New Year's Day Concert, Vienna Jan 1 2016

[Alison]

Soz Peter, your first conviction!

Happily the male/female discussion didn't go OTT this year.

I guess we are a predictable old lot, me included.

[Petrushka]

Well I thought it was all lovely. Who was that lady in blue we kept seeing? I'm sure Petroc must have told us but I missed it.

I'm pretty sure it was Mrs Jansons. Petroc's presentation was, of course, for Radio 3 listeners so he didn't mention it in his commentary (which, by the way, seemed good enough to me). Seem to remember Mrs Jansons being there at a signing session that Mariss did in the Barbican several years ago and she looked familiar to me when I saw her on TV this morning.

Allow Strauss his poetic licence: the Danube is blue in imagination and, when the light catches it, is occasionally so in reality.

[Petrushka]

I've just watched the 1974 New Year's Day Concert on DVD (billed as the complete concert, it's actually the second half only). This was with the great Willi Boskovsky and has all the fizz you could wish for and then some. Very, very few players then are still with the orchestra but I recognised a very young Rainer Küchl in the first violins. He retires this year after 45 years with the VPO.

Slightly worrying that I could name more members of the 1974 VPO than this morning's. 1974 was my third NYDC.

[Alison]

Allow Strauss his poetic licence: the Danube is blue in imagination and, when the light catches it, is occasionally so in reality.

Exactly!

[Richard Tarleton]

Sorry, I wasn't aware that it was a commonplace

And anyway it was exceptionally green this year (or whenever they filmed it.)

My guess was October - deep greens of the woodland with splashes of gold...

The pro/anti ballet discussion is also totally predictable - last year (?) embellished by a discussion of the Vivienne Westwood outfits they put the dancers in.....

[Alison]

Two Hopes, Bob Hope and No hope!

What do you mean Stanners?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Allow Strauss his poetic licence: the Danube is blue in imagination and, when the light catches it, is occasionally so in reality.

Scientifically speaking, water is a very pale shade of blue.

[MrGongGong]

Scientifically speaking, water is a very pale shade of blue.

Not if you live in York

"Scientifically speaking" ?

[kernelbogey]

[...]Happily the male/female discussion didn't go OTT this year[...]

A pity that Petroc didn't mention that the VPO now has its first woman concertmaster, Albena Danailova, though perhaps that's no longer news (as she seems to have been in post now for about four years).

[Keraulophone]

This settles it...



Danube Research must surely know its true colour.

[Petrushka]

A pity that Petroc didn't mention that the VPO now has its first woman concertmaster, Albena Danailova, though perhaps that's no longer news (as she seems to have been in post now for about four years).

Actually, he did mention it though his voice was submerged by applause at that particular moment. Having viewed both the original broadcast and the BBC4 repeat I think Petroc did a first rate job. A pity that Rainer Küchl wasn't the concertmaster for what would have been his final New Year's Day Concert. He retires later this year with 45 years service.

This might be of interest: https://vimeo.com/149868579

[oddoneout]

I did wonder about the state of the dancers' feet after the (?)Schonbrunn sequence, as they seemed to be dancing on gravel over a hard surface.

[alywin]

Don't forget you can see the whole concert live on the BBC Red Button channel 601 (why isn't this mentioned anywhere?)

Curses - I wish I'd known! I recorded the second half this morning from BBC1(?) and was going to grab the highlights tonight in case there was anything from the first half in it, but got distracted and forgot :( It would have been great to get the whole thing in one go.

I only had it on in the background while I was working, but it seemed unusually enjoyable to me today.

[oddoneout]

Don't forget you can see the whole concert live on the BBC Red Button channel 601 (why isn't this mentioned anywhere?)

I don't know if this is what you mean, but underneath the programme listing in the Radio Times(radio pages) it says 'Press red', but in such small letters that you would need a magnifying glass to hand.

[Richard Tarleton]

I don't know if this is what you mean, but underneath the programme listing in the Radio Times(radio pages) it says 'Press red', but in such small letters that you would need a magnifying glass to hand.

Do you have to be on Freeview for this to work, Pet? I tried every possible combination of pressing the red button, 601, etc., while receiving the broadcast at 10.15 on Radio 4 via my Sky satellite box - nothing happened. I tried doing it while tuned to BBC1, BBC2, BBC4 (which doesn't start until 7.00 pm)..... Still we got the first half in the evening.