New Year's Concert CDs

[Barbirollians]

I don't know why they bother bringing them out every year .Who buys them I wonder ? Surely all the ones worth buying have already been made . What conductor of the current day matches the oldsters? - Andre Rieu?

Why say would you buy FWM's dreary concert when you could have Carlos Kleiber in 1989 ?

Talking of which what is your favourite NYC CD . I have the two Kleibers from 1989 and 1992 which I think are fabulous and HVK's last which is also very fine.

[Ferretfancy]

I can't record DVDs at the moment, but I do have a couple of the New Year's day concerts recorded onto hard disc and burnt to DVD. I confess that I haven't played them since, and this Year's version on HD is still unseen.
I still have various other versions on CD, including Karajan, Kleiber, Clemens Krauss and Boskovsky, they serve me well.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't know why they bother bringing them out every year .Who buys them I wonder ?

I have half a dozen concerts, but I haven't bought any recently

...and HVK's last which is also very fine.

It was also Karajan's first.

[Barbirollians]

I have half a dozen concerts, but I haven't bought any recently

It was also Karajan's first.

So it was in 1988 I believe without checking it . Clemens Krauss sounds worth finding though.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

1987

[Barbirollians]

Close !

[Barbirollians]

Perhaps they can now invite Simone Young to conduct the concert . It appears that she is still the only woman ever to have conducted the orchestra.

[Petrushka]

Perhaps they can now invite Simone Young to conduct the concert . It appears that she is still the only woman ever to have conducted the orchestra.

Why on earth would they want to do that? Just because she is a woman? That's a very poor qualification for being given this honour.

Having had this slight disagreement with Barbirollians I have to say that I am in some agreement with the general point made in the original post. The problem lies, I think, in the way in which this concert has now grown into a massive money-spinner for the orchestra and for the record company. A central issue with the annual release of the concert is that the record company (and the buying public?) do not want endless repetition of the same core pieces. The pressure is therefore on the programme compilers to include as many pieces as possible that have never been included in the NYDC and never recorded by the VPO. This was never an issue in the Boskovsky era and while the aim is, in theory, a laudable one a stumbling block appears to be that some of these pieces are - ahem! - not of the Strauss' usual high quality. Not everything is a hidden gem! In my view this was why FW-M's 2013 concert was such a lacklustre effort.

I have many of them on DVD and CD and my favourites are, in no particular order, Kleiber 1989 & 1992, Karajan 1987, Boskovsky 1979 and Krauss in 1954. I'm not yet sure about buying this year's. Probably not.

[Alison]

By all means enjoy Kleiber and HvK, but you're missing out on a lot of repertoire and musicianship if you can't see/hear beyond those.
I get the discs every year and without exception there will be some little gems previously unknown to me.

In the last ten years Muti, Mehta and Pretre have been tops for me.

It wasn't a vintage year in 2013 yet I still expect the CDs to cheer up my journey to work when I get round to them.

[Mr Pee]

By all means enjoy Kleiber and HvK, but you're missing out on a lot of repertoire and musicianship if you can't see/hear beyond those.
I get the discs every year and without exception there will be some little gems previously unknown to me.

In the last ten years Muti, Mehta and Pretre have been tops for me.

It wasn't a vintage year in 2013 yet I still expect the CDs to cheer up my journey to work when I get round to them.

[Barbirollians]

Petrushka - she was of course the first woman to conduct the VPO . I don't see why she should not be given a go . She could hardly do a worse job than FWM's very lacklustre effort .

I forgot the Pretre - I enjoyed that too but listening to FWM conducting second rate Strauss family doesn't cheer me up !

[richardfinegold]

I don't know why they bother bringing them out every year .Who buys them I wonder ?

What if the Waltz King writes a new piece of music? How about: "Tales From the Vienna Graveyards"?

Why do record companies issue new Beethoven Symphony Cycles every fortnight? They sell. So do News Years Concert discs. I suspect that many of the people in the audience want them as a keepsake. And the rest of us might still be under the influence of substances ingested the night before the concert, enjoy hearing the broadcast, and buy the recording before we sober up.

[MickyD]

The 2001 and 2003 Harnoncourt discs are often in my player...but I can't watch the DVDs, Harnoncourt's basilisk glare gives me the creeps!

[verismissimo]

... basilisk glare...

Nice. Had to look it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilisk

[Barbirollians]

Listening to the Barbirolli Viennese album this morning - if Dutton are still selling it at the amazing bargain of £1.99 I am tempted to send FWM a copy so he can hear how the music should go .