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FROM VIENNA: THE NEW YEAR'S CELEBRATION 2006 premiered on January 1, 2006 on PBS (check local listings).
Continuing its time-honored holiday tradition, GREAT PERFORMANCES returns to the stately splendor of Vienna's Musikverein hall for its 22nd annual New Year's Day celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic and host Walter Cronkite. Guest conductor Mariss Jansons will lead the world-renowned orchestra in a selection of buoyant Strauss Family waltzes, including the beloved "Blue Danube," as well as the "Spanish March" and the "Furioso Polka." Also to be featured are two festive ballets danced by both the Vienna State Opera Ballet and the Hamburg State Opera Ballet (choreographed by John Neumeier), with costumes by Akris, designed by Albert Kriemler.
Along with the waltzes and polkas of the Strausses, the 2006 concert will help launch the commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Austria's musical exemplar, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with a performance of his overture from "The Marriage of Figaro." The opera composed during the latter part of his career -- his most prodigious period, when he also completed "Don Giovanni" and "The Magic Flute" -- was first presented at Vienna's Burgtheater in May 1786. As a complement to the Mozart piece, the program will also include Joseph Lanner's homage to the composer, "The Mozartian Waltz."
Discover the contributions of Lanner, a friend turned rival of Johann, Sr., to the popularization of the waltz, the music most identified with the city, in the essay by writer Tim Smith. Learn how conductor Mariss Jansons devised the concert's lineup and why he believes the Strauss works that are the crux of each year's performance remain so popular with audiences worldwide in Dialogue. Among the compositions included in the program are several works that have never before been performed at the New Year's Day Concert. Find out which ones in the song list.
Additional funding for this program is provided by Bank Austria Creditanstalt, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, The Starr Foundation, Vera von Kuffner Eberstadt, The Paul W. Zuccaire Foundation, and Thea Petschek Iervolino.
Top banner photos: Statue of Johann Strauss, Jr. in Vienna's Stadtpark (Austrian National Tourist Office/Gotschim) and the Vienna Philharmonic. |
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Portrait of Mozart by Barbara Kraft. |
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Host Walter Cronkite. |
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This program is available on DVD and as a double CD. |
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