Muti-fun at New Year’s party in Vienna – culture and entertainment
Vienna (dpa) – Maestro Ricardo Motti was 79 years old at the famous New Year’s concert at the Vienna Philharmonic. Time and time again he allowed himself to drift fast music away to his bold knees, threw his gray hair aggressively, and often emphasized the rhythm of the seductive waltz, as if swinging a whip over the venerable orchestra.
Next year, Daniel Barenboim (78) will hold a New Year’s Eve party for the third time after 2009 and 2014, as the orchestra announced on Friday.
Muti was in a good mood, even if there was no audience in the Golden Hall of Vienna Music because of the aura for the first time in the history of New Year’s parties spanning 81 years. “Strauss’s music fits this world situation,” Muti said during the training. “We need music that makes us laugh and think.”
Muti said beforehand that a party without an audience is an odd feeling. The “Polka Schnell” is like an express train running to a train station. He said, “You expect someone out there to wait and interact with you.” But the orchestra knows, “We are connected to millions of people around the world. We send them to La Speranza hope.” The concert is always broadcast in more than 90 countries and reaches 50 million people.
Before adding the waltz dance “on the beautiful blue Danube,” Maati appealed to those in power around the world: “See culture as one of the key elements in forming a better society.” With the orchestra he wished after that a “Happy New Year”.
The first show was the live applause, which seemed to ripple through the hall twice. Audio engineers make this possible. 7,000 people worldwide have registered to express a live applause on their cell phones. The recordings came from all over the world, from South America to Japan, and from New Zealand to Canada. In addition, the audience’s photos were projected onto the TV screen as if on a huge photo wall. The musicians happily accepted applause.
The Viennese waltz music of the Strauss family of composers is usually the focus of the concert, as are their companions’ pieces. Mutti presented works by Johann Strauss Vater (1804-1849), Johann Strauss Sohn (1825-1899), and his brother Joseph Strauss (1827-1870) as well as two “Carls”: The Waltz Groppenlichtter Concert by Karl Zeller and the polka “In Saus und Braus” by Karl Meloker .
Mutti has been with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for 50 years. The conductor and musician coexist almost blindly. Sometimes he lets the stick hang and just listen. “It is difficult to confront this orchestra with this piece of music,” Al-Muti said in advance. “I had a feeling that I was more likely to cause harm.”
But of course the giver does not consider himself superfluous. “People think it’s simple music. No! If you want to find a mixture between your ideas and the traditions of an orchestra, you need a really good pilot.”
The musicians sat close together on stage in the usual way at a concert. They had to take a halo test every day during their workouts. Once the giver forgot the regulations of Corona and reached out to the first violinist from his old habit. But she did not control them. Instead, the musicians symbolically banged their bows on their stage with applause.
Muti performed the Philharmonic Orchestra for the sixth time at the New Year’s Gala, for the first time in 1993 and most recently in 2018. Only a few people have received this honor more often, including Clemens Krause, Willie Boskowski and Lauren Mazel. In 2020, the Latvian conductor of the Leipzig Geewandhouse Orchestra, Andres Nelsons, took the stage.
The Philharmoniker has been in existence since 1842, but the orchestra initially rejected Strauss’s music – “the Viennese music that was ever written,” as it is called in the orchestral records – as entertainment music. It wasn’t until the 100th birthday of Johann Strauss’s son in 1925 that they gave a full concert of Strauss’s works.
The tradition of the New Year’s Eve party began at a dark time: the year after the incorporation of Austria into the German National Socialist Reich, the first New Years Eve party was held on New Year’s Eve in 1939. The proceeds went to the War Winter Relief organization in Berlin.
Within a year, everything should be back to normal, with 2,000 guests at the Golden Hall. Cards cost up to 1,200 euros. Being a lottery. Those interested can register on the Philharmonic website in February. Not all 2000 tickets are in the raffle draw, as members of the orchestra have a right of preemption. They often claim to be famous.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210101-99-869703 / 5
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