Wiener Philharmoniker Neujahrskonzert

[Petrushka]

What do you think of this annual musical event from Vienna? Many people (outside Vienna) have complained that it's not very good music played over and over.

Personally, I think it's a tourism and PR exercise from the Wiener Philharmoniker and I don't think it's meant as a 'serious' musical experience. It also functions as a fund-raiser. But did both Strauss & Sohn compose really ALL that terrible music?

If you don't like it, don't watch/listen to it. No-one is forcing you to like the music of the Strauss Family so why post such mean-spirited, provocative tosh in one of your very first posts?

How anyone with more than a passing interest in music can call the glorious melodic invention that poured from this incredibly talented family 'terrible' is sad indeed and sadder still that posters haven't so far robustly come to the music's defence. Admirers of Johann Strauss include composers as diverse as Brahms and Wagner and the world's greatest conductors.

Strauss Family aficionados will usually agree with Johann that his brother, Josef, was the more talented of the two and his waltzes have a wistful melancholy that is the work of a poetic genius. 'Terrible'? I don't think so.

On the question of the New Year's Day Concert, it's become a 'brand' taken over by the record companies and assorted media. Programmes in recent years have tended to include too many items that aren't the Strauss's at their peerless best on the grounds that they haven't been recorded before. Personally, I'd prefer to go back to the Boskovsky era just before it took off as a big media circus.

It could be, of course, that the OP was just a case of a classic wind up.

[richardfinegold]

WW2 didn't start until September 1939, so it was still pre-war on 01.01.39.

Depends where you were, Alpie. For the Czech and the Austrians, whose countries had already been engulfed the date of 9/1/39 has less meaning. At any rate, most of Europe could see what was coming.

[richardfinegold]

I shall avoid the temptation to comment on Americans' difficulty knowing when the Second World War began on the grounds that they saved our scrawny little asses.

I know those dates, but I wasn't sure if the first New Years in Vienna Concert was at the end of 1938 or 1939. Either way, the need for entertainment that looked back to a more golden age when the world wasn't actively trying to destroy itself would have been present.

[richardfinegold]

If you don't like it, don't watch/listen to it. No-one is forcing you to like the music of the Strauss Family so why post such mean-spirited, provocative tosh in one of your very first posts?

How anyone with more than a passing interest in music can call the glorious melodic invention that poured from this incredibly talented family 'terrible' is sad indeed and sadder still that posters haven't so far robustly come to the music's defence. Admirers of Johann Strauss include composers as diverse as Brahms and Wagner and the world's greatest conductors.

Strauss Family aficionados will usually agree with Johann that his brother, Josef, was the more talented of the two and his waltzes have a wistful melancholy that is the work of a poetic genius. 'Terrible'? I don't think so.

On the question of the New Year's Day Concert, it's become a 'brand' taken over by the record companies and assorted media. Programmes in recent years have tended to include too many items that aren't the Strauss's at their peerless best on the grounds that they haven't been recorded before. Personally, I'd prefer to go back to the Boskovsky era just before it took off as a big media circus.

It could be, of course, that the OP was just a case of a classic wind up.

I like the music, but in small doses. An hour is my limit. Otherwise it feels like I 've dined for an entire meal on just sacher torte.

[kernelbogey]

[...]The First of these Concerts was given in 1939. World War II was on, the Nazis had swallowed up Austria and were starting to round up Vienna's large Jewish Population. The Concert is a deliberate backwards attempt to conjur up the better part of the Hapsburg days. It has always been about nostalgia.

Austria began to reinvent itself after WWII as a 'nice' country. It seems to me that this concert (which BTW I love and always try to listen to) is a part of that reinvention.

If you haven't read The Hare with the Golden Eyes, doing so will make more sense of my contention.

[Krystal]

If you don't like it, don't watch/listen to it. No-one is forcing you to like the music of the Strauss Family so why post such mean-spirited, provocative tosh in one of your very first posts?

How anyone with more than a passing interest in music can call the glorious melodic invention that poured from this incredibly talented family 'terrible' is sad indeed and sadder still that posters haven't so far robustly come to the music's defence. Admirers of Johann Strauss include composers as diverse as Brahms and Wagner and the world's greatest conductors.

Strauss Family aficionados will usually agree with Johann that his brother, Josef, was the more talented of the two and his waltzes have a wistful melancholy that is the work of a poetic genius. 'Terrible'? I don't think so.

On the question of the New Year's Day Concert, it's become a 'brand' taken over by the record companies and assorted media. Programmes in recent years have tended to include too many items that aren't the Strauss's at their peerless best on the grounds that they haven't been recorded before. Personally, I'd prefer to go back to the Boskovsky era just before it took off as a big media circus.

It could be, of course, that the OP was just a case of a classic wind up.

This was not my intention at all. I suggest it's merely a projection of yours. I'm out of here - the minute I detect trolling behaviour I'm not the least bit interested in a messageboard. Bye.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not exactly topical, is it?

But there was the recent VPO Summer Night Concert.

[verismissimo]

What do you think of this annual musical event from Vienna? Many people (outside Vienna) have complained that it's not very good music played over and over.

Personally, I think it's a tourism and PR exercise from the Wiener Philharmoniker and I don't think it's meant as a 'serious' musical experience. It also functions as a fund-raiser. But did both Strauss & Sohn compose really ALL that terrible music?

I'm never quite sure what is and what isn't 'trolling' in the current usage. Does the above qualify?

[Pabmusic]

This was not my intention at all. I suggest it's merely a projection of yours. I'm out of here - the minute I detect trolling behaviour I'm not the least bit interested in a messageboard. Bye.

???

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

???

The Forum occasionally gets a new member who contributes a couple of posts and then withdraws, making accusations of somebody else's trollery. I think that on this occasion, anyone who could post the comments contained in the OP and then take exception to Petrushka's reply has, regretably, not found their ideal environment on this Forum.

[Pabmusic]

The Forum occasionally gets a new member who contributes a couple of posts and then withdraws, making accusations of somebody else's trollery. I think that on this occasion, anyone who could post the comments contained in the OP and then take exception to Petrushka's reply has, regretably, not found their ideal environment on this Forum.

Too true, Ferney, too true.

[slarty]

It would certainly seem so Verismissimo.
I think that Pet nailed it. "Don't watch it if you don't like it!".

I wonder what the Strauss family members would think about their legacy today? After all they were very accomplished musicians who composed dances for their Salon Orchestras thus avoiding paying to use music of others. Very astute.
As one who has played, directed with violin (a la Willy) and conducted a great many of these great masterpieces, I can say that it is the greatest fun to participate in concerts of this nature.
As for the NYD concerts - well since 1980, they have not had that wonder flavour of "Echt Wien" , without Willy Boskovsky, they became more and more sterile and packaged.
Only two concerts stand out above all others - 1987 (Karajan - a fortunate occurance due to his ill health) and 1989 with Carlos Kleiber.
These two gentlemen lifted the occasion way beyond what could normally be expected and IMO there has been nothing to match them ever since.
I was lucky to attend two of Barbirolli's Viennese Nights at the Proms during the 60's (1968 & 1969). I shall never forget them.
I agree with Barbirollians that JB's format of a Mozart and/or Schubert symphony in the first half, followed by the bon-bons after the interval was just right.
Karajan also did this at the Salzburg Festival on occasion. 1968 springs to mind.

[cloughie]

The Forum occasionally gets a new member who contributes a couple of posts and then withdraws, making accusations of somebody else's trollery. I think that on this occasion, anyone who could post the comments contained in the OP and then take exception to Petrushka's reply has, regretably, not found their ideal environment on this Forum.

One person's banter is another's trollery. There is a tendency to dismiss others thoughts and ideas if they don't sit with one's own. There are times when I peruse threads and think this is a club I don't want to join and may wish to leave. I don't think this forum is as friendly and welcoming as it was a couple of years ago.

[Pabmusic]

This is probably for a different thread*, but I can't get "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" out of my head now.

*[Nostalgic Children's TV, etc.]

[cloughie]

This is probably for a different thread, but I can't get "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" out of my head now.

Butt - you must have a large head unless they are small goats.