|
|
 |
    
Continuing its time-honored holiday tradition, GREAT PERFORMANCES returns to the stately splendor of Vienna's Musikverein hall for its 20th annual New Year's Day celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic and host Walter Cronkite. Riccardo Muti returns as guest conductor to lead the world-renowned orchestra in a selection of buoyant Strauss family waltzes. This year's telecast also features, live from the elegant Liechtenstein Palace, the Vienna State Opera Ballet dancing Johann Strauss, Jr.'s "Acceleration Waltz" and "Champagne Polka," as well as a visit to the magnificent Hofburg Palace, once the seat of the imperial Hapsburg dynasty. And in a special addition to this year's festivities, a montage of ice skating performances will accompany Josef Strauss' "Ice Skating Polka."
As part of the live broadcast on January 1, 2004, the program will offer a brief retrospective of Walter Cronkite's past 19 years as host of the popular New Year's Day concert, which is seen by an estimated audience of 750 million viewers worldwide. This year's guest conductor, Riccardo Muti, has been collaborating with the Vienna Philharmonic for more than 30 years. Learn what he has to say about the uniqueness of the orchestra's renditions of Strauss waltzes and the music's continued popularity in Vienna in Dialogue. For more on the waltz and the family that helped make it a Viennese institution, read writer Justin Davidson's essay. Find out which Strauss works are performed in the 2004 concert through the song list, and play our Name That Strauss Tune game in the Multimedia Presentation. (The free Flash 5 plug-in is required.)
Special funding for this program is provided by Bank Austria Creditanstalt, the
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the Cornelius V. Starr Fund for Arts Programming at Thirteen/WNET New York, and Vera Eberstadt.
Top banner photos: Host Walter Cronkite; Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic (photo courtesy of ORF); the caryatids in the Musikverein's main hall (photo: ©2001 Robert Zival, Musikverein). |
|
 |
 |
The first piece that the orchestra ever performed by Johann Strauss, Jr. was his waltz "Wiener Blut." |
 |
 |
|
A musician can apply to become a member of the Philharmonic only after playing with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra for three years. |
|
 |
|
The DVD and CD are available from Amazon.com. |
|
|
