BNearly seventy years ago, Elizabeth II, who died in 2022, addressed her subjects in the Queen's Christmas Message. Their Christmas messages may have been as similar to each other as the setting in which they were recorded – the tone of the lectures themselves, their linguistic gestures, and their vocal form had visibly changed, as a research project at LMU in Munich has been able to show. The King's vocal production had moved “from the 'upper class variant' to mainstream standard pronunciation”.
For almost as long as the Queen's Christmas celebration, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has been a radio and television presence on New Year's Day with its program of waltzes, polkas, marches and quadrilles. The way they interpret this specific music has also changed significantly over the decades – according to the results of a study conducted by the Institute of Music Acoustics at the Vienna University of Music.
He is removed from everyday life
For example, some passages in “Kaiserwalzer” sounded “quite military” on early recordings, but today they are played in an “innocuous and more rounded” manner. Movement towards popularity – in the British Royal Family as well as the Austrian Waltz King. However, New Year's parties, like the monarchy, temporarily lift people above the everyday and banal through beautiful images and melodies.
When the most famous concerts are broadcast from the Music Club's flower-bedecked golden hall, they are enjoyed by audiences of millions around the world every year. Now Christian Telemann had the opportunity for the second time to shape this Viennese music to his liking. After his debut in 2019, it was sometimes said that the Berlin-born conductor handled the whole thing in a very Prussian way and it was not necessarily understood as a prize. However, if this trait is intended to describe extremely precise and balanced music making, it certainly applies to his second concert of the new year.
During Radetzky's final march, he shows the audience when to clap and when to listen to the orchestra. But Tillmann never became gruff, wooden, or even rude, not even during Karl Komsack's “Arzherzog Albrecht March,” which opened the concert. It is not mercenary troops stomping clumsily, but a colorfully dressed regiment moving nimbly.
Ringing in Bruckner's year 2024
The “March” is one of nine works that will be heard for the first time in such a prominent setting, including Johannes' posthumous “Ischler Waltz” or Eduard Strauss's “Die Hochquelle.”
The flexible orchestra plays both with great sound. But sometimes one wished for a little musical exuberance. The most unusual novelty in this concert is certainly the quartet, which Anton Bruckner, who was still very young and very fond of dancing, wrote on paper for four-hand piano during his time at Sankt Florian around 1850. Wolfgang Dörner arranged the small work very cleverly in the style of That time for such a large orchestra that it surprisingly fits into the New Year's concert programme. Ringing in Bruckner's year 2024 (the composer was born 200 years ago in Ansfelden, Upper Austria) is a charming and harmonious idea, with conductor and orchestra working together to develop important interpretations of Bruckner.
Sweet but not sticky
Similar to these weighty symphonic works, Thielemann also composed great waltzes. He knows their dramaturgy, skillfully creates climaxes and works with dynamic and rhyming nuances that increase the tension. He repeatedly calls on musicians to exercise greater self-control with his index finger to his lips and to use shimmering finger movements to create a more precise and delicate sound.
When you hear Johann Strauss's “Wiener Bonbons” waltz, you might not think of the plain breast caramel to which the title of the piece refers, but rather of the Kaiserschmarn of the great confectioner: rich, yet delicate, and sweet. Sweet, but not sticky. The first violins in particular evoke this impression with their harmonious, silky, shimmering tone. In Karl Michael Seehrer's “Wiener Bürger,” they lead the dance with gusto with melting melodies, called out by the trumpet signal above the drum in the march-like introduction from a distance. Even in Joseph Strauss's “Delirien” waltz, after a slight hesitation, after a short pause, they bring the waltz into the world with enchanting beauty.
Not finally, but for a few short, precious moments, it pushes away all the threatening, dark fever attacks of the difficult introduction and shows what there is in the world: beauty, happiness, wonder, and joy. A message people love to hear. Riccardo Muti will follow Thielemann next year.
“Travel aficionado. Certified problem solver. Pop culture guru. Typical writer. Entrepreneur. Coffee trailblazer.”
More Stories
The head of Lavanttal has been in office for 60 years
Celebrations – A lively start to the summer season on May 1st in Baden
An Evening of Music – Ardagger: A Musical Journey with Pippi Longstocking