Wiener Musikverein
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Goldener Saal, Musikverein, Vienna
This interim report awaits Sony Classical’s rush-release of this celebrated and time-honoured event. Fourteen of the pieces played here have not appeared before at a New Year’s concert*, which doesn’t mean they have not been included elsewhere, whether by the Vienna Philharmonic or another ensemble, or previously recorded. Nevertheless, they were new to me and each proved unfailingly attractive, and varied, as well as exuding much charm, played to the manner born and conducted stylishly by Franz Welser-Möst who was officiating for the third time at a New Year’s Concert. There was something so right about these renditions – tempos, timbre, phrasing, ebb and flow; fast numbers not rushed, slow(er) ones given space – and as well as the unfamiliar music there was the first appearance at one of these concerts of the Vienna Girls Choir who joined regular attendees the Vienna Boys Choir. If tradition was sought, then the filmed Vienna State Ballet sequences remained in place as did the usual encores, Blue Danube Waltz and Radetzky March. I look forward to Sony issuing this smooth and subtle yet engaging and enjoyable music-making shortly.
*Click on the following link for the concert’s repertoire
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001gqgf [BBC Two]
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001cglj [Radio 3]
Just announced by Wiener Philharmoniker: New Year’s Concert 2024 to be conducted by Christian Thielemann:
I would endorse all this. Franz Welser-Möst let each dance breathe, he shaped the introductions and many lyrical passages lovingly, with time to spare, time to open up. A subtle but perceptible emphasis on downbeats made for taut ensemble and distinctive characterisation. “Entrée. Trembling, the woman rises, gradually, reaching out. Back arched, neck taut, pulse quickening. At the brink, the moment of yesterday and tomorrow before her, she hesitates, ransoming time. The kiss, enfoldment, delirium … Those promenades, tremulous overtures and crescendi/drawbacks, those destiny kisses, define the best waltzes – and decide the best performances.” All was apparent in Welser-Möst’s music-making, free of gallery posturing. It was good, too, to see traditional period values return in the couture and choreography of the ballet sequences. 19th century music.19th century imagery.