Sony Classical is pleased to release the recording of one of the world’s most famous classical music events: the 2021 New Year’s Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of renowned conductor Riccardo Muti. The live recording is available digitally today, January 8 and on CD January 15, 2021. The DVD and Blu-ray will be available March 5, 2021.

Only a few concerts attract the widespread international interest enjoyed by the New Year’s Concert in Vienna. For the first time without an in-hall audience, the Vienna Philharmonic will usher in the New Year with a concert conducted by Riccardo Muti at Vienna’s Musikverein. The event is broadcast to over 90 countries all over the world and watched by more than 50 million viewers.  

On New Year’s Day of 2021 Riccardo Muti will conduct the prestigious New Year’s concert for the sixth time (1993, 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2018). Together with Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti is one of the most engaged New Year’s Concert conductors since the era of Lorin Maazel. The conductor’s close artistic relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra celebrates 50 years, almost 550 concerts and dates back to 1971. In 2011, this exceptional bond led to Riccardo Muti being named an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic. This makes it appropriate not only to reminisce about Italy but also to mark the forthcoming 80th birthday of the conductor and honorary member of the orchestra.

Riccardo Muti

Born in Naples 1941, Riccardo Muti has conducted the most important orchestras in the world.
Over the course of his extraordinary career they range from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, from the New York Philharmonic to the Orchestre National de France, as well as, the Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra to which he is linked by particularly close and important ties, and with which he has appeared at the Salzburg Festival since 1971.

When Muti was invited to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic’s 150th anniversary concert, he was presented with the Golden Ring by the orchestra, a special sign of esteem and affection, awarded only to a few select conductors. In September 2010, Riccardo Muti became Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and he was named 2010 Musician of the Year by Musical America.

Riccardo Muti has received innumerable international honors during his career. He is Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Italian Republic and a recipient of the German Verdienstkreuz, he received the decoration of Officer of the Legion of Honor from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and was made an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in Britain. The Salzburg Mozarteum awarded him its silver medal for his contribution to Mozart’s music, and in Vienna he was elected an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle and the Vienna State Opera.

In 2011, Riccardo Muti was awarded two Grammy Awards, was selected as the recipient of the coveted Birgit Nilsson Prize, received the Opera News Award in New York and was awarded Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts. He was named an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic and in August 2011 an honorary director for life at the Rome Opera. In May 2012, he was awarded the highest Papal honor: the Knight of the Grand Cross First Class of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI. In 2016 he was honored by Japanese Government with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star.