Tickets for Vienna Philharmonic?

I'm visiting Vienna in early June, and would love to see the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikvereinssaal on either the 4th or 6th of June. I need 2 tickets. It would be fulfilling a lifelong dream, blah blah blah. Plus they're playing Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin.

Yet I see that getting tickets to the VPO is about as simple as getting tickets to Bayreuth. Anybody have tips? Any help would be appreciated.
 
Also let me know if there are things I must see in Vienna that I probably don't know I need to see yet. Uncanny museums, musty bordellos, frozen-in-amber cafes, unsettling political meeting-places, peculiar customs, etc. I know I can count on the je ne sais quoi of my cultured, suave, worldly readers to help me out.

Comments

[b sza]

at musikverein.at you can order tickets online, if you try early enough.
as I read, conductor and program of the matinees june 4 and 6 have changed (no more bartok)...

see "judenplatz" quarter in the inner city (not only but also)for the holocaust memorial by rachel whiteread, there´s a unique urban atmosphere in this grätzel (block).
see "heurige" in stammersdorf, nearer to naturality than elsewhere, but actually you can find fine "heurige" also in grinzing and döbling f.e. "hengl-haselbrunner".
stephansdom is a must, except you hate churches...

[rahms]

In case you're looking for a Kaffeehaus not being constantly flooded with tourists, I strongly recommend Café Goldegg [http://bit.ly/c25zb7]. First and last platitude I'll be using in this comment: it truly makes you feel like you're travelling in time.

[a]

Naturhistorisches Museum, seconded! A more accurate name would be “Palace of Natural History” or something along those lines .. it’s very baroque. I’ve been there a couple of times and the museum itself is really worth the visit, never mind the stuff in it =).

http://blog.esel.at/termine is a good one-stop source for all sorts of more or less obscure cultural events.

Fortunately there are lots and lots of cafés that fulfill the important criteria for a "proper" Viennese Kaffeehaus:

1. No music
2. Hasn’t been renovated in at least 50 years
3. Grumpy waiters (alternatively nice elderly ladies) who will never bother you, even when all you’ve ordered is one cup of coffee five hours ago (not that you could actually order “a cup of coffee” in Vienna, of course).

Some I like: Westend (across the street from Westbahnhof), Prückel (across the street from MAK, Museum of Applied Arts), Zartl (3rd district), Alt Wien (1st), Hawelka (1st), Rathauscafé (across the street from Rathaus), Bräunerhof (1st; this is a bit touristy though).

I have no idea how the Musikvereinssaal ticket business works – if you’re unsuccessful, a simpler alternative might be the Konzerthaus. I’ve been to a few good chamber music concerts there, and to me it seemed like there were always a few tickets still available at the Abendkassa (um .. “evening counter”? Like when you show up to buy a ticket immediately before the event?).

Have fun!

[Gerrit K]

Cafe Jelinek, Otto Bauer Gasse 5, 1060 Wien

Hermes Phettberg (http://www.phettberg.at/) war auch schon da!

[mawa]

Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, hands down: http://greatgranitecity.blogspot.com/2010/03/habsburgerspa.html

[cohu]

You should visit the Naturhistorisches Museum. I've never been there myself but I've heard it's great (at least for people like us who like quirky/vaguely creepy/dusty old stuff!)
Highlights: They have a Steller's Sea Cow skeleton and a stuffed Ocean Sunfish. Doesn't that sound great?