Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2024

[Prommer]

Sadly it's Muti again next year! The orchestra members may love him but it really is time for a new face.

I do not understand why this need be his sixth appearance… but fine if he conducts some Verdi on some spurious ground or other?

[Prommer]

Muti understands the VPO very well and is very good at conducting this music, witness his audience-less 2021 NYDC which is among the better ones of recent efforts. Moreover, 2025 will be the bicentenary of the birth of Johann Strauss (son) so the VPO might well want an experienced hand on the tiller and a big name on the CD cover.

When Boskovsky succeeded Clemens Krauss in 1955 he was the orchestra's concertmaster and was doubtful of his ability to take it on. In the end he was there for 25 years.

The big names are fast disappearing. The orchestra need to promote someone to take it on before the major names have gone completely. I'd feel fairly sure that someone within their own ranks could produce the goods. Younger conductors of this concert, such as Nelsons and Thielemann, don't seem to have much feeling for the music. Welser-Möst did a fine NYDC last year and I'd hope that he gets invited back soon.

Give John Eliot Gardiner a go? Only 80…and he produced not a bad Merry Widow years ago with the VPO?

[Prommer]

On repertoire, Wiener Bonbons was a (very long) stinker.

[Prommer]

The women they now have in the orchestra are a heck of a lot better to look at than the dull old men!

[Prommer]

Re-watching now… band properly watching Thielemann, unlike many of their conductors!

[Dave2002]

Yes it was distinctly weird - mind, those two boys must have been pretty fit by the end of it...

Running up and down - would UK Health and Safety have allowed that in that old building?

The lady in red on the barge struck me as an accident waiting to happen - that big floaty inflammable dress adjacent to wind-fanned braziers.

Very ood, though was she actually there? Bizarre section, though quite amusing.

[bluestateprommer]

Mirga is due to conduct a Weinberg opera with them at the Salzburg Festival this summer - has she conducted them before ?

MG-T has never conducted the VPO before, so the scheduled Salzburg Festival production of Weinberg's Der Idiot will indeed be her debut with them.

https://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/p/the-idiot-2024

This will be interesting, as this selection plays to one of her specialties, where she understands Weinberg much better than the VPO.

Speaking of Salzburg, Joana Mallwitz is set to conduct the VPO in a Mozart and Schubert program during the "Mozart Week Salzburg", on Wolfie's big day, 27 January.

https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/en/konzerte/mozart-week-salzburg/10474/

The Schubert "Great C Major" looks to be one of JM's party pieces, with a video on YT and a very fine concert recently in Boston with the Boston SO (I heard the WCRB relay a while back). This marks her non-operatic concert debut with the VPO, and presumably may be a "test audition" for a potential invitation in the future to conduct at the Musikverein.

But back to the subject at hand. I'm not at all surprised that it's Muti for 2025, and had a gut feeling about it, although I didn't think to put my neck on the line and make the prediction early. It actually makes sense on several levels. As Petrushka noted, Muti has concerted the NJK on several occasions and knows the musicians well. Moreover, Muti's last appearance was during pandemic year without an audience, and it's quite understandable that the VPO wants to give him one more go at it, this time under more "normal" conditions with an audience. As well, to step gingerly into actuarial territory, Muti is 82 now, and will be 83 by this time next 1 January.

New faces would be nice, but as others have noted, the candidate pool isn't deep, especially on the younger side. I wouldn't mind seeing Dudamel and Nelsons each getting another shot at it down the line. I think that the VPO plans 3 years in advance, so that the conductors for 2026 and 2027 probably already signed on the dotted line, but have to keep quiet until the time is right for the announcements. For truly new names, the two most likely / least unlikely candidates to me are Philippe Jordan (VPO debut 2004) and Andres Orozco-Estrada (VPO debut somewhere in the late 2000's; the archive is messed up on that one entry).

[LMcD]

Give John Eliot Gardiner a go? Only 80…and he produced not a bad Merry Widow years ago with the VPO?

A safe pair of hands?

[Alison]

Weiner Bürger went quite well; can’t say I’m looking forward to hearing the Bruckner Quadrille again.
I recommend listening to the concert rather than watching it

[Alison]

A safe pair of hands?

Would rather have Blomstedt!

[hmvman]

The women they now have in the orchestra are a heck of a lot better to look at than the dull old men!

Seems like this concert can be enjoyed (or not) on so many levels.....!

[Barbirollians]

I wish it had been Muti this year ! I think it was one of the dullest I have ever heard this year . Thielemann getting quite a kicking on twitter along the lines of stick to Bruckner.

[Alison]

I don’t care much for his Bruckner either!

[Petrushka]

The women they now have in the orchestra are a heck of a lot better to look at than the dull old men!

The piccolo player, Karin Bonelli, is a dead ringer for my next door neighbour!

[kernelbogey]

The piccolo player, Karin Bonelli, is a dead ringer for my next door neighbour!

I thought the harpist looked much like the photos of Danielle Jalowieska!