The New Year’s concert in Vienna
The concert of the Vienna Philharmonic from the Musikverein in Vienna is a tradition of the first day of the year for many people, often enjoyed while cooking a big celebratory lunch to salute the new year.
This concert screams celebration, opulence, culture, history and lots of light. It has a long and prestigious pedigree, albeit not without shadows. Every year, it is led by a famous conductor and presents a series of pieces from the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian empire, most notably featuring a lot of the Strauss family.
Incidentally, if like me you forget who’s the father and who’s the son, this is the genealogy:
- Johann Strauß I (1804 – 25 September) is the father;
- Johann Strauß II (1825 - 1899) is his son, alongside Eduard (1835 – 1916) and Josef (1827 – 1870). He’s arguably the most beloved of the lot.
Note: Richard Strauss has nothing to do with them, he was German and one of the major representatives of Romanticism.
Music from the Strauss was overall considered “popular”: they composed a lot of polkas, quadrilles, galops, waltzes etc - folk dance tunes from Central Europe, from Poland to Bohemia and beyond. The NY concert is a big celebration of these musical forms, however we may now perceive the concert as quite “aristocratic”. The show always ends with three encores: a fast polka, the “Blue Danube” (“An der schönen blauen Donau” in the original) and the “Radetzky March”.
I thought of many things before realising this card, but eventually resorted to drawing a quick one where I show the counts of musical pieces by composer for the last five years’ worth of concerts. By piece here I mean the occurrence, not the unique title. Programmes for past concerts are easily retrievable online.
It’s fairly simple: Johann Strauss II (the son) eclipses everyone else with 34 pieces overall - note that his is the “Blue Danube”. Following is his brother Josef with 20 pieces and the other one (Eduard) with just 8. The Vater only has 6 mentions overall and considering that 5 (one per year) are for his “Radetzky March” it’s quite a surprising low score - the sixth piece is “Venetianer-Galopp, Op. 74” played in 2021, by the way.
About some of the other ones, I personally didn’t know their names. Interestingly, Mr. Hans Christian Lumbye was a Dane, who, according to Wikipedia “In 1839, heard a Viennese orchestra play music by Johann Strauss I, after which he composed in the style of Strauss, eventually earning the nickname “The Strauss of the North””. The other big outsider is of course the magnificent Beethoven, who got a mention in 2020 with his “Twelve Contredanses, WoO 14”, also dance pieces.
Happy 2024 to all of you 🎉!
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