The Society of Friends of Music was founded in1812 in Vienna. Starting in November 1831 concerts were held in a hall with 700 seats.
Soon this room turned out to be too small. In 1863 the Emperor Franz Joseph agreed to give the state owned area at the Vienna River,
opposite the St. Charles Church, free of charge to the Society of Friends of Music for the construction of a concert hall. The architect Theophil Hansen
was commissioned with the design and planning of the building. The concert hall should contain two halls, a great one for orchestra and a smaller one
for chamber music concerts. The building was opened on January 6, 1870 with a ceremonial concert, and the critics praised unanimously
the magnificent acoustics of the Great Hall, whose fame spread quickly throughout the world. The small hall, which in 1937 was named after Johannes Brahms,
soon got the reputation for being an ideal place for chamber music. Today, the house of the Vienna Musikverein is known as a traditional concert hall.

The building of the Musikverein is built in a historic style after models of ancient Greek civilization. The columns, caryatids and gable-reliefs arouse
the association of a temple for music. The Great Hall is the heart piece of the building, and was provided with a ceiling painting by August Eisenmenger
and sculptures by Franz Melnitzky. From the outside the great hall is recognizable through the designated central nave. The small hall was restored in
its original form with red columns and green marble walls only in 1993.

In 2004 four smaller, underground halls were opened. These were designed by the architect Wilhelm Holzbauer and named after the respective dominant
building material of glass, metal, stone and wood. These rooms are equipped for concerts as well as for samples, conferences, workshops, receptions
and were designed for maximum flexibility by the use of modern technology.