The Collection of Historic Musical Instruments is home to the most important collection of renaissance and baroque instruments worldwide. Furthermore, the museum keeps, maintains and presents numerous instruments that were played by famous musicians and composers.

The collection includes a particularly comprehensive range of clavichords and Viennese fortepianos. The world of sound in which the composers of Viennese Classicism lived can be heard and understood here in a nearly complete fashion. The holdings of the collection have their origins in Habsburg holdings; they have since been continually expanded via purchases, gifts and loans.

The Matinees of the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments give visitors the opportunity to both see and hear the instruments, insofar as their condition allows them to be played.