New Year's Concert 2014 with
Daniel Barenboim
The 74th annual New Year's
Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic takes place on January 1, 2014, under the
baton of Daniel Barenboim in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. Again this
year the concert will be televised in over 80 countries with 16 cameras in use
to capture the broadcast images. In the year 2014, the 100th anniversary of the
outbreak of World War I will be commemorated. Therefore the Vienna Philharmonic
considered it to be essentially relevant to invite peace activist Daniel
Barenboim for the New Year's Concert 2014 and to set a corresponding emphasis
in the program. The entire concert program will be announced on December 27,
2013.
The History of the New Year's
Concert
The international popularity
of the New Year's Concert may create the impression that the orchestra's
performance of the music of the Strauss dynasty extends back to Johann Strauss,
Sr., und therefore to the beginning of the orchestra's history. In fact,
however, for an extended period of time, the Philharmonic generally ignored the
most "Viennese" music ever written. Probably the musicians did not
wish to jeopardize the social advancement they had experienced upon the
introduction of the Philharmonic concerts by associating themselves with
"popular music". This attitude toward the Strauss dynasty changed
only gradually. One determining factor for this reassessment was that the
members of this unique family of composers enjoyed the highest respect among major
composers such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. In addition,
the Philharmonic musicians themselves had several direct encounters with Johann
Strauss, Jr., which provided them the opportunity to observe the significance
of this music and experience first-hand the charismatic personality of its
creator, which had enraptured all of Europe.
Johann Strauss and the Vienna Pilharmonic
The very first encounter
between Johann Strauss, Jr., and the musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic was a
premiere. Strauss had composed the waltz "Wiener Blut", op. 354, for
the Vienna Opera Ball, which was held in the main hall of the Musikverein on
April 22, 1873, and he personally conducted its first performance at this event
as was his custom, with violin in hand. Their next encounter took place on Nov.
4, 1873, when Strauss performed works by his father and Josef Lanner, as well
as his own "Blue Danube" Waltz as part of a gala concert presented by
the Chinese World Exposition committee. A "Soirée" in the Court Opera
House then took place on December 11, 1897, with Strauss conducting the
orchestra in the premiere of his "Reminiscences of Old and New Vienna",
a potpourri based upon themes of his own works, as well as those of his father,
for which the manuscript has since been lost. On October 14, 1894, the
Philharmonic took part in a festival concert marking Strauss' 50th anniversary
in the music business, and the master expressed his gratitude with the
presentation of a commemorative medal and a telegram in which he stated:
"In the meanwhile I send my warmest thanks to the great musicians of the
famous Philharmonic for your masterful performance and also for the
demonstration of your goodwill which brought me much pleasure – Johann
Strauss" . The final encounter had tragic consequences. On May 22, 1899,
Strauss conducted a performance of "Die Fledermaus" for the first and
only time in the Court Opera. At this time, he took a cold that developed into
pneumonia, from which he died on June 3, 1899.
Clemens Krauss
Yet the conductor who truly
founded the Strauss tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic and who remains
perhaps to this day the foremost apologist of this music was Clemens Krauss
(1893-1954). From 1929-1933 he conducted an annual concert of Strauss
compositions at the Salzburg Festival, thus anticipating the format of the
future New Year's Concerts.
The First New Year's Concert
The first New Year's Concert
took place during the darkest chapter of the history of Austria and
that of the Vienna Philharmonic. In the midst of barbarism, dictatorship and
war, at a time of constant worry regarding the lives of members and their
families, the Philharmonic sent an ambivalent signal: the net income from a
concert dedicated to compositions by the Strauss dynasty which was performed on
December 31, 1939, was donated entirely to the national-socialistic
fund-raising campaign "Kriegswinterhilfswerk". On January 1, 1941, a
Philharmonic matinee entitled "Johann Strauss Concert" was performed.
Taking place in the middle of the war, many regarded this as an expression of
Viennese individuality, but it was also misappropriated for the
national-socialistic propaganda of the "Großdeutscher Rundfunk".
Clemens Krauss conducted these concerts until the end of the war. In the years
1946 and 1947, Josef Krips (1902-1974) replaced Krauss, who returned in 1948
after the expiration of his two year conducting ban which had been imposed by
the allies, and who conducted seven more New Year's Concerts until 1954.
25 New Year's Concerts with
Willi Boskovsky
With the unexpected death of
Clemens Krauss on May 16, 1954, the orchestra faced a great dilemma in
determining his successor. Only after much deliberation did the members decide,
shortly before January 1, 1955, to entrust concertmaster Willi Boskovsky with
the artistic direction of the New Year's Concerts. This choice turned out to be
a stroke of genius, with Boskovsky going on to conduct the concert 25 times,
between 1955 and 1979, making such an enduring impression that his resignation
constituted the end of an era. Boskovsky's concerts were reminiscent of a
bygone Austria,
which, aside from nostalgic wishful-thinking, is most aptly reflected in the
magic of the music of the Strauss dynasty.
A New Chapter in the History
of the New Year's Concert
In October 1979, when
Boskovsky was forced to cancel the New Year's Concert of 1980 for health
reasons, the Philharmonic made a fundamental change. The orchestra chose an
internationally prominent conductor, Lorin Maazel, who directed the concerts
through 1986.
After this, the musicians
made the decision to select a different conductor every year. This new format
began with the unforgettable concert of Herbert von Karajan in 1987, followed
by Claudio Abbado (1988, 1991), Carlos Kleiber (1989, 1992), Zubin Mehta (1990,
1995, 1998, 2007), Riccardo Muti (1993, 1997, 2000, 2004) Lorin Maazel (1994,
1996, 1999, 2005), Nikolaus Harnoncourt (2001, 2003), Seiji Ozawa (2002),
Mariss Jansons (2006, 2012), Georges Prêtre (2008, 2010), Daniel Barenboim
(2009) and Franz Welser-Möst (2011, 2013).