Every year on the New Year’s Day, I enjoy watching the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert, broadcasted live from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. In 2021, due to the ongoing high rates of COVID-19 infection, the concert took place without an audience, under the baton of the Italian conductor Riccardo Muti. Listening to the beautiful music of Johann Strauss II and other Austrian composers, I learned that, in 2021, the state of Burgenland would celebrate 100 years from when it became part of the Republic of Austria. This beautiful landlocked Alpine country is bordered by a total of eight countries: Germany to the northwest, Czechia (Czech Republic) to the…