Vienna (2)

It wasn't all bling and pomposity in Vienna, or even in the Hofburg. This vast palace includes lots of different collections under the banner of the Museum of Art History, up and down its sweeping marble-clad staircases and corridors. We weren't particularly interested in the arms and armour or classical archaeology, but went on up to the musical instrument collection, the lift to which has a comfortably-upholstered bench. After a day's museum-walking, it was tempting to consider just riding up and down in the lift for the afternoon to enjoy the sit-down.

The collection has samples of just about every sort of European classical instrument from about the mid-16th century onwards - anything you can blow, pluck, strum or bash to make music seems to be there, from shawms, sackbuts and rebecs to the actual pianos used by Brahms and Mahler (indeed the later collection seems to be very piano-heavy - inevitably, because that's the instrument that developed and changed more recently, and of course takes up most space); this being Vienna, there are also ingenious tables that convert into music stands for up to a quartet. Though the collection itself is firmly behind ropes and glass, there are hands-on modern examples of the action of different keyboard instruments (I rather fancied the sound of a spinettino, which is also conveniently small for a flat like mine).

But the most engaging exhibit for me was to do with the oldest instrument of all: a "singing table", a printed table cover with the music and words all laid out for the different singers to gather round the table and perform for their after-dinner entertainment - and to think this had survived more or less intact since 1590!