The Saturday concert reviewed: 389 ratings, more than any tour of this palace, and not one of them includes a museum visit
This is the most-rated thing sold at this address, by some distance
389 ratings against the guided visit’s 190. Divide them and you get 2.05: more than twice as many people have rated an hour of chamber music here as have rated a walk through the palace. It is also the largest single component of the 658 concert ratings that make up nearly three quarters of everything rated at this address.
Worth saying plainly, because the number invites the wrong conclusion: this is not evidence that the concert is better than the museum. It is evidence that the concert is a thing you can only buy through a platform, and the museum is a thing you buy at a desk. One generates reviews and the other does not.
All ten written reviews
Ten of the 389 wrote something. Nine of the ten are short and warm. The tenth is the longest review in this entire catalogue and it is a set of directions, which is why it is printed whole.
“The concert was magnificent; it was the best moment of our trip to Munich, and it was like healing for the soul. I would like to make a small suggestion: please hang an information poster on the door before the concert time and while the door is still closed. Because, first, we came to the address indicated on the ticket, but the door was closed at that time, and there was no announcement indicating that the concert would be there. The people we saw there directed us in another direction. The palace has many doors/sections, and whoever we asked gave us the wrong directions. We walked around the building and finally came to the same spot, and the door was open, and we were able to enter.”
“Loved the concert and such an experience enjoying it in such a beautiful venue. I brought a coat thinking I would be cold but in fact it was quite stuffy. But didn’t detract from the experience.”
“The musicians were amazing! I wasn't expecting a concert where the music was played on period instruments and it was wonderful. This was a last minute addition to our time in Munich and I am so glad we added it.”
“Wonderful! The flautist was incredible because it was so different to see the instrument highlighted. All the musicians were top quality. Only downside were the pees, the back jutted out in an awkward and tortuous place, but worth the discomfort for the music and to be in the amazing historical chapel.”
“I had a unique experience listening to the oboe, viola and harpsichord trio, and the soloists gave performances with great talent.”
“Masterful musicians playing in the most gorgeous setting. What else can you ask for?”
“The musicians were great, and in this setting, classical music is twice as beautiful. It was a great event”
“We had a very pleasant time enjoying Baroque music, performed by talented musicians, in a beautiful historical setting.”
“An amazing experience in the Baroque-style chapel of the Residenz Palace.”
“Lovely experience. The musicians were very good and the location was beautiful.”
SÜHEYLA walked round the whole block, and she is not the only one
Her review is the single most useful thing anybody has written about any listing on this site, and the request in the middle of it — hang a poster on the door — is a request nobody has acted on. She had the right address on her ticket and the wrong door, asked people who were there and got sent the wrong way, and eventually came back round to the same spot to find it open.
The reason this happens is structural rather than anybody’s fault. This block has several entrances and they are not interchangeable: the museum and treasury share one on the Residenzstraße and Max-Joseph-Platz side, the Cuvilliés Theatre has its own, and the Court Church of All Saints has another again. The concert’s own meeting point is the Löweneingang, the lion gate into the Brunnenhof, and the lions are the landmark to walk towards. Which door is which, with what to look for, is on getting in.
Bring the coat or leave it, but know that the room disagrees with itself
Fiona brought a coat and found the chapel stuffy. On the other listing that plays the same room — the special-date programme — a reviewer says it was very cold and asked for heaters, and that listing’s own page warns about the cold. These are not contradictory reports. They are August and December in a stone room that is not heated for comfort. The Saturday concert runs all year, so which one you get depends entirely on when you book.
Nicki’s complaint is the one nobody warns you about. She wrote “the pees”, meaning the pews, and the point survives the typo: the seating is chapel furniture and the backs are in the wrong place for an hour of sitting still. She called it worth the discomfort.
What works
- The most-rated thing at this address, and 389 ratings is real evidence rather than a rounding error
- Reviewers describe period instruments and a small ensemble rather than a tourist orchestra
- It is the same Hofkapelle either way, and every reviewer who mentions the room says it is worth being in
- Saturdays at 6:30 pm through the year, so it fits round a day spent somewhere else
- An hour, which is short enough to do after a full day of sightseeing
Worth knowing
- No museum visit, no Treasury and no theatre — the ticket buys the concert and only the concert
- The door defeats people: one reviewer walked round the whole building before finding it open
- Chapel pews, and one reviewer found the seat backs genuinely uncomfortable
- The room is cold in winter and can be stuffy in summer, by two reviewers’ accounts
- 4.6 is the second-lowest score of the four rated concerts here
The other three concerts, and how they differ
The same room on other nights is the special-date programme — Advent, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and Good Friday — which is a calendar difference and not a rivalry. The rococo theatre gets its own evening on the gala concert page, and the white hall recital is the fourth. All four, with which hall each uses, are on concerts inside the palace. If what you actually want is the rooms by daylight, that is a separate ticket and a separate day: the tariff and the theatre by day.
In the rococo theatreMunich: Gala Concert in the Cuvilliés Theatre
Same room, other datesMunich: Concert in the Court Chapel of the Residenz
The white hallMaster Concert in the Max-Joseph Hall in Munich
Frequently asked questions
Does the Residenz concert ticket get you into the museum?
No. The listing says so itself: this is the concert only, with no museum visit included. The Residenzmuseum, the Schatzkammer and the Cuvilliés-Theater are the palace’s own daytime tickets, sold separately at its own desk (the three tickets).
Where is the concert in the Residenz held?
In the Hofkapelle, the old court chapel inside the palace, and the meeting point is the Löweneingang — the lion gate into the Brunnenhof. Reviewers report trouble finding it, including one who walked the whole block before the right door opened, so allow more time than the walk needs (which door to use).
Is the chapel cold?
It depends when you go. A reviewer on the winter programme in the same room asked for heaters and said it was very cold; a reviewer on this Saturday listing brought a coat and found it stuffy instead. It is an unheated stone chapel, so dress for the season rather than for the building.
Why does the concert have more reviews than the palace tours?
Because of what the platform sells. Nobody sells plain admission to the Residenz online — the palace does that itself — so the bookable things here are guides and concerts, and the concerts outnumber everything: 658 of the 908 ratings on the eleven Residenz listings were left after one.