Christian Thielemann has lifted hearts at the New Year's Concert in Vienna with a performance of the famous Blue Danube by Johann Strauss that will remain to be remembered for its extraordinary lyricism and for that exciting slurred waltz tempo that has rarely been achieved from the podium of the Musikverein. A beautiful Danube that represents a complete defeat of Artificial Intelligence in the artistic field and that in the Musikverein of the Austrian capital has spoken for itself of the pain of souls in a turbulent world at war..., because precisely the German teacher has avoided in his final speech wishing for a world in peace and talking about the conflict in Ukraine or the massacre in Gaza. Just 600 kilometers from Ukraine, the Vienna concert sounded more like a bubble than ever.
"This program leaves the necessary space for everyone to draw their own conclusions: it is varied, melancholic and fun... or perhaps not so much," he noted when wishing a happy New Year on behalf of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
The ability to create a dreamlike atmosphere in that expected tip of the concert contrasted with the martiality with which Thielemann has served the majority of polkas and marches on the program. Of course, with a rigor and precision that is a mark of the fabulous Viennese orchestra, what a human machine! Very beautiful, for example, the New Polka Pizzicato by Johann Strauss or the polka-mazurka by Eduard Strauss The Mountain Spring, which the orchestra used to sympathize with the environment and announce that it has donated 100,000 euros to the Austrian Alpine Association. .
However, Anton Bruckner has had a place of honor on the occasion of his bicentenary. The orchestra and Thielemann, a true specialist in the Viennese composer of romanticism, agreed to offer for the first time one of his works, the Quadrille for four-hand piano in A major WAB 121, which made us forget for a moment that parallel reality in which he seems to live. the Vienna Philharmonic when congratulating the new year with music from the 19th century that for the most part has military overtones.
Exquisite music but with its back to reality, as demonstrated by the Vienna Philharmonic's other missed opportunity: facing the 2025 celebration, it has once again ignored the total absence of women on this podium and has announced the presence of Riccardo Muti. It will be the sixth time that the Italian maestro has climbed this podium, so there will be no surprises in the most traditional and conservative event of the year. And although he will have turned 86, he is expected to remain in top shape.
The 55 million viewers who have followed this ORF production in Europe on television will also have been able to appreciate the dance proposal of the Vienna State Opera Ballet, with soloists Ketevan Papava and Eno Peçi playing Sissi and Emperor Franz Joseph in the Ischl Waltz, by Johann Strauss Jr. A somewhat Freudian perspective if one takes into account that the ballet had been filmed in Bad Ischl, the place where the mythical imperial couple met and which at the same time was the composer's summer residence for many years: there, where he composed a A considerable part of her works, Papava/Sissi now wore a mourning dress by the Austrian costume designer Susanne Bisovsky...
The choreographies of the Italian Davide Bombana made one long for the organic quality achieved in two consecutive years by the Carthaginian José Carlos Martínez, former etoile of the Paris Opera Ballet and currently its director. Bombana takes away the lyricism of the dance but not even in favor of the martial accuracy of a classical ballet. Bisovsky's designs supported an idea of men coming out of the cabaret of a century ago and women, more innocent, who seemed to wander through the nineteenth-century countryside. Everything in its place. In that of traditions.
