Original Score By ANNAMARIA KOWALSKY & JOHANNES VOGEL With Austrian Band BILDERBUCH.
Hollywood Records announces today the release of Vienna Game (Original Series Soundtrack), available now on all major digital streaming platforms ahead of the series premiere on Disney+ on November 18. The album features 25 selections from the original score by Austrian composers Annamaria Kowalsky and Johannes Vogel, including the main title.
Vienna Game is a six-part German Hulu Original series set against the backdrop of the Congress of Vienna in 1814, when Europe’s great powers gathered to reshape the continent after Napoleon’s fall. the great powers of England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France negotiate Europe’s new order, while clever and determined women quietly pull the strings behind the scenes. At the heart of this period dramedy is Wilhelmine von Sagan, a brilliant and alluring noblewoman determined to steer both the peace negotiations – and Prince Metternich – in her favor and help shape Europe’s future. Yet her ambitions are threatened not only by shifting alliances and ruthless rivals, but also by her dangerous affair with Baron Amor Łaski, a charismatic Bonapartist, spy, and political adversary. What begins as strategic calculation evolves into a dance of attraction, rivalry, and seduction. As Vienna becomes a glittering chessboard of power, diplomacy, and desire, Wilhelmine must navigate a treacherous web of intrigue, espionage, and betrayal.
Kowalsky and Vogel drew on Viennese Classicism, waltzes and courtly dance forms to build a contemporary screen score, performed by live orchestra and colored with period instruments. A network of character themes tracks the series’ shifting alliances and ambitions as the story develops. The album also features Austrian band Bilderbuch, who co-wrote “Overture” and “Metternich” with the composers, and a riff from one of the band’s songs recurs through the series as a motif tied to one of the characters.
Both composers trained in the Viennese tradition, and the score was shaped by it.
“Working on Vienna Game has been particularly special to us, as we both grew up musically and received our education within the Viennese tradition,” say Kowalsky and Vogel. “Bringing this heritage into a contemporary context was a challenge we thoroughly enjoyed, and one that deepened our appreciation for this centuries-old musical culture. We were fortunate to work with a director, Hannu Salonen, who led the production through trust rather than rigid control. He has a gift for establishing a clear artistic vision while giving his team the freedom to explore and thrive creatively. This approach encouraged us to take risks and follow our ideas further than we might otherwise have dared.”
“Our compositional approach was strongly inspired by the principles of opera,” they continue. “With so many characters, relationships and intrigues unfolding simultaneously, we knew the score had to anchor and guide the audience through the narrative. The music is often exaggerated, highly emotional and theatrical, but at its heart, the entire score is a love confession to Vienna, in all its beautiful and bizarre wholeness. We hope audiences will feel both the affection and the playful irreverence with which we approached this extraordinary musical heritage.”
Kowalsky and Vogel recorded the solo parts themselves, mostly on instruments made in Vienna. Kowalsky performed all of the score’s solo instrumental parts, including violin, viola, piano, accordion and bass.
“There is a particular way of performing Viennese waltzes that is an art form in itself, so both composing and playing them became a fascinating experience, one that made us fall in love with the genre all over again,” they add. “But recording these waltzes with a symphony orchestra equally rooted in this tradition, and seeing the smiles on the musicians’ faces as they played, was one of the most beautiful moments of the entire process.”
ABOUT ANNAMARIA KOWALSKY
Annamaria Kowalsky is an Austrian composer, multi-instrumentalist, and multidisciplinary artist whose work spans concert music, film and television scoring, and cross-disciplinary artistic projects. She studied viola at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her music is published by Universal Edition, and her recent work includes commissions for the Vienna State Opera, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and the Västerås Sinfonietta. For Vienna Game, Kowalsky co-composed the score with Johannes Vogel and performed all of the score’s solo instrumental parts, including violin, viola, piano, accordion and bass. In this dual role as composer and performer, she shaped both the compositional conception of the score and the series’ distinctive musical voice.
ABOUT JOHANNES VOGEL
Johannes Vogel is an Austrian composer, conductor, orchestrator, and music producer with extensive experience in international film and television productions. A graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, he began his career as an orchestral musician, including work with the Vienna Philharmonic. He has contributed to major international productions including Hercules and Crimson Peak and has collaborated with composers including Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams, Rupert Gregson-Williams, and Lorne Balfe. For Vienna Game, he developed the musical language of the series and its large-scale orchestral realization together with Annamaria Kowalsky.
Vienna Game premieres exclusively on Disney+ on November 18, 2026.
TRACKLIST
1. Main Title
2. Overture
3. Laski and Alfred
4. Metternich & Wilhelmine
5. Laski & Wilhelmine
6. The Tsar
7. Katharina’s Men
8. Ballroom 1
9. Marie Luise
10. Metternich
11. They Come to Vienna
12. Talleyrand
13. Sterndl
14. Chiffre Cabinet
15. Conspiracy
16. Punschkrapferl
17. Vienna Is Dangerous
18. Fancy Dress Ball
19. Galopp
20. Diplomacy
21. Recap
22. The Hunt
23. Ballroom 2
24. Mazurka-Tango
25. Showdown
All tracks written by Annamaria Kowalsky and Johannes Vogel, except “Overture” and “Metternich,” written by Annamaria Kowalsky, Johannes Vogel, Maurice Ernst, Peter Horazdovsky, Michael Jakob Krammer, Philip Scheibl and Simon Freidhoefer.
