New Years Concert 2021 is supposed to bring “Message of Hope”

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. For the sixth time on the New Year’s desk is Riccardo Muti, who wants to send a “message of hope” to the world, as he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The conductor, who will be 80 years old in 2021 and “has been our teacher for fifty years,” as noted by Philharmonic board member Daniel Froschauer, will closely accompany the Philharmonic 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. Now he lives alone in the hotel, the streets around are empty, sometimes it feels like a horror movie, Muti admitted.

And it is strange to play this music, which in its “joy and nostalgia” should be understood as an immediate gift to the public, in front of an empty room. “The ‘fast Polka’ is like a fast train arriving at a train station. You expect someone to wait for you and react ”. But the orchestra knows “that we are connected to millions of people around the world. We send them La Speranza, hope ”.

Strict safety rules

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.

ORF Director General Alexander Wrabetz: “I am grateful on behalf of the millions of viewers who will receive this strong signal of hope. Cultural events cannot take place in so many countries. So it is much better that the hearts of music lovers around the world are lit from Vienna and with this quality. “

Image Director Henning Kasten is the master of the 14 cameras in the Golden Room.

Interactive applause

With an interactive applause project, the ORF will also collect and bring in applause donations from spectators around the world (www.mynewyearsconcert.com). This time Burgenland with its natural and cultural history, as well as its musical legacy around Haydn and Liszt, is honored in the breakout film.

Before his first New Year’s concert, New Year’s veteran Muti had spent many nights without sleep: “It is difficult to take on this orchestra with this repertoire. I had a feeling that I was doing more damage. ” The music is delicate, demanding, and technically difficult. “The orchestra always plays with strength and confidence, but: you only really relax during the ‘Radetzkymarsch’. The ‘Blue Danube’ is so delicate that one little mistake ruins everything. I don’t want to exchange with the first trumpeter! “