EBU announces enhancements to Eurovision Song Contest to celebrate community and protect wellbeing – press release
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OurVision FM Magyarország
Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert 2025 – Conducted by Riccardo Muti
On 1 January 2025, the world’s attention will once again turn to Vienna’s Musikverein, where the traditional New Year’s Eve concert will be conducted by Riccardo Muti and will focus on the jubilant Strauss Jr.
Our traditional New Year’s line-up is now available in English, featuring a closer look at the 2025 conductor Riccardo Muti and this year’s programme, again made possible by ORF and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), with the support of Rolex.
If it’s January 1st, then we can toast to the music of the Strauss family – but in 2025, the famous Austrian musical family will also be celebrating an anniversary: The Vienna Philharmonic’s 2025 New Year’s Eve concert in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna will bring tradition and classical music to the stage and the screens, with Riccardo Muti conducting the orchestra for the iconic concert after more than half a century of fruitful collaboration.
Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic have enjoyed a 50-year artistic partnership since 1971 that has produced countless musical highlights. At 83 years old, Maestro Muti has been a special figure in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic, not only for the astonishing number of some 550 concerts, but also for the exceptional quality of these performances.
Muti prepares for his concerts with intensive research, focusing on many of the details that give him a thorough understanding of the Vienna Philharmonic’s distinctive sound. It is a reflection of this special bond that Riccardo Muti was made an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic in Salzburg on his 70th birthday in 2011.
He has conducted the prestigious and highly acclaimed Vienna New Year’s Concert on five occasions: in 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2018. In 2021, Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic will have entered their 51st year of continuous collaboration, and next year will mark the 55th year of successful artistic co-production.
Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert 2025 – the programme
In 2025, the dawn of the New Year will be celebrated with the musical legacy of the Strauss dynasty. The concert will be a special occasion to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Johann Strauss the Younger, and will also be the first time that a work by a female composer, Constanze Geiger, will be performed at the New Year’s Concert, marking a milestone in the history of the event.
- Johann Strauß – I. Freiheits-Marsch, op. 226
- Josef Strauß – Dorfschwalben aus Österreich. Walzer, op. 164
- Johann Strauß II. – Demolirer-Polka. Polka francaise, op. 269
- Johann Strauß II. – Lagunen-Walzer, op. 411
INTERMISSION
The ORF film designed by Barbara Weissenbeck for the concert interval approaches the musical regent of the year, Johann Strauss Sohn, from an unusually unearthly perspective – beginning in the infinite expanses of space, with a tongue-in-cheek reference to Stanley Kubrick’s monumental film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. In the film, a spaceship is travelling towards Earth on New Year’s Day 2025. The only crew member and thus its captain is Thomas Strauss, the actual great-great-grandnephew of Johann Strauss Sohn. On his lonely journey through space and time, he is inspired to explore the life and, above all, the music of his ancestor.
- Eduard Strauß – Luftig und duftig. Polka schnell, op. 206
- Johann Strauß II. – Overture to the Operetta “Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron)”
- Johann Strauß II. – Accelerationen. Walzer, op. 234
- Josef Hellmesberger (Sohn) – Fidele Brüder. Marsch aus der Operette “Das Veilchenmädchen”
- Constanze Geiger – Ferdinandus-Walzer, op. 10 [Arr. W. Dörner]
- Johann Strauß II. – Entweder – oder! Polka schnell, op. 403
- Josef Strauß – Transactionen (Transactions). Walzer, op. 184
- Johann Strauß II. – Annen-Polka, op. 117
- Johann Strauß II. – Tritsch-Tratsch, Fast Polka, op. 214
- Johann Strauß II. – Wein, Weib und Gesang. Walzer, op. 333
On 1 January 2025, in addition to the TV broadcast of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, the New Year’s Concert Ballet, also pre-produced by ORF, will once again be part of the traditional start to the year on television. For the first time, the internationally renowned and award-winning British choreographer Cathy Marston will be choreographing the two very different dance interludes, while the Anglo-Irish set and costume designer and universal artist Patrick Kinmonth will be responsible for the ballet costumes – also for the first time.
In keeping with the anniversary year, the music for the ballet pieces was written by Johann Strauss Sohn. The Polka schnell op. 403 ‘Entweder-oder’ and the ‘Accelerationen-Walzer’ op. 234 will be performed by well-known soloists as well as very young ensemble members of the Vienna State Ballet, who will be taking part in the New Year’s Concert Ballet for the first time. The waltz will be performed by Alice Firenze, Victor Cagnin, Rashaen Arts and Kristián Pokorný, the polka by Sveva Gargiulo, Sinthia Liz, Laura Cislaghi, Natalya Butchko, Trevor Hayden and Andrés Garcia Torres.
Two special locations were used as filming locations, which had also never been danced at before for the New Year’s Concert: the imposing locomotive 12.10 in the Technical Museum in Vienna for the polka and the premises of the Südbahnhotel, made famous above all by the Semmering Railway, for the waltz. Both locations represent an important theme in the life of the entire Strauss family, because without trains and the modern railway system, which will also be celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2025, the rapid success of the musical dynasty would hardly have been conceivable.
ENCORE
The Golden Hall is also the result of a fruitful collaboration spanning decades: since 2015, more than 90 countries from all over the world have been able to admire the handicrafts of the Vienna City Gardens and Austrian gardeners and florists, which frame the patron event year after year – including the 85th edition of the concert.
Source: Wiener Philharmoniker, ÖRF.at, MediaKlikk.hu, EBU / OurVision Production
Illustration: Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert 2025 with Riccardo Muti – rehearsal photo – photo by Benedikt Dinkhauser (Wiener Philharmoniker)