New Year's Day Concert 2011

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I imagine the poorish sound on TV didnt help, not much airiness or treble. I fully expect it all to seem a lot better when I acquire the CD and DVD later this month. !

Do you buy both? That's true dedication. I usually buy the CD only as it bears greater repetition.

[Alison]

Do you buy both? That's true dedication. I usually buy the CD only as it bears greater repetition.

It's a liitle luxury of mine. I enjoy the playing the CD travelling to work for a week after two after its release.
I dont like missing out on the dancers and the outdoor scenes
so have to get the DVD as well. Some nice looking chaps in the orchestra for good measure. A couple of my favourites
from last year missing in that regard.

Just catching up with the first half and settling into it all now ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I wonder - does anyone have the complete collection of New Year's Day Concerts, starting with Willi Boskovsky's final outing?

[Alison]

I wonder - does anyone have the complete collection of New Year's Day Concerts, starting with Willi Boskovsky's final outing?

Petrushka your man I should think. I was only converted to the NY concerts in 2004 (Muti).

The only one since then I havent enjoyed all that much is Jansons - and look who's back next year !

[Mary Chambers]

Although there was nothing really wrong with the performance, I felt it lacked the fizz (for want of a better word) demanded by the occasion. I remained rather disappointed. I couldn't really work out what was missing. I listened at first on the radio and wasn't very impressed, and then transferred to the TV, which didn't seem to help or feel the same as usual. Petroc Trelawny was OK - the change from Brian Kay didn't worry me - but was the photography somehow different? Were the flowers less lavish than most years? Did the players look more bored? There just didn't seem much sense of occasion, and I didn't feel I was there, which I usually do.

[Petrushka]

Petrushka your man I should think. I was only converted to the NY concerts in 2004 (Muti).

The only one since then I havent enjoyed all that much is Jansons - and look who's back next year !

Sadly not. Willi Boskovky's final NYDC was in 1979 and was the first digital recording ever issued. I have that on LP and later CD. I was never convinced much by Maazel and greatly missed Boskovsky (whom I saw twice in 1975 and 1978) as I still do. Hence I have none of Maazel's except the 2005 concert which i though was excellent. Like Alison I have both CD and DVD of most recent ones but I also have my own off-air recordings from Karajan onwards.

Incidentally and amazingly, yesterday was my 40th NYDC the first in 1972 I recorded on a horrible tinny little cassette recorder.

If anyone wants to see why Boskovsky was so special I recommend a DG DVD featuring the entire 1974 second half (the cover blurb wrongly states the whole concert) as well as fascinating items from 1963 to 1979. Essential viewing for any NYDC buff.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A few years ago DG issued a limited edition set of all the Johann Strauss works the VPO had ever recorded. I wish I'd bought it.

[Petrushka]

A few years ago DG issued a limited edition set of all the Johann Strauss works the VPO had ever recorded. I wish I'd bought it.

There was also a fascinating 2 CD set issued to celebrate the VPO's 150th anniversary in 1992. Recordings of Strauss waltzes, polkas and overtures from Boskovsky, Bohm, Walter, Krips, Furtwangler, Krauss, Knappertsbusch and Szell (a 1934 Blue Danube). I actually have the original 78's of the 1937 Emperor Waltz conducted by Bruno Walter that is included in this set .

[Alison]

Yes I think Mary has summed it up for me. I cant quite put my finger on it either. Visually I think there is something
different, almost like a lack of daylight even though we were told it was a sunny day. Not enough shots of the
windows maybe !
Musically I dont think FWM has quite won me over. It's not certain to me that an absolute master is on the podium.
I am trying to like it, honest ! Repertoire wise I really feel the beginning of Part Two needs a proper overture.
It isn't Brian Kay. I have got over that now and in many ways Petroc is preferable.

It seems that Petrushka rates this somewhat higher than my beloved Pretre ! His is a view I certainly respect.

[Petrushka]

Yes I think Mary has summed it up for me. I cant quite put my finger on it either. Visually I think there is something
different, almost like a lack of daylight even though we were told it was a sunny day. Not enough shots of the
windows maybe !
Musically I dont think FWM has quite won me over. It's not certain to me that an absolute master is on the podium.
I am trying to like it, honest ! Repertoire wise I really feel the beginning of Part Two needs a proper overture.
It isn't Brian Kay. I have got over that now and in many ways Petroc is preferable.

It seems that Petrushka rates this somewhat higher than my beloved Pretre ! His is a view I certainly respect.

Alison, I'd agree that part 2 needed an overture. They can't all have been done surely. Otherwise one of the great waltzes (Fruhlingsstimmen or Freut euch des Lebens for instance) would have got things off to a cracking start. There are still real quality items from Josef that never get a look in. Eduard never gets much of a look in either (Fesche Geiste is a good waltz from him) and what about a waltz from Johann senior? Personally, I think that the Liszt Mephisto Waltz was out of place and spoilt the atmosphere.

Do try to listen to the Austrian Radio broadcast on their 7 Day on demand facility. CD quality sound without the visuals might make you change your mind.

[tom_960]

I thought FWM was excellent. I only saw some of the TV coverage - did anyone else notice that he split the violins left-right, with the cellos in the middle? I don't recall seeing that at a NYD concert before. I'll look forward to hearing it in "proper" stereo via CD or DVD.

Also, the publicity claimed that FWM is the sixth Austrian, and the fifteenth conductor, to conduct the concert. So my question is, which of the following six conductors, who have all conducted the concert, is/was NOT an Austrian: Krauss, Krips, Boskovsky, Karajan, Kleiber, Harnoncourt? For the record, the other, non-Austrian, NYDC conductors are Maazel, Abbado, Mehta, Muti, Ozawa, Jansons, Pretre and Barenboim.

[Petrushka]

So my question is, which of the following six conductors, who have all conducted the concert, is/was NOT an Austrian: Krauss, Krips, Boskovsky, Karajan, Kleiber, Harnoncourt?

The answer is, of course, Carlos Kleiber who was born in Berlin on 1930. Wiki calls him an Austrian classical conductor but I'm not sure how unless he took Austrian nationality perhaps?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I thought Carlos K. had an Argentine link. Or was that his father, Erich?

[Petrushka]

I thought Carlos K. had an Argentine link. Or was that his father, Erich?

The Kleiber family emigrated to Buenos Aires in 1935 (with acknowledgements to Mr Wiki again) presumably to flee the Nazi menace.

[subcontrabass]

I thought Carlos K. had an Argentine link. Or was that his father, Erich?

Kleiber was born in Berlin of Austrian father and American mother. Harnoncourt was also born in Berlin. His mother was descended from Hapsburg Emperor Leopold II. His father was an aristocrat (Eberhard de la Fontaine Graf d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt), whose family seem to have moved round quite a lot.