Wiener Philharmoniker Neujahrskonzert

[Guest]

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?

[Hornspieler]

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?

The New Year Concert is transmitted all over the world and for many people it is their first step towards the appreciation of "classical" music and an encouragement to listen to the Vienna Philharmonic and other symphony orchestras playing their other repertoire.

If nothing else, it is a gentle reminder to some who turn away from "serious music" (and I include properly conceived dance music, light opera and Jazz) that Kylie Minogue is not the world's greatest soprano and Andre Rieu is definitely NOT the world's greatest violinist.

To some, it may seem unfamiliar music - but that does not mean that it is, as you say, terrible.

Yes, it is meant as a 'serious' musical experience and as a gateway for those many people (outside Vienna) to explore the realm of symphonies, overtures, concertos and chamber music of which they are unaware.

It is worth mentioning that this Forum, which you have so recently joined, seeks to achieve the same objective.

Best wishes to you and do stay on board.

Hornspieler

[french frank]

Fightin' words, Krystal . I do think it's as much an 'occasion' as a concert. I'm sure I remember that when a Freedom of Information request was submitted to the BBC some years back to reveal the television programmes with the highest 'Appreciation Index', the NYD Concert came top (meaning that those people who watched it enjoyed it more than anyone else enjoyed what they had watched ...). Which might say something.

[Ferretfancy]

Anybody who doesn't think that the opening of the Blue Danube Waltz is magic, cannot call themselves musical.

[Krystal]

Even Brahms said he admired the music of Johann Strauss - but I cannot remember if this was Snr or Jnr. Pesumably Junior.

Thanks for the excellent replies. The opening of the Blue Danube is magic, yes, but I don't think the other dance music is particularly special. I notice that the Viennese always advertize their beautiful city and country and I feel sure that tourism is a target in this yearly broadcast.

But, no matter, I watch because I love the orchestra!

[Barbirollians]

I should like it if they adopted the Barbirolli approach and some serious Viennese classics in the first half and the Strauss etc in the second half .

[richardfinegold]

Even Brahms said he admired the music of Johann Strauss - but I cannot remember if this was Snr or Jnr. Pesumably Junior.

Thanks for the excellent replies. The opening of the Blue Danube is magic, yes, but I don't think the other dance music is particularly special. I notice that the Viennese always advertize their beautiful city and country and I feel sure that tourism is a target in this yearly broadcast.

But, no matter, I watch because I love the orchestra!

He was great friends with The Waltz King, who was II. They vacationed together in the same Austrian Spa towns.
In Brahms time, the boundaries between "serious" and "light" music were not as demarcated as at present. Most music was still written to be performed in the home, and Composers needed the income from that market.
It is a shame that the lighter classics are now infrequently programmed in regular Symphony Concerts. They used to coexist with the serious stuff. It is great fun to hear Conductors that are normally regarded as high priests of serious Art, such as Toscanini or Szell, play Rossini Overures or Strauss Waltzes.

[richardfinegold]

I should like it if they adopted the Barbirolli approach and some serious Viennese classics in the first half and the Strauss etc in the second half .

Well, the audience for that Concert isn't looking for that.
I think that 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.

[hedgehog]

I watch/listen mostly and I find it intriguing because so much is the same, or nearly so. So what I can focus on is the rapport (or yawning lack of) between the conductor and the orchestra and how that translates to the repertoire, plus that nostalgia thing as richardfinegold says, but how it is modified each year. Looking at goldfish in a bowl if you like.

Plus ............. better to keep this than have André Rieu take this area over completely!

[Barbirollians]

Well, the audience for that Concert isn't looking for that.
I think that 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.

Maybe not but say a Haydn symphony and a Mozart piano concerto is hardly going to scare the horses.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, the audience for that Concert isn't looking for that.
I think that 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.

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

[cloughie]

Maybe not but say a Haydn symphony and a Mozart piano concerto is hardly going to scare the horses.

Schubert 5 or Mozart 39 would be good maybe prefaced by Nicolai's Merry wives of Windsor Ov.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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

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.

[verismissimo]

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

But the Anschluss was in March 1938 and the Kristallnacht in November that year.

[LeMartinPecheur]

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.

So were they the ones who introduced donkey sanctuaries?