Vienna New Year's Day concert 2024

[Emeralds]

The live broadcast of the annual New Year's Day concert from Vienna's Musikvereon by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Christian Thielemann this year) took place this morning on BBC2 (with a shorter edition on BBC4 in the evening) with its usual programme of rare waltzes, polkas, quadrilles etc by Johann Strauss Jr, Eduard Strauss, Josef Strauss, Johann Strauss Sr and their contemporaries (which this year included Anton Bruckner, more well known for his symphonies, and Hans Christian Lumbye, aka one of the composers of Bournonville's ballet Napoli). The customary encores eg Blue Danube Waltz, Radetsky March, make their usual welcome appearance. 

 

The pre-recorded ballets this year were two waltzes choreographed by Davide Bombana, who has danced with ENB back when it was called London Festival Ballet, but whose choreography (mostly in Munich and Florence) I haven't seen before.

 

While the choreography seemed pleasant if a tad simple  (occasionally fighting or ignoring the rhythms of the music,some of it reminding me of dances for graduating ballet academy students), the costumes designed by fashion designer Susanne Bisovsky were disappointing, with the unlucky men's costumes looking like they were recycled from a Halloween night club event (black, glittery 80s disco really isn't a good look in the bright sunlight on the grass outside a stately mansion) while the women were saddled with cumbersome puffy full tutu skirts combined with what looked like decorated stretchy tops.

 

After last year's masterpiece costumes by Emma Ryott (a theatre designer rather than fashion designer) and inspired choreography by Ashley Page, it was a little bit of a letdown after waiting months for it (although the wonderful dancers help to alleviate that a little). 

 

Ketevan Papava and Eno Peci danced in  the  Icelandic Waltz by Johann Strauss Jr, and the Vienna Citizen waltz by Carl Michael Ziehrer was danced by Ioanna Avraam, Elena Bottaro, Olga Esina, Giorgio Fourés, Hyo-Jung Kang, Masayu Kimoto, Ketevan Papava, Eno Peci, Brendan Saye and Zsolt Török.

 

Some readers might remember Hyo-Jung Kang dancing Juliet and Bianca with Stuttgart Ballet (where she was previously a principal) on tour in London, and Brendan Saye dancing in National Ballet of Canada's Romeo and Juliet on tour at Sadler's Wells when he was a soloist (and later, principal) with them.

 

The dancers were magnificent as usual, but I would have liked the costumes and choreography to serve them better. It's on iplayer, so do have a look and see if you agree/disagree. The music is fun and as ever, played beautifully and with panache. 

Edited January 1 by Emeralds

[MAB]

Going completely off topic, I'm fervently hoping the upcoming change at the top will see Christian Thielemann on the podium at ROH.

 

Can we start an opera wish list?

[alison]

Feel free, MAB - you could do one in the Opera/Music subforum in Not Dance.

[OnePigeon]

It was really disappointing.  I thought the costumes were horrendous - the women looked like toilet roll holders and the men looked like the Tour de France was off to the disco.  Individually the costumes were bad enough, but together they completely jarred in style.  The choreography was, on the whole, ugly with some incredibly ungainly moves and some strange contemporary and street dance moves thrown in for good measure.  Hopefully next year will improve.

 

Top of my musical wish list is Vasily Petrenko, but I may have largely shallow reasons for this 😍😍🤣

[Emeralds]

Vasily Petrenko for the 2026 New Year Day concert (or should I say 2025-2026 concerts as the orchestra actually play 3 shows of this programme: 30 Dec, 31 Dec, 1 Jan- only the 1 Jan one is relayed) could be a possibility, as he has been interested in conducting waltzes and ballet music before. He recently conducted a concert version of Iolanta and Nutcracker in a semi staged version at Royal Albert Hall, with the full opera sung on stage, but no dancers for Nutcracker, and excerpts only rather than the full ballet. Ricardo Muti has been announced for next year's New Year concert. 

 

[Tattin]

Many thanks, Emeralds, for your report of the New Year's concert from Vienna, especially for naming all the dancers as I only caught Ketevan Papava's name though I recognised Olga Esina from watching so many of the company's live.streams. I agree about the men's costumes; I liked the puffy tutus, however, but agree that they looked cumbersome and difficult to dance in. I agree that the choreography appeared simple, but then it nearly always is..