New Year’s 2025 will be conducted by him, again
NewsThe Vienna Philharmonic has announced the name of next New Year’s Day conductor. It is Riccardo Muti, for the seventh time.
Orchestra chairman Daniel Froschauer said: ‘Riccardo Muti has held an exceptional position in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic for over 50 years. An honorary member of the orchestra since 2011, Muti has helped shape the repertoire and specific sound of the ensemble in a unique manner.’
Loyalists are bound to object. The year 2025 is the bicentenary of the birth of Johann Strauss II. Surely there must be an Austrian conductor around whose 3/4 beat will ensure authenticity.
More complaints.
Happy new year indeed.
The problem of the concert is it`s unbearable lightness.
Lyrical depth could, however, be found, as illustrated by Carlos Kleiber, “Sphärenklänge”.
No one forces you to watch it. Likewise, no one forces you to whine like many on here are desperate to do, year after year.
Let the people that enjoy it enjoy it, and you can get on with the rest of your year.
Lyrical depth has been found in the music of the Strauss family for decades. Kleiber’s two New Year concerts will probably remain unsurpassed forever, but (in chronological order) Boskovsky, Karajan, Abbado, Muti and Thielemann have also shown that the BEST music of that family is comparable in stature to that of any other composer. That’s why so many of the greatest conductors have performed it – not just those already mentioned but also Furtwängler, Klemperer, Krauss, (Erich) Kleiber, Kempe, Böhm, Fricsay, Horenstein and others.
Turning to the content of the New Year concerts, while I appreciate the desire to explore unfamiliar music by the Strausses (and their contemporaries), I also fear that that exploration has mainly shown that the famous works are the best ones. In recent years, the New Year concerts have included too many second-rate works, and works by second-rate composers such as Ziehrer and Hellmesberger.
By the way, it’s also notable that the finest conductors of the New Year concerts have always included several masterpieces by Josef Strauss, who was generally agreed to be the greatest composer in his family. Carlos Kleiber’s performance of his waltz Sphärenklänge was played at the funerals of both my parents, and will be played at mine.
Prosit Neujahr!
I kind of disagree as far as unknown pieces are concerned. Yes, many were second rate but there are jewels among them. This year’s Nightingale Polka was the discovery for me.
Question is: is it worth digging through all this music to occasionally find jewels? For me the answer is unambiguously yes. And even these second rate pieces are only second rate by comparison with the masterpieces we all know.
So keep them coming. Most will be second rate, occasionally we’ll discover something truly enjoyable.
Prosit Neujahr!
There should always be a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar works at the New Year Concerts
Surely time for a lady maestro..come on Vienna. Canellakis or Young or Malwitz please?!?
H Rosen, what allows you to affirm that Muti is a man ?
I haven’t lol’ed so hard since beginning of the year. Thanks Fernandel!
lol
“Surely time for a lady maestro..come on Vienna. Canellakis or Young or Malwitz please?!?”
No, thanks. “Maestro”, by definition, is a male.
Wiener Philharmoniker need not go woke.
How is that woke you backwards thinking fool. In what other profession would the idea that a non male doing a job be anything extraordinary. Canellakis in particular would be ideal for this, light and graceful..
It’s woke because you’re proposing to engage an obscure conductor for a concert that has pretty much always conducted by a famous conductor with an international profile ever since Willi Boskovsky stepped down from the gig because it’s “time” for a lady maestro”, you Progressive fool. When the lady maestros you mentioned have a similar profile, they can have the baton.
And why is Muti not supposed to provide „authenticity“?! What a stupid statement… In a global 21st century musical world it is taste that matters not nationality!!
Two hours ago I wrote on another page that I hope that they will not call the bad Riccardo one more time…. This is it!
Chailly is probably vetoed by Muti, the same way he was vetoed in Chicago (along with any other Italian conductor)
Could be the other Ricardo – Chailly! Why not considered? Chailly would make a great near years concert for Vienna.
The Vienna Philharmonic did it on purpose: “That’ll piss off Concertgebouw79 !…”
Thanks for the influence you give to me!
Sure there is! But the Vienna Philharmonic are not going to invite HIM!!!
I’m waiting to hear what Chicagorat has to say about this.
Here is a hot take: in 25 years, the VPO’s New Year’s concert will either cease to exist, or will change in some major way. The old dinosaur conductors will die out, and no future top conductor will be interested in conducting the program. Like the MET gala, this event has become a social occasion first and foremost anyway, and a big cash-grab/luxury tourism object.
I don’t think so.
Changes would be welcome. But also in 25 years, Dudamel and Nelsons would be your old dinosaur conductors and probably won’t mind conducting the program for the 7, 8th time in year 2049.
Yeh na – typical clueless comment
“This event [the New Year concert from Vienna] has become a social occasion first and foremost”
Yes, I’m afraid I have to agree. It was disheartening to hear the audience in the Musikverein yesterday morning applauding in the middle of the overture to Waldmeister. Surely – I wrongly thought – that beautiful piece, much admired by Brahms, is by now sufficiently familiar for that not to happen?
Maybe the real music lovers go to one of the other two performances of the New Year concert, on 30 and 31 December?
The late Walter Weller was born in Vienna and conducted all over the world. His father was a violinist in the VPO and Walter was a concertmaster with the orchestra for 11 years – from 1961 (he was 22) until 1972.
Never once was he asked to conduct the New Year Concert!
Disgraceful and unforgivable in my opinion!
Manfred Honeck is an austrian born, have played in the VPO and could be invited…
Manfred Honeck will be, sooner or later.
Riccardo Muti has been the “shadow” music director of the Vienna Phil for a long time so it makes perfect sense. And he’s excellent at it. People who love this repertoire will be delighted. The others will complain, which is the only thing they know how to do.
Chicagorat is gonna shit the bed.
Muti fans display the same amount of class as their master.
Where is our favorite 100-line comment about “Muti-Palestinian-Abdrazakov-Putin etc”?
He’s probably mistook a double dose of his medications on New Year’s Eve and has fallen asleep, alone in his little house. Careful; don’t wake him up…
You forgot «-Depardieu »…
Will Muti and his daughter Chiara take the occasion to invite the alleged rapist Gerard Depardieu – a dear acquaintance of theirs – to the concert and make a joint anti-MeToo declaration, perhaps with Weinstein joining through video conference from prison?
Nice, they should call Domingo to join the party
Julie, you’re great ! Don’t change anything !
Yes , a great caricature!
The program has been announced, it will contain a single work, Debussy’s The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, with Depardieu plying both the part of the Narrator and the martyr St. Sebastian, Chiara will semi-stage the production, with Depardieu tied to a tree, completely naked, of course, and the female chorus will shoot nerf arrows at our martyr.
Imo, better to work and advocate FOR things, and let music be music. Honestly, if I screened for anti-Semitism, I would have almost no composers or performers left, past or present. Just to take one example.
Safer not to put a female concertmaster on 1/1/25 either, then.
Given loyalists will be already angry, can they break with tradition further and use Muti’s pro-Russia clout to put Abdrazakov on the programme to sing a Boris Godunov aria or the Russian anthem?
An Austrian conductor who was not a contemporary of Strauss necessarily knows no more or no less about Strauss than any other conductor. Xenophobia is an ugly thing. Shame on you.
Muti and Thielleman every two years. Perfect!
Oh yes! Yessss! It will be a sublime concert and one for the ages! When the great Muti comes to town, the Viennese get on their knees to worship an Italian – isn’t that something! And this Italian is anti-MeToo and legitimizes Putinist singers; what is there not to like in Vienna??
In a rare misstep, Muti has disappointed the conservative and reactionary fringe of classical music and society, recently. We are not referring to his reckless recording of a contemporary music album with the CSO – which raised a flag with many- but to something much more serious. The fearsome flag bearer and general of AntiMe2 and anti-Cancel armies did not sign a French petition in defense of the alleged rapist Gerard Depardieu. While we can suppose that he wanted to sign the petition very badly, he let his daughter Chiara sign it alone and he did not enter the field to defend a Legion of Honor buddy.
[Note: famous recipients of the Legion of “Honor”, in addition to Muti and Depardieu, are Harvey Weinstein. Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad, Lance Armstrong, Benito Mussolini, Manuel Noriega.
It all connects beautifully and naturally, like we have been saying. Muti will get an upgrade next month when he will be elevated to the level Commander of the Legion of “Honor”.]
Maybe Muti is tired after his victorious battle to legitimize the Great Putin Bass (aka Abdrazakov) and conducting him in Ravenna. Maybe after legitimizing the Putin Bass, Muti kept a cool head and did not want to right away legitimize a man accused of rape. Even for Muti that would constitute an excessive display of zeal, some say. Let’s have Chiara sign instead; we know that Chiara would not sign before asking dad first. Legitimization by proxy is a good move, according to those who are inclined to give Muti a break.
Muti created sublime art and culture with Gerard Depardieu, they performed Berlioz’ Lelio together. A nice video of Gerard having dinner with Putin here after being granted his Russian citizenship:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JDSNxgLRAM
I still prefer the picture of Muti with Putin, it conveys a deeper love:
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/B97X34/russian-president-vladimir-putin-left-and-riccardo-muti-right-conductor-B97X34.jpg (Note: Muti has received from Muti the RUSSIAN ORDER OF FRIENDSHIP; to our knowledge, he has not returned the fantastical award though many people suggested he should).
French authorities have brought preliminary criminal charges against Depardieu for allegedly raping the actress Charlotte Arnould twice in August 2008. He has denied those allegations and other accusations of sexual assault by other women. He is a Russian citizen now, he’s not going to get prosecuted for rape!
Harvey Weinstein, the target of accusations that fueled the #MeToo movement in 2017 and led to his conviction, received the Legion of Honor in 2012 from President Nicolas Sarkozy. Macron said he wanted to withdraw the award from Weinstein after the accusations against him became public, but that had yet to happen as of 2019. Criminal charges have been brought against Weinstein and he is has been found guilty of rape and sentenced to 23 years of imprisonment.
President Macron has gotten into big trouble presently for strongly praising Depardieu. President Macron rejected the suggestion by his own culture minister that Depardieu should lose the Legion of Honor, one of France’s highest awards, arguing it is merited for great artists who might be bad people. Does Muti agree with Macron? We don’t know, though I could make an intelligent guess.
On the other hand, we do know what Muti thinks of MeToo: “With MeToo, Mozart would be in jail” (though there is no documentary or anecdotal evidence that Mozart ever raped anyone or that criminal charges were brought against him). What does Muti think of his buddy Depardieu rape charges? The rape allegedly happened two years before they collaborated on Berlioz and hung out in Chicago. Did Muti and Depardieu discuss Charlotte Arnould and similar topics – which like-minded individuals would be naturally disposed to discuss- in Chicago? We don’t know.
Muti is also a “buddy” of Domingo, another man accused of assaulting women and having phone calls with sex traffickers. I am not saying it’s a pattern let’s be clear, I am just laying out the facts!
How many times are you going to write this? Not that I disagree but it is getting tiresome
Lothario a libertine in an 18th Century play.
It’s a sensible choice, they have to catch him until he breathes. Cheer up folks, it’s not all bad. Unlike Chicago, it will be a Muti concert where the first clarinet and first trumpet blend with the orchestra instead of punching your ears 😉
Happy New Year!!
How can you have a name like “Chicagorat” and not like loud 1st trumpet?
Agree about the trumpet, Batallan is just a boor. But if Williamson has a fault, it’s that he plays so bloody soft that either it’s impossible to hear him or the orchestra has to be shushed to a degree where you can’t hear them.
Williamson plays the clarinet beautifully, a masterful blend of German centered tone with French suppleness of color, but yes, he does have this tic of going pppp on his clarinet, which as ensemble playing goes, is not a virtue, because by its nature, the clarinet can go pppp without great virtuosity, but the other wind instruments cannot technically go that soft no matter how virtuosic the player, so he doesn’t blend with his other principal colleagues, and paradoxically, by going so soft, he sticks out.
His other tic is his uniformly super fast trills. Trills, like all ornaments, must be varied and expressive according to the context, not a demonstration of how fast you can move your finger! And again, the mechanism of the clarinet allows for fast trills that the other instruments cannot match, so again, he sticks out.
My 2 cents. Otherwise, he really has the most sumptuous tone of all clarinetists out there.
Blending simply for blending’s sake is not an absolute virtue.
Prime example: the Berlin winds do not blend for blending’s sake , the principal flute, oboe, clarinet each are recognizably virtuosic and individualistic, and indeed, they compete with each other as they toss solo lines around on a one-ups-man-ship of who is more brilliant and original. And it’s thrilling to hear.
So no, Williamson’s sumptuous tone will never blend with Batallan’s brilliant tone, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Surely, by now, everyone knows that the Viennese musicians do not need a conductor. That orchestra can play the music in their sleep. I recall, in a video of Carlos Kleiber leaning back, arms at his side, listening to them carry on without him while his eyes were closed and a smile was on his face.
Ah..that’s not quite true is it? I’ve seen it too. He can afford to do that because they were so well rehearsed, and therein is the skill.
The 2025 programme should feature most works by Johann Strauss the younger as it is the 200th anniversary of his birth. An Austrian conductor would have been more practicle for this special occasion
I would like to suggest 2 great but very rare waltzes for next year’s concert. Cycloiden opus 207 and Libellen opus 180. Both masterworks but never performed and only one recording of each available on disc. Of the more popular Liebeslieder opus 114 should be performed as it is one of his finest early works. Thanks for performing Vienna Bonbons opus 307 one of my suggestions for this year’s event.
Happy New Year
Plus Bitte Shoen Polka and Treasure Walzer of the more familiar items should be included. I think Manfred Honeck as conductor would have been ideal but alas not to be. I hope future conductors like Andris Nelsons, Ivan Fischer and Gustavo Dudemel will be invited for future New Year Concerts
Perhaps a couple of pieces by Strauss’s contemporaries could be included. How about Josef Lanner’s irrisistable Garden Festival Galop opus 114 and another orchestral gem from the pen of Josef Hellmesberger.
Prosit.
I am always surprised that Manfred Honneck is not invited to conduct the New year concert. He was past member of the VPO and marvellous in this repertoire.
If you read my comment saying that the Vienna Philharmonic would not invite HIM, it was Manfred Honeck that I meant. I can also tell you why they will not invite him: Being a former member of the VPO, he KNOWS how this repertoire should be played – and the VPO knows that he knows. Besides that he is NOT a big name. But the real reason is that he would insist upon the VPO playing whe he conducts, since he would not be a party to conducting what the VPO just played after the fact – which is what most big names do because they are not anywhere close to being “marvellous” in this repertoire.
With a brother in the orchestra…. difficult not to raise criticism. But he would be very capable for sure.
Surely Muti should do the decent thing and go sick at the last minute and suggest a lady take over.
Marin Allsop ?
Naples, Muti’s birthplace, did belong to the Habsburg Empire for a certain time in the 18th century, so there you have your Austrian credentials….
My bad – it was even far longer than that. How could one forget the legacy of Don Carlo…
Muti is the greatest conductor in the world. Any orchestra, even the Mighty Vienna Phil (the greatest orchestra in the world) is lucky to work with him!
Boooooooo!
I’ve heard some of the worst concerts and operas of my life under Muti’s baton and with the Vienna Phil. A really slow Traviata with Frank Lopardo, Andrea Rost and Renato Bruson comes to mind in Salzburg 20 or so years ago. The singers wanted it played at standard tempi and Muti conducted the entire affair largo.
Not to get morbid on the first day of a New Year, but I suspect the VPO sometimes extends the invitation to conduct the New Year’s Day concert to veteran conductors who might not be…… available in this earthly realm to conduct in the future. E.g., Daniel Barenboim in 2022, Georges Pretre in 2008 and 2010. So the extension of the invitation to Muti for 2025 may be an acknowledgement that it may be the last time he’ll conduct it.
I will say I always find Muti an odd choice, because he seems to have very little sympathy for the Strauss Family’s music. Not as dour as Nikolaus Harnoncourt was, but “Gemütlichkeit” is not something one associates with Muti.
Opinions may differ on Muti, but the choice is just so boring, always the same people. Get some new people in, there are plenty of high(er) quality conductors around who could add some originality to the New Year’s concert. Instead, it’s always the same … I used to look forward to these, but alas, no more …
Willi Boskofsky the concertmaster led this concert for years. He was no world beater, but he had a perfect Viennese personality and people loved him and the orchestra together. Bringing in big names does not mean great performances, though these VP musicians can play much of the Strauss, Helmesberger, Suppe etc. etc. in their sleep.
“The year 2025 is the bicentenary…”
For Beethoven’s 200th anniversary, the Vienna Phil also invited Muti to conduct the Ninth.
The Vienna Phil has a reverence for Muti that I simply cannot hear in the results, not in watching Muti’s latest performances with the Philharmonic either in the Beethoven 9th or in the Strauss waltzes
Is it because he just lets the Viennese play without much conducting?
Here’s an idea – pick a conductor of international standing and experience that they have never worked with before.
Yesterday’s concert was as boring and mediocre as they come. Zero “oomph”… the most “exciting” part was Thielemann “conducting” the public clapping… could it send any lower under Muti? Interesting comments about Muti blocking Chailly and/or any other Italian conductor from conducting wherever he has a position… but again, are we really surprised with a musician who has the ego of a primadonna? It should neither surprise nor shock us. Around 30 years ago at La Scala, the orchestra called an impromptu strike on the day the season was supposed to open with La Traviata. Muti asked for a piano to be brought on stage and accompanied the singers from beginning to end in an unforgettable performance. So, maybe Muti is not being invited for what he can deliver today, rather for what he delivered (for decades) in the past, which, given the mediocrity of the New Year’s programme, is by no means a mismatch.
The arguments of “it should be an Austrian conductor” are just ridiculous… as ridiculous are saying that just certain ethnicities can play characters of that specific ethnicity, etc… had this woke BS been around in the past, Sir Ben Kingley’s career would, possibly, not have existed…
In summary, the Vienna New Year’s Concert is embarrassingly daft; Muti (and most musicians who achieve that level of notoriety) are primadonnas; Music is universal.
Muti has already conducted 6 New Year’s concerts.
I have no objection to Muti, but seven times seems to be somewhat excessive; Muti is 82 and one suspects they’re concerned that he won’t be available for much longer.
Bit like Joe Biden, then!!
Manfred Honeck would be an excellent choice.
I’m surprised they didn’t ask one of the innumerable Finnish conductors. Maybe they would be too sensible to accept any invitation
If he is still alive…
Great honor for the maestro but the picture is at least 30 years old. He’s in his early 80s. The orchestra knows the music better than anyone so the conductor just goes along for it ride.
How about someone from a different tradition? Simon Rattle or Ivan Fischer are the types of a conductor who could revitalise the material without going too heavy on it.
To be clear…I am from Chicago…when Muti partners with the CSO…there is no one before and no one after…