Customer Reviews

New Year's Concert 2005

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This year's concert was devoted almost exclusively to music by Johann Strauss II. Without question, it is among the Vienna Philharmonic's best New Year's Concerts, led by a long-time collaborator at the podium, American conductor Lorin Maazel, who has conducted the orchestra since the early 1960s. The orchestra responded enthusiastically to him, following his tempi even when he wasn't conducting (In two works he plays violin solos, most notably the "Tales from the Vienna Woods" waltz.). On a somber note, the traditional final piece of the concert, Johann Strauss' Radetzky March was not played, a silent tribute offered to the victims of the December 26th earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean (However, the other traditional encore, the "Blue Danube" waltz was played.). Fans of both the Vienna Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel will be interested in acquiring this CD.

Lorin Maazel has turned into a favorite conductor with the Vienna Phil., if not of mine (being self-governed, the orchestra members vote on who they want to conduct them). Whateer he may lack in charm, Maazel is a superb technician and a musician's musician. He gets the best ensemble that I've heard on New Year's since Carlos Kleiber, and he is more attuned to Viennese style than Seigji Ozawa, who preceded him, or Mariss Jansons, who succeeded him in 2006. Another plus is that we get to hear many rarities on the pgrogram.

Everything would seem to add up to five stars, but Strauss must be played with infectious buoyancy and joy. As with Harnoncourt, I don't detect high spirits here, and so the abudance of other musical values doesn't quite add up to something truly exceptional.

Tremendous in the Dobly 5.1 surround sound. Great ballet to the Blue Danube waltz. Maazel does some violin solos on the Tales from the Vienna Woods