Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert

As I’m sure many of you know already, each year the Vienna Philharmonic presents a concert from the Musikverein showcasing primarily the music of Johann Strauss Jr. This tradition started in 1939, just after the Anschluss which made Austria a province of Germany — as you can probably imagine, there is a whole story to this, and I will elaborate on it further at another time and in another format. Since the 1950s, the concert has been broadcast around the world. There are several traditions associated with this event, including a minimum of two encores (Strauss Jr.’s Blue Danube Waltz followed by Strauss Sr.’s Radetzky March), and this year’s concert followed in the typical vein. Daniel Barenboim was the conductor.

Because this year was the 200-year anniversary of Haydn’s death, there was also a selection on the program by the grandfather of all Classical genres. A reduced orchestra performed the last movement of Symphony no. 45 (‘Farewell’) and did actually walk off stage to ‘end’ the concert.  Naturally, then all the musicians walked back on and performed the three encores; this year they added one, Strauss Jr.’s Sans Souci Polka from op. 178 from 1856.  If you’re not able to recall that melody immediately, don’t feel concerned that your Straussal skills need work.  There are two basic approaches a conductor can take to the New Year’s Concert: go with the old chestnuts or focus mostly on lesser-known works.  Barenboim seems to have opted for Approach #2, although the American broadcast — which edits some of the concert — left out some of the more popular pieces, such as Rosen aus dem Sueden.

Barenboim did seem to have a prediliction for the Hungarian pieces: the program included two selections from Strauss Jr.’s operetta Der Zigeunerbaron and the Elijan a Magyar polka (which means ‘Long live Hungary’ and even cites the Rakozky March at the end).  I was pleased that Barenboim also included a piece by Josef ‘brother of Johann Jr.’ Strauss, Sphaerenklaenge, because Josef was a fabulous waltz composer.  If you don’t know his works, be sure to check out his Dynamidenwalzer, which was the piece Richard (‘No Relation’) Strauss quoted in Rosenkavalier.

Barenboim certainly enjoyed himself with the ‘Farewell’ Symphony and in giving elaborate conducting instructions during the Radetzky March.  I found his program to be slightly bizarre — a few more of the old chestnuts might have been nice — but mostly fine.  In the American broadcast, Julie Andrews (yes, our host was Julie ‘The Hills Are Alive’ Andrews) told a Strauss Jr. anecdote that I had not heard before, which I found astounding.