What better way to start the New Year than with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in this golden palace that is the Musikverein? To the sound of Beautiful Blue Danube, of The Radetzky’s March and of The bat ? This year, he also offers us an epic on the air Nymphs, Elves and DThe Phoenix Wings. Presented by Benoît Dutortre, the concert will be broadcast live from 11:15 am on France Musique and France 2.
Broadcast in more than 90 countries, the Vienna New Year’s concert is a true institution of classical music. In France, nearly 3 million viewers await the Austrian waltzes every January 1. If the Philharmonic Orchestra always honors the Strauss family, the repertoire changes every year and can hold its share of surprises.
This 82nd edition will include songs from Johann Strauss, father and son, Eduard and Josef. To this ensemble, three other Austrian composers are added: Joseph Hellmesberger and Joseph Hellmesberger Jr. (both also violinists) and Carl Michael Ziehrer.
On Dec 30, 31 & Jan 1, Daniel Barenboim leads the 2022 New Year’s Concert with the @Vienna_Phil. This year’s concert features music by the Strauss family & its contemporaries, including rarely performed compositions by Joseph Hellmesberger & Carl Michael Ziehrer. # NYC2022 pic.twitter.com/xbZr6Ey1AN
– Daniel Barenboim (@DBarenboim) December 24, 2021
Due to the pandemic, the previous edition had to be adapted: a concert without an audience but with dapplause from viewers broadcast live through an app designed by the event’s Austrian broadcaster. This year, the public will be present but reduced: only a thousand spectators – instead of the usual 1,700 – will be able to attend the concert. The highly prized show is subject to a draw each year for the purchase of tickets, the price of which is between 35 and more than 1000 euros. The 700 unlucky ones who, selected this year, will ultimately not be able to attend the concert due to covid, are automatically postponed to January 1, 2023.
After the Latvian Andris Nelson last year, it is the famous Israeli-Argentinian conductor Daniel Barenboim who will be at the helm, chosen by the Viennese phalanx as tradition dictates. The artistic collaboration with the maestro as a conductor began in 1989, although he had already performed with the Wiener Philharmoniker, as a pianist, in 1956. For the New Year’s concert it was not not at his first attempt either: he has already directed it in 2009 and 2014. Now 80 years old, the artist was also one of the directors of La Scala in Milan, until 2016.
The Vienna New Year’s concert was first held in 1939 in order to boost the morale of the Austrian people and give them hope for a better year. A target still applicable in 2021 for Austria, which was reconfigured at the end of November for more than two weeks.
/2021/12/29/php7yE5r9.jpg)
Part 1
Josef Strauss – Phoenix mars, opus 105
Johann Strauß – Phoenix wings, Waltz op.125
Josef Strauss – Mermaid, Polka mazur op. 248
Joseph Hellmesberger – Little Anzeiger, Galop op.4
Johann Strauß – Morning leaves, Waltz Op. 279
Eduard Strauß – Little Chronicle, Rapid Polka Op.128
Part 2
Johann Strauß son – Opening of the Bat
Johann Strauß son – The Champagne Polka, Musikalischer Scherz op. 211
Carl Michael Ziehrer – Night owls, Waltz op.466
Johann Strauß son – Persian March, opus 289
Johann Strauß son – Thousand and one Night, Waltz op.346
Eduard Strauß – Greetings to Prague, French Polka, Op. 144
Joseph Hellmesberger son, Leprechauns, Charakterstück
Josef Strauss – The nymphs, French polka op.50
Josef Strauss – The music of the spheres, Waltz op. 235