Message of Hope – New Year’s Concert 2021

Message of Hope – New Year’s Concert 2021

New Year’s Day 2021 will also be celebrated with the Strauss family’s polka and waltz tunes: on January 1, the Vienna Philharmonic will play its traditional New Year’s concert in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, which will be held this year. will broadcast to 90 countries. Due to the regulations of the pandemic, this time the concert will be held without a live audience. Riccardo Muti, who wants to send a “message of hope” to the world, is on his desk for the sixth time.

Right now we must have hope.

Riccardo Muti said this at a press conference on Tuesday. The conductor, who will turn 80 in 2021 and “has been our teacher for fifty years”, as noted by Philharmonic advisor Daniel Froschauer, will accompany the Philharmonic in the next season. When the decision was made to re-entrust the New Year’s concert to him, of course there was no talk of the corona virus. “We talk a lot, concert yes or no,” Muti reported. “The result was:

We cannot get rid of music and culture.

He lived alone in the hotel, the streets around were empty, sometimes it felt like a horror movie, Muti admitted. And it is strange to play this music, which in its “joy and nostalgia” must be understood as an immediate gift to the public, in front of an empty room. “The ‘Polka Schnell’ is like a fast train arriving at a train station. You expect someone there to wait for you and react.” But the orchestra knows “that we are connected with millions of people around the world. We send them La Speranza, hope”.

Strict security concept

The orchestra works with a strict daily testing strategy, FFP2 masks are always used off stage, in addition to the detailed prevention concept of Musikverein and ORF. “We are taking these steps because we feel it is a great privilege to be able to play,” said Froschauer. “We handle this privilege responsibly.” At the Golden Hall, which currently “shares the sad fate of being silent with concert halls around the world,” as Musikverein director Stephan Pauly emphasized, concerts took place in the fall, also under strict precautions.

“We had 25,000 guests and not a single Covid case.” The pandemic plunged the entire world classical music community into a completely unexpected crisis. “The damage, personal and institutional, is enormous and live music is sorely missed.” Therefore, the New Year’s Concert is also a sign of hope “that soon all musicians will be able to play everywhere again,” Pauly said.

New Year’s Concert at ORF

The New Year’s Concert had long been a television event. ORF’s first broadcast took place in 1959, and the cooperation agreement, which also includes the Schönbrunn Summer Evening Concert, was recently extended until 2027.

“In this long series, however, this New Years concert will be unique,” said ORF Director General Alexander Wrabetz. “I am grateful on behalf of the millions of viewers who will receive this strong signal of hope. In so many countries, cultural events cannot take place. It is so much more beautiful than Vienna and this quality lights up the hearts of music lovers everywhere. the world. . “

Image Director Henning Kasten is the master of all fourteen cameras in the Golden Room. “He knows the room and he will also take care of the empty space in such a way that it becomes a unique and positive experience,” promised Wrabetz. With an interactive applause project, the ORF will also collect and reproduce applause donations from spectators around the world.

Sound engineer Friedrich Trondl, supported by Manuel Radinger and Wolfgang Wesely, is responsible for the good sound of the radio, and Florian Rosensteiner is the recording director. Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz will host the concert.

During the New Year’s concert break, the TV movie this time pays tribute to Burgenland with its natural and cultural history, as well as its rich musical heritage related to Haydn and Liszt. Philharmonic and double bass player Michael Bladerer is a guest of Katharina Menhofer on “Intermezzo” on Ö1.

The repertoire is anything but easy for a director, stressed Muti, a New Year’s veteran.

People think this is simple music. No! If you want to find a mix between your ideas and the inherent tradition of the orchestra, you need a really good pilot.

Before his first New Year’s concert, he couldn’t sleep at night. “It is difficult to face this orchestra with this repertoire. I had the feeling that it was doing more damage.”

The music is delicate, demanding, and technically difficult. “The orchestra always plays with strength and confidence, but: you just really relax with the ‘Radetzkymarsch’. The ‘Blue Danube’ is so delicate, one little mistake ruins everything. Of course, Radetzky’s Liberation March will also be different this year, with no live audience to applaud. “They asked me how you can play without applause,” Muti said. “I’ll tell you what: the piece was written without applause!”

Text: APA / red.