With a great understanding of music, exceptionally good technical aptitude and uncompromising attention to quality, Ignaz Bösendorfer created something very special: He built grand pianos that not only stood up to the new, powerful playing of pianists such as Liszt, they also inspired composers and audiences alike with their sound.

It is one of those long-awaited spring days, Roland, my friend and a Bösendorfer employee, is sitting silently behind the wheel of the car while I peer out the window. These buildings in downtown Vienna are passing us by – we are not far from Vienna’s Ringstrasse.

Shortly before his 90th birthday André Previn died in his New York home. An exceptional artist, pianist, composer and conductor who playfully linked the two worlds of popular and classical music.

Much of what once made Austria so great is now gone. People who enjoyed great popularity are no longer with us.