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The change is most evident in the mirror of the familiar. At the New Year’s Concert, for example. In 2021, the reliably repeating treasure trove of tradition was also scarred by the pandemic: with music from the Strauss dynasty, lavish flower decorations and ballet, but no audience in the hall. With the applause reproduced live digitally from 7,000 living rooms under the direction of Riccardo Muti, it became a ghostly and glamorous image of the present from a distant world, but also a vital and defiant sign of hope.
We survived this pandemic, he seemed to scream with every note that was played, there is a world after the virus, a lustful us after months of isolation. Especially under current restrictions, the concert became a festive celebration of music, and with it the very special comfort that only she can donate. According to the message of this extraordinary concert, normality still exists, which has been made even more expensive by the painful loss, preserved in the eternal music of the Strauss family.
Rustic home
The musical start of the new year was vigorous and rustic with Franz von Suppès Marsch from the operetta “Fatinitza”, but with Johann Strauss Sohn switched to the radiant elegance of the “sound wave waltz” and the exasperated vibrancy of the “waltz Niko”. In Josef Strauss’s “No Worries” polka, a macabre aftertaste blends with the subtext in view of the empty rows, which can also serve as a symbol of the real void left by the virus with thousands of dead in our midst. But Muti also delivered delicate moments, for example around the cello solo in Suppé’s overture “Dichter und Bauer”, a lively and powerful spirit as in Karl Komzák’s waltz “Badner Madl ?? n”. The final part was classic: it focused on the son and father of Johann Strauss. The “Spring Voice Waltz” turned out elegant, the “Kaiser Waltz” majestic.
That Riccardo Muti had a conductor on the podium after this year of crisis who has been associated with the orchestra for 50 years is a gift: not everything is different, there are still constants in our hectic coordinate system. The light but always profound elegance of the Italian master, for example, who is not afraid of striking contours in sheet music, provided that in the next moment they are embraced by a dazzling sound. Muti not only spoke the Philharmonic from the musical soul in 2021. Even with Muti’s confidence in the flow of life, even if he would sit back and let the orchestra play a polka for a long time. After all, one knows and trusts the other blindly. By the way, the digital applause sounded a bit more static than the venue, but a comforting gesture.
Magnificent challenge
Thanks to the lush floral decorations, the beauty of the empty Golden Hall in the Musikverein was even more apparent. Sad Side Effect: Flowers won’t brighten up visitors’ lounges for a few days like they usually do. The void was also surprisingly good for the music itself, concentrating and reducing a show of social prestige to the gentle musical greeting that comes out of Vienna to the world. The reduction is sometimes a blessing, as the crisis brutally taught us without being asked, even with the “Danube Waltz” that did not stop and the “Radetzky March”, which broke free from applause.
This glamorous New Years concert in front of empty lines once again revealed the just cruelty of the virus, reminiscent of Ferdinand Raimund’s “Hobel-Lied”. Collectively banned from the room, it sets the blueprint and makes us all a little more equal in our isolation. If a new form of solidarity, a new concept of humanity could emerge from this knowledge in 2021, the crisis would have helped people to develop despite harsh deprivations. At least during the New Year’s Concert, such an optimistic look into the future can be allowed.
