The 2021 Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert

One of the most anticipated events of the classical calendar, the Vienna Philharmonic’s exquisite New Year’s Concert brings the musicians of the prestigious orchestra together under the baton of a different influential conductor each year. Centered around a wide variety of dances in the Viennese style—especially the world-famous waltzes of the Strauss family—every edition brims with stately serenity and a hint of mischief, the perfect way to begin your New Year in music.

The 2021 New Year's Concert saw the welcome return of Riccardo Muti to the podium at the Musikverein. The orchestra commences the festive event with von Suppé's Fatinitza-Marsch and dances by Johann Strauss, Jr., as well as fellow Austrian composers Carl Zeller and Carl Millöcker. They continue with another work by von Suppé, the grandly moving Overture from the operetta Dichter und Bauer (Poet and Peasant), before bringing the show to a fabulous close with a further selection of lively dances—culminating in the traditional crowd favorites: the Blue Danube Waltz and the Radetzsky March by Johann Strauss, Jr. and Sr.!

Photo © Dieter Nagel