Composers Quarter Hamburg — Attraction in Hamburg

Highly recommended for classical music enthusiasts! It's a small museum dedicated to 7 composers that spent time in Hamburg: Telemann, CPE Bach, Hasse, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Mahler, and Brahms. Despite the small size, we spent nearly the whole day here with all the listening excerpts and interactive visual exhibits.

Staff was very friendly and spoke English just fine. We were able to come and go since the entry ticket lasts the whole day.

Most of the museum's first 3 composers (Telemann, CPE Bach, Hasse) either had English translations or were explained in a museum guide book you could borrow. Unfortunately there was no guide book for the Mendelssohns or Mahler, making it harder to follow along unless using Google translate. I mentioned this to museum staff, and they said that an English guide would be available soon.

Another issue was that a few listening stations either didn't work at all or had a constant distracting buzz through the provided headphones.

I would've liked to see more actual instruments and artifacts from the 18th and 19th centuries, but I understand that much of them (and the composers' actual homes) were destroyed in WW2.

The section dedicated to Brahms was much better however. It's in a different building that is decorated like a mid 19th century home. There were no headphones available, but the entire recorded works of Brahms could be played through a CD collection and high quality speaker system. There was also a library room with lots of complete scores and scholarly books. More information on all of the artifacts and photos was available through a provided tablet with complete English translation.

Overall I highly enjoyed the museum and would recommend it to any classical music enjoyer. I've been to many music museums and composer houses across Europe, and this one was enjoyable in that it was very informative of the composers' inspirations and legacies. Particularly with Telemann and CPE Bach who are often overlooked.

Hopefully they can improve some of the technical and translation issues. It looked like they were adding on a cafe so they are still improving...

Loved this! Wasn't sure what to expect but really enjoyed these museums. Staff were keen to help in English, but also to let me practice my German which was really appreciated. There's also a great restaurant on site. There's an English handbook to go with the exhibits too. Nicely set out and I learnt so much. Would definitely recommend and great...

Lovely museum with lots of information and images. The women working there were very friendly and informative. I especially loved the opportunities to listen to different pieces of classical music. Would recommend to classical...