VPO New Year's Day Concert 2015

[slarty]

Yes I watched the live relay on ORF , the announcements are always very non intrusive, and certainly not overdone.
It still did not help the concert much.

[underthecountertenor]

It's odd...the concert has already begun here on French television...is the UK broadcasting it an hour later?

I caught the beginning on France Musique before heading for the red button on TV. I had the impression that they had not gone to the expense of sending a team to Vienna - it sounded as if it was being presented from the studio with the announcer speaking over the Austrian presentation. Am I right in thinking that that's what Radio 3 used to do pre-Kay?

[Barbirollians]

Rather a somnolent year for the NY concert .

The VPO would be well advised to try and get a younger conductor or two in - with the exception of FWM !

In the old days didn't Richard Baker do the NYC on BBC ?

[verismissimo]

Rather a somnolent year for the NY concert .

The VPO would be well advised to try and get a younger conductor or two in - with the exception of FWM !

Simone Young?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Simone Young?

[Nick Armstrong]

Rather a somnolent year for the NY concert .

Yes dull wasn't it, with the exception of a couple of the quicker numbers like Perpetuum Mobile when it was good to hear the soloists going through their paces.

Interesting to hear on CD Review that the VPO had wanted to commemorate Sibelius in the concert with Valse Triste, but that even with a discount, the rights payment required by the Sibelius Estate was too high to make it acceptable...

[teamsaint]

Yes dull wasn't it, with the exception of a couple of the quicker numbers like Perpetuum Mobile when it was good to hear the soloists going through their paces.

Interesting to hear on CD Review that the VPO had wanted to commemorate Sibelius in the concert with Valse Triste, but that even with a discount, the rights payment required by the Sibelius Estate was too high to make it acceptable...

isn't that called shooting yourself in the foot/cutting off your nose to spite your face/ a bit bloody silly/whatever?

Would be interesting to know the usual tariff for such rights.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Interesting to hear on CD Review that the VPO had wanted to commemorate Sibelius in the concert with Valse Triste, but that even with a discount, the rights payment required by the Sibelius Estate was too high to make it acceptable...

That was extraordinary, wasn't it! And if the VPO can't afford even "discounted" fees, how is any other orchestra? The Estate has rather shot itself in the foot here, missing a real opportunity and bringing very negative publicity upon itself.



(Unless, of course, they'd heard it was going to be Zubin Mehta ... ?)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

isn't that called shooting yourself in the foot?

snap!

[Barbirollians]

I rather miss the joke here ? Unless it is on her name .

Perhaps Osmo Vanska would lead to a cut in the cost of the rights to the Sibelius ???

[teamsaint]

snap!

One would assume that the Sibelius estate would want to keep the value of such rights as high as is possible, that much I understand, and that too heavy discounting sets a precedent and so on.

But all logic suggests that sensible pricing ( and some reasonably deep discounting) for such a high profile event would make sense.
Perhaps the issue is the the VPO throwing its (commercial)weight around to get deals at extremely low prices? not suggesting they are, just that this might be an explanation?

Edit: Big Norm has the numbers.

http://slippedisc.com/2014/11/false-triste-as-mean-vienna-philharmonic-blanks-out-sibelius/

The estate wanted 4k Euros, the VPO offered 2 k max.

[Petrushka]

Rather a somnolent year for the NY concert .

The VPO would be well advised to try and get a younger conductor or two in - with the exception of FWM !

In the old days didn't Richard Baker do the NYC on BBC ?

I heard my first New Year's Day Concert in 1972 and in those days Radio 3 broadcast the first half only while the second half was broadcast on BBC2 in the evening. It was that evening relay that was presented by Richard Baker, presumably in London and not Vienna. The Radio 3 morning relay had a quick run through of the items and was then handed over to the Austrian radio presenter (Ernst Grissemann did it for years) with the introduction and tailpiece in about half a dozen languages. There was no other input from Radio 3.

1973 turned out to be the very first time New Year's Day was a Bank Holiday in the UK and the entire concert was broadcast on Radio 3 taking the Austrian Radio relay as it stood. The evening TV broadcast of the second half was as usual with Richard Baker. At some point (not sure when) Richard Baker started presenting on Radio 3 clearly from London that is until 1987 when the whole of Karajan's concert was broadcast live on BBC 2 for the first time. By this time Richard Baker was definitely in Vienna. I believe that the foreign presenters are in the Musikverein but actually somewhere in the bowels of the building watching, like us, on TV and not in the hall itself.

There was one year (1994?) when BBC TV refused to take the concert and there was something of an outcry and it was swiftly re-instated where it has been a fixture of the New Year's Day schedules ever since.

Incidentally, 2015 was my 44th New Year's Day Concert. Is this a Forum record?

[MickyD]

I think I'm right in saying that the live recording of the 1977 concert under Boskovsky was Decca's very first digital release...on LP, of course.

[Petrushka]

I think I'm right in saying that the live recording of the 1977 concert under Boskovsky was Decca's very first digital release...on LP, of course.

1979 actually, MickyD.

[MickyD]

Oops, thanks for the correction, Petrushka! Does anyone remember if the sound of a digitally-recorded vinyl LP was markedly better?