It will be at 11:15 a.m. on January 1 when the broadcast of the traditional New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra begins from the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. With the German Christian Thielemann on the podium, the 84th edition of this media event that only in Europe reaches an audience of 55 million people will be broadcast in Spain by La 1, TVE Internacional Europa, Radio Nacional, Radio Clásica and RTVE Play, commented for the seventh time by RTVE music journalist Martín Llade.
The hundred musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic, whose performance is broadcast around the world by the Austrian ORF television in co-production with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), will have at the lectern to begin the March of Archduke Albrecht, by Karl Komzák Erzherzog, followed by the Vienna Bonbons waltz and the French polka Figaro by Johann Strauss. Also heard will be the waltz For the Whole World by Joseph Hellmesberger; and Eduard Strauss's fast polka No brakes.
In the second part, the Overture to the Waldmeister operetta, the Posthumous Waltz and the Nightingale Polka by Johann Strauss; Eduard Strauss's polka The Mountain Spring; the new Polka Pizzicato by Johann Strauss; the polka The Iberian Pearl by Joseph Hellmesberger; Carl Michael Ziehrer's Citizens of Vienna waltz; Bruckner's WAB 121 Squad; the gallop Happy New Year! of Lumbye; and the waltz Delirio by Josef Strauss.
The gala will close with the waltz On the Beautiful Blue Danube, by Johann Strauss Jr., performed in turn by the Vienna State Ballet, which on this occasion is directed by the choreographer Davide Bombana (Milan, 1958), with costume design from the workshop couture in Vienna by Susanne Bisovsky. The dance company will also participate in the interlude and other moments... until the end of the party comes with the well-known Radetzky March, by Johann Strauss Sr., a ritual that has been followed since 1946.
The traditional New Year's Concert has been held since 1941 in the Big Hall or Golden Hall of the Musical Society, the Vienna Musikverein, decorated with fresh flowers from the city's gardens. This palace was inaugurated in 1870 at the proposal of Franz Joseph I of Austria. Baron Theophil Hansen, of Danish origin, opted for a neoclassical architecture that competed with the grandeur of the State Opera. Hence the Greek references to Apollo and the muses on the ceiling, the caryatids in the room or the columns on the outside of the building. Selected by lottery at the beginning of the year, the public who has managed to follow the event in person will have paid between 35 euros and about 1,200 euros (from 20 to 495 euros if they were lucky enough to participate in the general rehearsal).
