Zürich

Zürich opened its concert hall with Brahms in the building — the Tonhalle's inaugural festivities of 1895 were graced by the composer himself — and the hall, restored to its gilded glory, remains the home of the Tonhalle-Orchester, founded 1868, the oldest symphony orchestra in Switzerland. It shares its lakeside block with the Kongresshaus, the congress house whose halls carry the city's larger events — the concert record lists "Congress Halle" and "Kongresshaus" separately, one complex in fact, flagged for the workbook — while the Opernhaus on Sechseläutenplatz maintains one of Europe's most respected opera companies. For a banking capital, Zürich's avant-garde credentials are impeccable: Dada was born in 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire in the Niederdorf, five minutes from where James Joyce wrote much of Ulysses; Joyce lies in the Fluntern cemetery, uphill from the zoo, and Wagner spent his richest exile years composing here.

The city itself is the lake's argument for moderation: the Limmat quays, the twin towers of the Grossmünster with Giacometti and Chagall glass in its neighbours, Bahnhofstrasse's discreet gold, swimming clubs on the river in summer and the Sechseläuten spring ritual of burning the snowman. Add the Kunsthaus, Europe's largest church clock face on St Peter's, and an August street parade that briefly turns Calvin's city techno — Zürich balances its books and its repertoire with equal care.