Austrian Heartbeats

You might think there are enough travel guides about Austria already, but leaf through a few of them and you will find that as soon as the subject of music arises the ancestral home of the Mozart chocolate balls gets smothered by the overpowering weight of its classical heritage. Visitors might easily get the impression that the music of this country is divided between the high culture celebrated in its grand concert halls and the merciless pounding of Alpine techno on its chalets, designed to bludgeon skiing tourists into alcoholic oblivion.