Many novelties – New Year’s concert 2023 without corona restrictions

“We are very happy that we can finally play to full houses again,” Philharmoniker board member Daniel Froschauer emphasized at the presentation on Thursday. After all, the New Year’s concert carries a “message of peace and a message of love”. 2023 will be a year of innovations. After all, in this context, 14 of the 15 works can be heard for the first time at the beginning of the new year. Only the waltz “Aquarelle” by Josef Strauss was on the program in 2002.

Waltz Highlight “Pearls of Love”
“Preparing for the New Year’s concert is a journey of discovery,” emphasized Franz Welser-Möst, who came across many unknown treasures from the Strauss dynasty and its surroundings during the research. Welser-Möst admitted that his personal favorite was Josef Strauss’s “Pearls of Love” waltz, which can be taken almost as a tone poem.

What remains the same despite all the innovations in 2023 is the great dominance of the Strauss family at the beginning of the year. From Eduard Strauss’ polka “Auf und vom” to Johann Strauss’ “Gypsy Baron-Quadrille” to Josef Strauss’ “Heroic Poems”, the new sound cosmos, still untapped for the New Year’s concert, expands.

Viennese choir girls are part of the program for the first time
However, there is something new in terms of gender, because in 2023, for the first time in history, the Viennese boys’ choir will also be part of the New Year’s concert – the women’s section of the traditional choir that was founded in 2004. Together with the choirboys they perform “Heiterer Muth” by Josef Strauss.

Again no female conductor planned
But when a woman will also help shape the New Year’s morning at the Musikverein is still in the stars. “We will have a female conductor when the time comes,” said philharmonic board member Froschauer when asked. Franz Welser-Möst, on the other hand, emphasized that it is not a question of gender, but of the experience one has gained with the orchestra: “It is an artistic question, not a political one.”

Broadcast in nearly 100 countries
15 ORF cameras will photograph this great musical event from 11.15 am, which will be broadcast in almost 100 countries worldwide and for which the Vienna city gardens will turn the golden hall into a sea of ​​flowers again. Michael Beyer is responsible for the TV direction for the seventh time, and ORF director general Roland Weißmann was happy on Thursday.

The intermission film, which can be seen again this year in about 70 of the broadcasting countries and is therefore likely to be one of the most successful domestic films, will be released in 2023 by Barbara Weissenbeck and Nicholas Pöschl. The directorial duo dedicated their quarterly work to the anniversary of the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873. For this purpose, the exhibition grounds in the Prater around the rotunda, the largest domed building in the world at the time, are virtually resurrected – and with Welser-Möst and representatives of the Philharmonic Orchestra also have prominent actors in training to participate.

Concert Final “On the Beautiful Blue Danube”
And finally, there are innovations in the traditional ballet interludes, of which there are now three instead of the usual two. The choreography contributed for the third time after Ashley Page in 2013 and 2014. The dancers were filmed at “Pearls of Love” in the rococo palace of Laxenburg and its park, the garden pavilion of Melk Abbey serves as the backdrop for “Up and Away”, and the third dance interlude, leading up to the concert finale, is played in the interior of the monastery, part of which is not open to the public and will be featured with “On the beautiful blue Danube”.