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Conductor Daniel Barenboim rehearses with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on Dec. 28, 2008, in preparation for the New Year's Concert in Vienna. (Dieter Nagl/AFP/Getty Images)
A classical musical tradition will again grace the Large Hall of Musikverein in Vienna, on the first day of 2009, at 11:15 a.m. The annual New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic will feature the traditional Strauss waltzes, polkas, and marches. Daniel Barenboim will conduct it for the first time.
Tickets for the concert have already been sold out, but millions of viewers in over 50 countries around the world will also enjoy the first-class performances through television broadcasts.
The 25th anniversary of the festive concert will present interpretations of masterworks like Johann Strauss’s “A Night in Venice” and “Annen-Polka,” Josef Strauss’s waltz “Music of the Spheres,” and Joseph Haydn’s “Farewell Symphony,” among many other favorites.
The goal of the organizers, as musical ambassadors of Austria, is to send a New Year’s greeting to people of the world in the spirit of hope, friendship, and peace.
The Tradition’s Beginnings
Although the Strauss dynasty enjoyed great recognition at the time, the tradition of the New Year’s concert started long after the creation of their music.
The first Vienna Philharmonic performance of Johann Strauss was on April 22, 1873, at the Opera Ball, where the great composer conducted his work personally with a violin in his hand, as was his custom. A series of successful concerts followed, ending only with the death of the Waltz King, who caught a fatal cold after one of the performances in 1899.
One hundred years after Strauss’s birth, on Oct. 25, 1925, the Vienna Philharmonic performed a program consisting of only Strauss works. But the tradition had not yet made it to New Year's Day.
In 1929 the most prominent proponent of Strauss, conductor Clemens Krauss, sponsored an annual concert including Johann Strauss Jr.’s music in particular. By 1933, the program was broadened with works of other members of the Strauss dynasty and achieved a grand success.
As sometimes happens, hard times give birth to brilliant and enduring traditions—so with the New Year’s concert commemorating the most famous member of the Strauss family—Johann Strauss, Jr.
The grandest event in the classical music calendar started exactly at a time when the Austrian state disappeared from the map after the agreement with Nazi Germany. Despite the country’s customs, the concert was held on New Year's Eve instead of New Year's Day. Clemens Krauss conducted it on Dec. 31, 1939, under the name “Special Concert” and thus became the father of the tradition. [caption id=”attachment_78643″ align=”alignright” width=”320″ caption=”LAST YEAR: French conductor Georges Prêtre and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra perform the New Year
