The
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
's annual New Year's Concert is nothing if not a fixed ritual, and listeners to this 2023 iteration, on the market well before the end of February and ensconced on classical best-seller charts, will get the usual stuff: Viennese waltzes and polkas,
The Blue Danube
, the annual New Year's greeting given in German and the English conductor
Franz Welser-Moest
picked up in Cleveland. Actually, this is a comparatively innovative New Year's Concert. It is not that
Welser-Moest
departs from the Viennese tradition; if anything, he focuses on it a bit more tightly than usual, but until the end, all of the pieces are heard on the concert for the first time, and
has found some gems.
Johann Strauss II
is here, but less often than his brothers
Eduard
and
Josef
, and each of those contributes a few pieces that probably only Strauss buffs will recognize. The pep factor is heightened considerably by several instances of the polka schnell (or fast polka), beloved by
Eduard Strauss
and a counterpart to France's can-can. Sample
Auf und davon
.
Josef Strauss
offers a novelty, a polka francaise with a text sung by the
Vienna Choir Boys
Choir Girls
. This is a fresh New Year's Concert, echt Viennese, and perhaps even more fun than usual. ~ James Manheim