Two protestors arrested inside Vienna’s New Year concert

Two protestors arrested inside Vienna’s New Year concert

News

norman lebrecht

January 02, 2023

Police in Vienna are holding six climate activists who planned to disrupt the Vienna Philharmonic’s concert yesterday.

Two were seized inside the auditorium before they could shout or stick themselves to a wall.

The six activists, two men and four women, have Austrian and German nationality. They are aged between 26 and 67 years old.

Comments

  • Rob says:

    I’m sure the pompous audience would love the intrusion. It appears to be the same people in the same seats every year.

  • mem says:

    I would’ve welcomed anything, anything, to have woken me up from FWM’s programming.

    • Gustavo says:

      Agree. I mean first Barenboim, then Worse-than-Most and next time CT.

      How dull can you get?

    • Barry Guerrero says:

      Personally, I enjoyed the focus on Josef Strauss. It was a refreshing change, and learned something.

      • KANANPOIKA says:

        Have always felt the music of Josef Strauss is
        just as magnificent as that of his more celebrated brother.

    • Greg Bottini says:

      I couldn’t disagree more, mem.
      The programming was all little-known or unknown works (except for the obligatory Blue Danube and Radetzky March), and they were all beautiful.
      And beautifully done: FW-M actually made the Philharmonic play!
      It’s my own personal opinion, of course, but I found this New Year’s concert to be the most entertaining since Harnoncourt’s.

    • John Palmer says:

      Then why watch?

  • Henry williams says:

    Iam sure these activists do not work.
    One is over 65. Does he have nothing better to do in
    His retirement.

  • Singeril says:

    Wow, did they lose out. They paid for tickets and didn’t even get to watch the show. Throw them into the pokey and force them to listen to the Pachelbel Canon in D for 36 non-stop hours. That ought to teach them. It is amazing to me how these people feel that causing a disruption would possibly bring sympathy from others towards their cause.

  • HAMILTON says:

    Disappointing NYE concert. There’s a reason young Josef’s music didn’t make it into the mainstream. Boring, really. And far too much ballet on the PBS coverage.

  • Sulio Pulev says:

    All such activist must be beaten and tortured hardly, until they realize hiw stupud they are. Of course mass media is the same guilty as pressing problem with climate for such point that peoples with mental problems (which raise last times with the increased public tolerance) already get to the first row of the public attention. Btw on the back of the live transmission running prerecorded general rehearsal with public and if something go wrong, from control room seamless swith to recording and activists will be unobserved, but instead will be hardly beaten and judged by the police. And if I m there, may be somebody will be injured seriously and for the rest of their cheap life?

  • James says:

    Who cares? They will go away if we ignore them, or better yet, do as I do and point and laugh heartily at the poor misbegotten idiots.

  • neville says:

    Totally forgot about the concert, to be honest. Was it in any way memorable? Only another 363 days until the next one – unlike buses, they are pretty regular! If protesters are sticking themselves to the Vienna marble and gold leaf that has to be better and more luxurious than London tarmac.

  • Bob tN says:

    Why? They didn’t approve of the floral decorations this year? Perhaps a different color palette.

  • Jan says:

    If they glue themselves to the floor or wall for goodness sake just leave them there to get on with it. Why bother to free them to do it again. They would soon stop if ignored.

  • niloiv says:

    What I really don’t understand is… do those activists actually expect people to suddenly start caring about environment after they saw some random people screwing a concert or sticking themselves to the wall…

  • Harpist says:

    Just saw in Berlin in the Old Gallery the place where they damaged a Toulouse-Lautrec. Color splashes visible on the wall and a spared rectangle where the painting once hung. Result is that everyone had to leave the coat in the cloak room, which were not prepared for the amount of coats in winter. There were long lines and they intermittently closed the gallery as the cloak room was full.
    How does that help the climate cause? They should be arrested and punished. Or do something with their life and study environmental engineering etc to REALLY do something. This is basically vandalism using climate change as rationale.

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