20th century musical activity.”
Music and Vision

“Even for someone who knows the city and is a music lover, there is still something to discover which he did not know or has not been aware of. For a non-local music lover, this book is a mine of information on one of the most thrilling music cities in the world.”
Rubenstein World

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