Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2022

[Petrushka]

I do miss the light-hearted humour that characterised the Willi Boskovsky New Year concerts and find it all a bit over-earnest nowadays. Where were the champagne corks popping in the Champagne Polka? Too tame at the end and no fizz whatever. What about the gunshots in Auf der Jagd? A woodslap just doesn't cut it. Watch any Boskovsky NYDC on youTube and see how to do it. Barely a smile from Barenboim or the orchestra and the audience seemed to lack enthusiasm behind those masks.

Strange to see Barenboim, who can conduct the most fearsomely difficult pieces without a score, with his head in the score during the Blue Danube!

[kernelbogey]

Strange to see Barenboim, who can conduct the most fearsomely difficult pieces without a score, with his head in the score during the Blue Danube!

I thought he didn't look well some of the time... though perhaps I was just noticing ageing.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Very poor clapping as Petroc said on R3 off the beat. I was rather surprised that PT said Strauss wrote the Blue Danube to cheer up the nation after Prussia defeated Australia in the Seven Years War !

Did he really say that?

[french frank]

Thanks to all for contributions to this thread - very enjoyable/instructive, even though I'm deprived of watching and, erm, don't really miss it . Many things are worth knowing about.

[Frances_iom]

No - poor memory, poor geography - blame it on autocorrect - Petroc said 7 weeks war Prussia vs Austria (Prussia was at that period the bully boy which in turn led to WW1 and because the Allies didn't sort it then, it led to WW2.

[Petrushka]

I thought he didn't look well some of the time... though perhaps I was just noticing ageing.

Yes, that was my thought too. There were times when he didn't seem to be fully engaged.

[Alison]

Yes, that was my thought too. There were times when he didn't seem to be fully engaged.

His voice seemed frail, to have aged, too.

[Petrushka]

No - poor memory, poor geography - blame it on autocorrect - Petroc said 7 weeks war Prussia vs Austria (Prussia was at that period the bully boy which in turn led to WW1 and because the Allies didn't sort it then, it led to WW2.

The reference is to the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle...6niggr%C3%A4tz It was a massive blow to the power and prestige of the Habsburg Empire and a devastating blow to morale.

[RichardB]

Like EA, I was happy to see Sphärenklänge on the programme, but unfortunately I was only able to hear the first two items on the car radio before today's walk on the beach. I might catch up later, audio only I expect. I've always had in the back of my mind a project to listen through all the music of all three Strausses and extract a definitive selection for my own listening, although that would be extremely time consuming! I've always been fond of this repertoire (referring to the "categorisation" thread, these were the latest popular sounds of their time!) although I would be hard put to say exactly why.

[oddoneout]

I thought he didn't look well some of the time... though perhaps I was just noticing ageing.

I had only seen photos of DB in recent years so to see him in motion so to speak was a shock. He is elderly now, but it wasn't just that, I felt there was a lack of vitality, the inner life force so to speak. I'm afraid my first though was "rabbit in the headlights" when the camera caught him straight on. In the end I stopped watching the TV when it was just the orchestra as I found the shots of DB rather unsettling. I don't know if he is indeed unwell or whether age has caught up with him rather more aggressively than with some others?
I've just been watching the repeat of the latest David Attenborough documentary which made me think that all is not well with DB, as Attenborough is a good few years older, but seemed the younger.

[Petrushka]

I had only seen photos of DB in recent years so to see him in motion so to speak was a shock. He is elderly now, but it wasn't just that, I felt there was a lack of vitality, the inner life force so to speak. I'm afraid my first though was "rabbit in the headlights" when the camera caught him straight on. In the end I stopped watching the TV when it was just the orchestra as I found the shots of DB rather unsettling. I don't know if he is indeed unwell or whether age has caught up with him rather more aggressively than with some others?
I've just been watching the repeat of the latest David Attenborough documentary which made me think that all is not well with DB, as Attenborough is a good few years older, but seemed the younger.

I've seen Barenboim several times and he's never been the most animated of conductors, often just folding his arms for a while and letting the orchestra play, but today he seemed to be bored and disengaged. As I mention above, he conducts the most difficult and complex of pieces without a score in sight so it was downright weird to see him scrambling through the score of the Blue Danube as if he'd lost his place. I hope all is well.

[Barbirollians]

No - poor memory, poor geography - blame it on autocorrect - Petroc said 7 weeks war Prussia vs Austria (Prussia was at that period the bully boy which in turn led to WW1 and because the Allies didn't sort it then, it led to WW2.

You are quite right he said seven weeks war which makes sense as the seven years war was mid 18th century but he definitely says Australia I have just watched it again.

[MickyD]

There’s a rather tiresome sequence of Facebook threads regarding future conductors of NYD concerts. I suggest that it doesn’t make a great deal of difference who’s at the podium. The Vienna Philharmonic has this music in its DNA and will play this music magnificently. The only conductor who I felt inhibited them was Harnoncourt, but others may disagree.

I have the DVDs of the two Harnoncourt concerts - the programmes are excellent, but I wonder if as you say the orchestra felt inhibited by him, maybe it was due to his sometimes frightening basilisk stare!

[Prommer]

It was not bad, but agree that Danny B. seemed a bit aged and/or disengaged.

The mask theatre was a bit odd, but I suppose it at least provided the kind of distraction usually offered by counting the VPO's lady members.

You had to be triple jabbed, presenting a negative test and wearing a (FFS) mask to be in the audience - with no exemptions allowed at all.

BUT despite all of these precautions, the orchestra (packed closely together) was entirely maskless. Quite right, on such an occasion, but it emphasised how illogical it all is...

And then one sees Barenboim come on at the start with a mask to walk to the podium through the orchestra… which he then takes off… but he then fails to replace it every time he leaves and returns to the platform!

It really makes no kind of sense. Performative and 'sending a message', I guess.

[LHC]

It was not bad, but agree that Danny B. seemed a bit aged and/or disengaged.

The mask theatre was a bit odd, but I suppose it at least provided the kind of distraction usually offered by counting the VPO's lady members.

You had to be triple jabbed, presenting a negative test and wearing a (FFS) mask to be in the audience - with no exemptions allowed at all.

BUT despite all of these precautions, the orchestra (packed closely together) was entirely maskless. Quite right, on such an occasion, but it emphasised how illogical it all is...

And then one sees Barenboim come on at the start with a mask to walk to the podium through the orchestra… which he then takes off… but he then fails to replace it every time he leaves and returns to the platform!

It really makes no kind of sense. Performative and 'sending a message', I guess.

I think the difference is that every member of the orchestra is tested every day and subject to fairly stringent standards which are closely monitored. Members of the audience are not subject to the same exacting procedures every day, and so the additional precautions for them are designed to make them as safe as possible in the absence of such regular testing.

It’s also worth noting that the audience requirements are mandated by the Austrian Government, so the Musikverein had no choice in asking the audience to meet these requirements.