The New Year's Concert (in German Das Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker) of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is a concert which takes place each year in the morning of January 1 in Vienna, Austria. It is broadcast around the world to an estimated audience of one billion in forty-four countries.
The music is mostly that of the Strauss family (Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss). The flowers that decorate the Wiener Musikverein concert hall are a gift each year from the city of San Remo, Liguria, Italy.
The concert always ends with several encores after the main programme. The musicians then collectively wish the audience a happy new year, and close with Johann Strauss II's Blue Danube Waltz followed by the Radetzky-March. During this last piece, the audience claps along in time and the conductor turns to conduct them instead of the orchestra.
The concert was first performed in 1939 (paradoxically on December 31st of this year) conducted by Clemens Krauss .
Conductors of New Year's Concert
- Clemens Krauss , 1939, 1941-1945, 1948-1954
- Josef Krips , 1946-1947
- Willi Boskovsky, 1955-1979
- Lorin Maazel, 1980-1986, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2005
- Herbert von Karajan, 1987
- Claudio Abbado, 1988, 1991
- Carlos Kleiber, 1989, 1992
- Zubin Mehta, 1990, 1995, 1998
- Riccardo Muti, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004
- Nikolaus Harnoncourt, 2001, 2003
- Seiji Ozawa, 2002
- Mariss Jansons, 2006 (Projected)
External links
Last updated: 05-07-2005 16:25:38
