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Continuing a beloved holiday tradition, GREAT PERFORMANCES travels to the legendary music capital of Vienna for its annual New Year's Day celebration. With host Walter Cronkite presiding over the festivities, guest conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt leads the renowned Vienna Philharmonic as delightful Strauss waltzes, including "By the Beautiful Blue Danube" and rousing favorites like "Radetzky March," fill the splendid Musikverein. This year's telecast also features performances by the Vienna State Opera Ballet.
Each year the celebratory concert, dominated by the works of Johann Strauss, Jr., is held on January 1, but the concert that is credited with initiating this annual tradition was actually held on December 31, 1939 with Clemens Krauss as conductor, while Austria was under German occupation. Nineteen forty-one marked the first year that the concert was performed on New Year's Day, and it came to be identified as the "New Year's Concert" in 1946. Television viewers in the United States have been able to enjoy the Viennese festivities since 1985, when they were first broadcast on PBS.
How well do you know the works of Johann Strauss, Jr.? Test your skills in the "Name That Strauss Tune" game in the Multimedia Presentation. (The free Flash 5 plug-in is required.) Reacquaint yourself with the most prominent members of the Strauss clan -- Johann Sr. and Jr. -- and the Vienna Philharmonic in writer Fred Plotkin's essay. Lastly, browse the selection of works performed at the 2003 concert in the song list.
The NEW YEAR'S CONCERT 2003 double CD can be purchased from WNET Video
Distribution. This program is not available on VHS or DVD.
Top banner photos: Walter Cronkite, host of the annual concert from Vienna; the Musikverein's exterior and the golden interior of it's main concert hall, Großer Musikvereinssaal, site of each year's musical gala (photos: ©2001 Robert Zival, Musikverein). |
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Charlotte Balzereit, harpist with the Vienna Philharmonic. |
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Established in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic is currently comprised of nearly 150 musicians. |
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