Fortunately the eagerly awaited New Year´s concerts on European television channels did not disappoint this year either. At least those concerts I was able to watch were all outstanding and offered a multitude of top quality music, dance and visual delights.
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| The Musikverein is a wonderful setting for the Vienna New Year´s concerts |
The traditional
Vienna New Year´s concert is of course the "Emperor" of them all. This year´s concert was superbly conducted by the great
Latvian Maestro Mariss Jansons.
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| Maestro Jansons |
The
Wiener Philharmoniker, arguably the world´s number one orchesta (at least when it comes to Viennese music) sounded great, as always, and the contribution of the
Wiener Sängerknaben was very much appreciated.
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| Members of the Wiener Sängerknaben Choir |
The
Berliner Philharmoniker under
Sir Simon Rattle are musically on the same world class level as its "competitor" in Vienna. This year´s New Year´s gala concert from
Berlin was outstanding, with the additional bonus of
Jevgenij Kissin as soloist in
Grieg´s piano concerto.
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| Sir Simon and Jevgenij Kissin |
The Berlin concert was without doubt one of the musical highlights of the new year. However, Sir Simon seems to have made the conscious decision to make the programme as close to a "normal" concert as possible. In a way it is a pity, because particularly on New Year´s Eve most people would probably appreciate a somewhat lighter touch.
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| Christian Thielemann, the soon to be principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden |
One of my personal favourites is always the New Year´s concert by the
Staatkapelle Dresden broadcast from the beautiful
Semper Oper in Dresden. This year the orchestra´s future principal conductor
Christian Thielemann had created a programme consisting of a selection of operetta pearls by
Lehár. All in all, a wonderful New Year´s Eve programme which made at least this listener and viewer feel good!
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| The talented tenor Piotr Beczala was on of the soloists in Dresden |
The operetta theme continued later on the same evening with a live broadcast of the second act of
Die Fledermaus from the
Wiener Staatsoper. Die Fledermaus and the Staatsoper on New Year´s Eve is of course an unbeatable combination. What a delight it was to watch last night! Thank you
ARTE for broadcasting this exquisite musical champagne truffle!
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| Ildikó Raimondi as Rosalinde and Kurt Streit as her husband Gabriel von Eisenstein |
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| Ildikó Raimondi and Alfred Šramek (Frank) |
On new year´s eve the ARTE channel also showed a special 75th festival gala concert with the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, led by
Zubin Mehta.
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| Zubin Mehta and Vadim Repin |
A wonderful concert with two world class soloists,
Vadim Repin and Jevgenij Kissin. (The concert was recorded on December 24, so Kissin was able to travel to Berlin for the New Year´s concert).
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| The newly rebuilt La Fenice is one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world |
Last, but not least, there was the traditional New Year´s gala concert from the
La Fenice opera in
Venice. This year the opera´s new music director
Diego Matheuz conducted the orchestra in a traditional programme of
Italian opera favourites.
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| Diego Matheuz applauding soprano Jessica Pratt |
A succesful debut by the young ( he is only 27!)
Venezuelan. The classical beauty of the theater is always an additional bonus in concerts or operas broadcast from La Fenice.
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