Classic
New Year’s concert with premiere: Maestro Thielemann in top form
Christian Thielemann at a preview performance of the Vienna Philharmonic’s 2024 New Year’s Concert. photo
© Dieter Nagl/WIENER PHILHARMONIKER/dpa
For decades, the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert has been part of the New Year’s ritual for millions of people. The German conductor Thielemann thrilled the audience, including with a premiere.
Magnificent tradition with surprises: The Vienna Philharmonic has its traditional As always, the New Year’s Concert featured polkas and waltzes from the Strauss dynasty. But the German conductor Christian Thielemann also presented an early work by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896).
The “Quadrille” was previously only available for piano, but now an orchestral version has been written specifically for it. In this respect, it was a premiere for the 1,700 guests in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Music Association and an audience of millions around the world. The concert was broadcast live in around 100 countries.
As always, the greatest enthusiasm came from the traditional encores: the “Danube Waltz” and the “Radetzky March”. Thielemann presented the “Danube Waltz” at times very cautiously, then almost dancing at the conductor’s podium.
Beforehand, he addressed the audience: “A world torn apart by wars and intolerance is something very unpleasant,” he said. The orchestra presents something beautiful to change everyone’s minds. During the Radetzky March he conducted facing the audience and, with a mischievous smile, instructed them when they should clap and when not.
Bruckner’s “Quadrille” is actually a four-hand piano piece. “The young Bruckner fantasized something at the piano in the tavern, which was then written down later,” Thielemann told broadcaster ORF during rehearsals. For many it is hard to imagine that the piece was written by Bruckner. “But that’s how he started, I find that so fascinating.”
Austria in its musical anniversary year
It was also the start of Bruckner’s anniversary year: September 4, 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Austria has a second milestone birthday to celebrate: The founder of twelve-tone technology, Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), was born 150 years ago on September 13, 2024. A year later it is Johann Strauss’ turn: it will be the 200th anniversary of his birthday.
Thielemann was at the conductor’s podium for the second time after 2019 at the New Year’s Concert. The Vienna Philharmonic has invited a different well-known maestro every year for more than 30 years. These included Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti and Daniel Barenboim. Thielemann will replace Barenboim as general music director at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin this year. He is currently chief conductor of the Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden.
Late love for the Strauss dynasty
For a long time, the Vienna Philharmonic had ignored the Strauss dynasty and with it the “most Viennese music ever written,” as the orchestra writes on its website. They dismissed this as “light entertainment.” Only the appreciation of the music by other well-known composers such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms slowly changed her mind.
The Strauss dynasty includes the “Danube Waltz” composer Johann Strauss (1825-1899) and his brothers Eduard (1835-1916) and Josef (1827-1870), as well as the brothers’ father, Johann Strauss (1804-1849). While the Philharmonic Orchestra wrote the brothers’ surnames with “ß” in the program, the men mostly wrote themselves with “ss”, as it appears on the grave inscriptions in the Vienna Central Cemetery initiated by the family.