New Year's Day Concert 2017 VPO/Dudamel

[Stanfordian]

I was wondering the same. I missed a few of the familiar faces in the violins this year. Must confess I find the leader a very attractive gentleman!

Rainer is the brother of Manfred. Honeck actually spent eight years as a viola player in the Wiener Philharmoniker.

[Tetrachord]

I was wondering the same. I missed a few of the familiar faces in the violins this year. Must confess I find the leader a very attractive gentleman!

Yes, they are a very well-known musical family. Manfred has wonderful things to say about Kleiber in that documentary "Traces to Nowhere", which I posted elsewhere.

[Tetrachord]

Did I hear correctly that the leader was Rainer Honeck? if so, any relation to Manfred Honeck, once of that parish?

Love the Dickensian allusion!!!!

[Alison]

Rainer is the brother of Manfred. Honeck actually spent eight years as a viola player in the Wiener Philharmoniker.

Thanks Stanners. Do you know if Manfred ever conducts the Vienna Philharmonic? I agree with Petrushka that he'd be an ideal candidate for NYD.

[Tetrachord]

Well, yes, and no... You are behind the times if you think the very wealthy always dress 'well'.

In fact, often grungily, though seldom actually cheaply... though that may not always be obvious to the naked eye.

Except for those (now rather rare) hermitic billionaires whose meanness extends to themselves...!

You are right that most of the senior-ish and horrendously white crowd here appear to 'dress up' a bit, and relatively formally. Erm, middle class Viennese burghers, in other words. (Without much obvious relish...)

"horrendously white"? Look closer; the Japanese are there in significant numbers in recent years. In fact, they seemed to be able to get tickets for the VPO when I couldn't, which always annoyed since they were overseas visitors too. Finally, I went down to the Wiener Philharmoniker office on Kartner-Ring and BEGGED the woman to keep me a ticket if one should become available late 'on consignment'. They do this if the subscriber is unable to attend the concert and surrenders the ticket for sale. She willingly obliged, but it was pot luck where you ended up sitting. However, if the concert is actually sponsored by the Musikverein itself (not as frequent as subscriptions concerts, of course) I was able to get one by logging on at exactly 9am the day they became available, having already paid a 50 Euro 'member fee' for the privilege of so doing. Even then, the vast majority were often sold.

And as for "bling" and "weathy"; on quite a few occasions I ended up in the Balkon Loge next to the organ and had partially restricted viewing. Quite a few couldn't see at all and some carried scores to follow during piano recitals. You'll often see people standing up in their seats on the Balkon Loge at the sides of the hall. This is because they cannot see properly from that last row of seats. The Musikverein isn't adequate to cater for the large number of people who wants seats these days, and the seats themselves are often impossibly uncomfortable and you feel squashed in to a claustrophobic extent. But who is going to stop holding concerts where Brahms, Bruckner and others conducted (have a look at the Wiener Philharmoniker website and click on 'archives' to see all those famous names)?

I learned that when extensions were being mooted for the U-Bahn near the Musikverein it took a parliamentary intervention to get it right and protect the Musikverein!!

[Prommer]

"horrendously white"? Look closer; the Japanese are there in significant numbers in recent years.

I'm guilty of satire here, and a slight misquote... The phrase 'hideously white' has been used (un-selfconsciously) by those who recoil when something isn't sufficiently multicultural in their view.

Often the same crowd who get their sport every year with the NYD Concert, tut-tutting about the scarcity of women in the VPO, how rich the punters seem to be (even when they are not), how old, how white, why can't we have some 'world music' etc etc.

Greg Dyke employed the term about the BBC some years ago - an organisation which at the time he had been running for some while.

*One suspects the reason many Japanese may love it is because they prize its authenticity and high standards. If it changed too much, they would find it had lost its unique appeal...

[Tetrachord]

I'm guilty of satire here, and a slight misquote... The phrase 'hideously white' has been used (un-selfconsciously) by those who recoil when something isn't sufficiently multicultural in their view.

Often the same crowd who get their sport every year with the NYD Concert, tut-tutting about the scarcity of women in the VPO, how rich the punters seem to be (even when they are not), how old, how white, why can't we have some 'world music' etc etc.

Greg Dyke employed the term about the BBC some years ago - an organisation which at the time he had been running for some while.

*One suspects the reason many Japanese may love it is because they prize its authenticity and high standards. If it changed too much, they would find it had lost its unique appeal...

A sympathetic soul!! I'm sorry I misunderstood.

I welcome the Asian love of serious music because there are exponentially growing audiences all over Asia and this provides a promise for many of us that our dearly loved art form is destined to survive long in perpetuity. That's something I've worried about in past decades. Yes, "authenticity" and "high standards" are part of the mix - but it's just phenomenal anyway. What's NOT to love??

[Alison]

I often wish I were a better pianist or good enough to conduct the London Philharmonic but at least I was given the gift of being able to listen to and enjoy music without worrying about all the peripheral issues raised in this thread .

Fwiw this was the best conducted and played NYD concert since I started following them in 2004.

[Petrushka]

I did not understand anyone to suggest that it was a bling audience always at the Musikverein . The point is that the NYD concert has now become a very exclusive event when the attire of the audience in the 1975 video suggested that was not the case then .

The VPO would argue that, if anything, it is less exclusive now than it ever has been. As a glance at this year's audience will show there are visitors from all over the world and it is open to all to apply for tickets from wherever you are. Simply log on and register on the VPO website and between Jan 2 and Feb 28 and put your name into the ballot for tickets. Yes, the top price tickets are horrendously expensive (1090 euros) and the enormous number of people who apply (over 55,000 when I applied yesterday and it'll be growing by the second) means that the odds of getting a seat are extremely small, no better than being struck by lightning twice while on the way with Lord Lucan to collect the jackpot from your winning lottery ticket. I try every year all the same!

That 1975 audience, by contrast, would have been predominantly Viennese. That is the way this event has changed: from a purely local concert to one broadcast all over the world.

[MrGongGong]

What's NOT to love??

(interview with Charles Hazelwood)

What’s the most overrated classical work? – ie is there a warhorse whose appeal you really don’t relate to?

Anything by Johann Strauss, father or son. Those polkas, waltzes and marches are about as satisfying as eating 200 packets of Haribo Sour Suckers.

So I guess that's another conductor not in the running then

[Prommer]

Everybody wins!

[Alison]

Charles hazelwood - now there's a career on the up!

We used to waste many words on him!

[MrGongGong]

Charles hazelwood - now there's a career on the up!

We used to waste many words on him!

Saucer of milk ?

[Alison]

Saucer of milk ?

I'll take The Strauss family over Barry Gray any day old bean.

[Tetrachord]

(interview with Charles Hazelwood)



So I guess that's another conductor not in the running then

Who is Charles Hazelwood? Not the Mozart conductor, by any chance!!??

Heresy alert: much of Mozart's music bores me far more than anything at the Wiener Philharmoniker Neujahrskonzert!! (I prefer Haydn.)