The Vienna New Year's Concert () is an annual

concert A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

performed by the

Vienna Philharmonic Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; ) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its members are selected from the orchestra of ...

on the morning of

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria. The concert occurs at the

Musikverein The ( or ; ), commonly shortened to , is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. The acoustics of the building's 'Grea ...

at 11:15. The orchestra performs the same concert programme on 30 December, 31 December, and 1 January but only the last concert is broadcast every year on radio and television.

Music and setting

The concert programmes always include pieces from the Strauss family—

Johann Strauss I Johann Baptist Strauss I (; ; 14 March 1804 – 25 September 1849), also known as Johann Strauss Sr., the Elder or the Father (), was an Austrian composer of the Romantic music, Romantic Period. He was famous for his light music, namely waltzes, ...

Johann Strauss II Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an List of Austrian composers, Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well ...

, Josef Strauss and

Eduard Strauss Eduard "Edi" Strauss (15 March 1835 – 28 December 1916) was an Austrian composer who, together with his brothers Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss made up the Strauss musical dynasty. He was the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim ...

. On occasion, music principally of other Austrian composers, including Joseph Hellmesberger Jr., Joseph Lanner,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

, Otto Nicolai (the Vienna Philharmonic's founder), Emil von Reznicek,

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

, Carl Zeller, Carl Millöcker,

Franz von Suppé Franz von Suppé, born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo de Suppé (18 April 181921 May 1895) was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music. He came from the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Croatia). A c ...

, and Carl Michael Ziehrer has featured in the programmes. In 2009, music by

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

was played for the first time, where the 4th movement of his "Farewell" Symphony marked the 200th anniversary of his death. Other European composers such as

Hans Christian Lumbye Hans Christian Lumbye (; 2 May 1810 – 20 March 1874) was a Danish composer of waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and galops, among other things. Beginnings As a child, he studied music in Randers and Odense, and by age 14 he was playing the trumpet ...

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...

, Émile Waldteufel,

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

, Verdi,

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

, and

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

have been featured in recent programmes. The announced programme contains approximately 14 to 20 compositions, and also three encores. The announced programme includes

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

es,

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

s, mazurkas, and

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a state's "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diffe ...

. Of the encores, the unannounced first encore is often a fast polka. The second is Johann Strauss II's waltz " The Blue Danube", whose introduction is interrupted by light applause of recognition and a New Year's greeting in German (originally added by Willi Boskovsky) from the conductor and orchestra to the audience. The origin of this tradition stems from the New Year's Concert of 1954, when the audience interrupted three pieces by enthusiastically applauding and cheering. The final encore is Johann Strauss I's Radetzky March, during which the audience claps along under the conductor's direction. This did not start until 1958. In this last piece, tradition also calls for the conductor to start the orchestra as soon as they step onto the stage, before reaching the podium. The complete duration of the event is around two and a half hours. The concerts have been held in the "" (Golden Hall) of the

since 1939. The television broadcast is augmented by

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

performances in selected pieces during the second part of the programme. The dancers come from the Vienna State Ballet and dance at different famous places in Austria, e. g.

Schönbrunn Palace Schönbrunn Palace (Austrian German, German: Schloss Schönbrunn ) was the main summer residence of the House of Habsburg, Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, the 13th district of Vienna. The name ''Schönbrunn'' (meaning "beautiful spring") ha ...

Schloss Esterházy Schloss Esterházy () is a palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, the capital of the Burgenland state. It was constructed in the late 13th century, and came under ownership of the Hungarian Esterházy family in 1622. Under Paul I, 1st Prince Esterhá ...

, the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...

or the Wiener Musikverein itself. In 2013, the costumes were designed by Vivienne Westwood. From 1980 until 2013, the flowers that decorated the hall were a gift from the city of

Sanremo Sanremo, also spelled San Remo in English and formerly in Italian, is a (municipality) on the Mediterranean coast of Liguria, in northwestern Italy. Founded in Roman times, it has a population of 55,000, and is known as a tourist destination ...

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

, Italy. In 2014, the orchestra itself provided the flowers. Since 2014, the flowers have been arranged by the Wiener Stadtgärten (Vienna municipal gardens). New attire by designers Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler debuted in 2017.

History

There has been a tradition of concerts on New Year's Day in Vienna since 1838, but not with music of the Strauss family. From 1928 to 1933, there were six New Year's concerts in the Musikverein, conducted by

Johann Strauss III Johann Maria Eduard Strauss III (; ; 16 February 18669 January 1939) was an Austrian composer whose father was Eduard Strauss, whose uncles were Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss, and whose grandfather was Johann Strauss I. Born in Vienna, he w ...

. These concerts were broadcast by the RAVAG. In 1939,

Clemens Krauss Clemens Heinrich Krauss (31 March 189316 May 1954) was an Austrian conducting, conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. He founded the Vienna New Year's Concert ...

, with the support of Vienna Gauleiter

Baldur von Schirach Baldur Benedikt von Schirach (; 9 May 1907 – 8 August 1974) was a German politician who was the leader of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940. From 1940 to 1945, he was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) and '' Reichsstatthalter'' (Reich gov ...

, devised a New Year's concert which the orchestra dedicated to Kriegswinterhilfswerk (Winter War Relief), to improve morale at the front lines. After World War II, this concert survived, as the Nazi origins were largely forgotten, until more recently. The concert was first performed in 1939, and conducted by Clemens Krauss. For the first and only time, the concert was not given on New Year's Day, but instead on 31 December of that year. It was called then a special, or 'extraordinary' concert (). Johann Strauss II was the only composer performed, in a modest program: *" Morgenblätter", Op. 279, waltz *"", Op. 117 *

Csárdás Csárdás (, ; ), often seen as Czárdás, is a traditional Hungarian folk dance, the name derived from ' (old Hungarian term for roadside tavern and restaurant). It originated in Hungary and was popularized by bands in Hungary as well as neighb ...

, from the opera '' Ritter Pázmán'' *" Kaiser-Walzer", Op. 437 *" Leichtes Blut", Polka schnell, Op. 319 *" Egyptischer Marsch", Op. 335 *" G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald", Walzer, Op. 325 *" Pizzicato-Polka" *" Perpetuum mobile", ein musikalischer Scherz, Op. 257 *Overture to the operetta ''

Die Fledermaus ' (, ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874. Background The original literary source for ' was ...

Encores

There were no encores in 1939, and sources indicate that encores were not instituted until 1945. Clemens Krauss almost always included "Perpetuum mobile" either on the concert or as an encore. The waltz "The Blue Danube" was not performed until 1945, and then as an encore. The " Radetzky March" was first performed in 1946, as an encore. Until 1958, these last two pieces were often but not always given as encores. Since that year, their position as twin encores has become inviolable tradition, with two exceptions: * In 1967, Willi Boskovsky made "The Blue Danube" part of his concert program to commemorate the work's centenary; its encore position was occupied by Johann Strauss II's ", , Op. 324. Additionally, an actor impersonating the composer of the work appeared during the concert. * In 2005,

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (; March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in t ...

and the orchestra concluded the program with "The Blue Danube", omitting the "Radetzky March" as a mark of respect to the victims of the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the sci ...

. One unannounced encore, a gallop or , is always placed before "The Blue Danube", and after the final announced work on the printed concert programme. It has also been a jocular composition.

Conductors

ImageSize = width:290 height:920 PlotArea = width:180 height:800 left:50 bottom:100 Legend = columns:3 left:10 top:90 columnwidth:100 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1939 till:2027 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1940 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1939 # there is no automatic collision detection, # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap Colors= id:AUT value:rgb(0.929,0.161,0.224) legend:Austrian id:USA value:rgb(0.235,0.231,0.431) legend:American id:FRA value:rgb(0,0.137,0.584) legend:French id:IND value:rgb(1,0.6,0.2) legend:Indian id:ITA value:rgb(0,0.573,0.275) legend:Italian id:ARG value:rgb(0.6,0.804,1) legend:Argentinian id:JPN value:rgb(0.737,0,0.176) legend:Japanese id:LAT value:rgb(0.62,0.188,0.224) legend:Latvian id:VEN value:rgb(0.969,0.82,0.09) legend:Venezuelan id:GER value:black legend:German id:CAN value:rgb(1,0.51,0.51) legend:Canadian Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar Define $dy = -4 # adjust height PlotData= bar:Conductors width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S from:1939 till:1940 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text:

from:1941 till:1946 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text:

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Josef Krips Josef Alois Krips (8 April 1902 – 13 October 1974) was an Austrian conductor and violinist. Life and career Krips was born in Vienna. His father was Josef Jakob Krips, a medical doctor and amateur singer, and his mother was Aloisia, née Seit ...

from:1948 till:1955 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text:

from:1955 till:1980 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text: Willi Boskovsky from:1980 till:1987 shift:($dx,$dy) color:USA text:

from:1987 till:1988 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text: Herbert von Karajan from:1988 till:1989 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ITA text:

Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the Berlin Philharm ...

from:1989 till:1990 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text:

Carlos Kleiber Carlos Kleiber (3 July 1930 – 13 July 2004) was a German-born Austrian conductor, who is widely regarded as among the greatest conductors of all time. The son of the conductor Erich Kleiber, he was particularly known for the Romantic rep ...

from:1990 till:1991 shift:($dx,$dy) color:IND text:

Zubin Mehta Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor :wikt:emeritus, emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta's father ...

from:1991 till:1992 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ITA text:

from:1992 till:1993 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text:

from:1993 till:1994 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ITA text:

Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He is current music director of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the ...

from:1994 till:1995 shift:($dx,$dy) color:USA text:

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Nikolaus Harnoncourt Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt (6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) was an Austrian conductor, known for his historically informed performances. He specialized in music of the Baroque period, but later extended his repertoire to include Classical ...

from:2002 till:2003 shift:($dx,$dy) color:JPN text:

Seiji Ozawa was a Japanese conductor known internationally for his work as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and especially the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), where he served from 1973 for 29 years. After cond ...

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from:2004 till:2005 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ITA text:

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from:2006 till:2007 shift:($dx,$dy) color:LAT text:

Mariss Jansons Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 1 December 2019) was a Latvian Conducting, conductor, best known for his interpretations of Gustav Mahler, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Strauss, and Russian composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, ...

from:2007 till:2008 shift:($dx,$dy) color:IND text:

from:2008 till:2009 shift:($dx,$dy) color:FRA text: Georges Prêtre from:2009 till:2010 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ARG text:

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Moses Barenboim (; born 15 November 1942) is an Argentines, Argentine-Israeli classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin, who also has Spain, Spanish and State of Palestine, Palestinian citizenship. From 1992 until January 2023, Bare ...

from:2010 till:2011 shift:($dx,$dy) color:FRA text: Georges Prêtre from:2011 till:2012 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text: Franz Welser-Möst from:2012 till:2013 shift:($dx,$dy) color:LAT text:

from:2013 till:2014 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text: Franz Welser-Möst from:2014 till:2015 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ARG text:

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Gustavo Dudamel Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez (born 26 January 1981) is a Venezuelan conductor. He is currently the music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is scheduled to become the Music and Artistic ...

from:2018 till:2019 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ITA text:

from:2019 till:2020 shift:($dx,$dy) color:GER text:

Christian Thielemann Christian Thielemann (born 1 April 1959) is a German conductor. He is Generalmusikdirektor of the Berlin State Opera (''Staatsoper Unter den Linden'') and chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Berlin. Biography and career Born in West Berlin, ...

from:2020 till:2021 shift:($dx,$dy) color:LAT text:

Andris Nelsons Andris Nelsons (born 18 November 1978) is a Latvian conductor. He is currently music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and ''Gewandhauskapellmeister'' of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He was previously music director of the Lat ...

from:2021 till:2022 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ITA text:

from:2022 till:2023 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ARG text:

from:2023 till:2024 shift:($dx,$dy) color:AUT text: Franz Welser-Möst from:2024 till:2025 shift:($dx,$dy) color:GER text:

from:2025 till:2026 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ITA text:

from:2026 till:2027 shift:($dx,$dy) color:CAN text: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Boskovsky,

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German language, German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (UK) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (clarinet or oboe in a concert band). After the Conducting, conductor, the concertma ...

of the orchestra from 1939 until 1970, directed the Vienna New Year's concerts from 1955 to 1979. In 1980,

became the first non-Austrian conductor of the concert. The orchestra subsequently changed practice, to choose a different conductor every year. The first such choice was Herbert von Karajan, for the 1987 concert. *

: 1939, 1941–1945, 1948–1954 *

: 1946–1947 * Willi Boskovsky: 1955–1979 *

: 1980–1986, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2005 * Herbert von Karajan: 1987 *

: 1988, 1991 *

: 1989, 1992 *

: 1990, 1995, 1998, 2007, 2015 *

: 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2018, 2021, 2025 *

: 2001, 2003 *

: 2002 *

: 2006, 2012, 2016 * Georges Prêtre: 2008, 2010 *

: 2009, 2014, 2022 * Franz Welser-Möst: 2011, 2013, 2023 *

: 2017 *

: 2019, 2024 *

: 2020 * Yannick Nézet-Séguin: 2026 (scheduled)

Audience and broadcast

The concert is popular throughout Europe, and more recently around the world. The demand for tickets is so high that people have to pre-register one year in advance in order to participate in the drawing of tickets for the following year. Some seats are pre-registered by certain Austrian families and are passed down from generation to generation. Map of the countries in which the New Year Concert 2019 of the Vienna Philharmonics was distributed via TV

Map of the countries in which the New Year Concert 2019 of the Vienna Philharmonics was distributed via TV

The Austrian national broadcasting service ORF broadcasts the concert on radio and televises the concert. From 1989 to 1993, 1997 to 2009, and in 2011, the telecast was under the direction of

Brian Large Brian James Large (born 16 February 1939 in London, England) is a television director and author. He is among the world's foremost TV directors specializing in opera and classical music. Biography Studies Large studied at the Royal Academy of Mu ...

. The telecast is relayed via the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

's Eurovision network to most major broadcasting organizations in Europe. On 1 January 2013, for example, the concert was shown on

Één VRT 1 is a public Dutch (language), Dutch-language TV station in Belgium, owned by the Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep, VRT, which also owns Ketnet, VRT Canvas and several radio stations. Although the channel is commercial-free, short sponsor ...

and

La Une La Une () is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF. La Une is the equivalent of Flemish station VRT 1, of the Flemish broadcaster VRT. History INR ...

in Belgium,

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

in Germany,

France 2 France 2 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. The flagship channel of France Télévisions, it broadcasts generalist programming including news, entertainment (such as dramas, films, and game shows), factual programmes, and sp ...

in France,

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

in the United Kingdom,

Rai 2 Rai 2 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's second television channel, and is known for broadcasting '' TG2'' news bulletins, ta ...

in Italy (on some hours delay),

RSI La 1 RSI LA 1 (''la uno'', formerly TSI 1) is one of two television channels produced by Radiotelevisione Svizzera di lingua Italiana for the Italian-speaking community of Switzerland. LA 1, which can be received in all parts of the country, is a ge ...

in Switzerland, La 1 in Spain,

ČT2 ČT2 (ČT Dva, Česká televize 2, "''Dvojka''") is the Czech Republic, Czech Public broadcasting, public television channel, operated by Czech Television. ČT2 broadcasts documentaries nature-oriented shows, frequently showing foreign films in t ...

in the Czech Republic,

RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mains ...

in Portugal, and

TVP2 TVP2 (TVP Dwa, ''Telewizja Polska 2'', ''Program Drugi Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Dwójka"'') is a Polish public mainstream TV channel operated by TVP. Launched in October 1970, its varied line-up contains a variety of programming (documentary, h ...

in Poland, among many other channels. The concert was again televised by ORF on 1 January 2015 and 1 January 2016. Estimated audience numbers are ~50 million, in 73 countries in 2012, 93 countries in 2017 and 95 countries in 2018. Past radio presenters have included Ernst Grissemann, Paul Angerer, and Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz. Recent radio presenters have been Albert Hosp and Eva Teimel. Past television presenters have included Grissemann, who presented the concert for 25 years, and Barbara Rett, from 2008 to 2022. The current ORF TV presenter for the concert is Teresa Vogl, beginning with the 2023 concert. Outside Europe, the concert is also shown on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

in the United States (beginning in 1985, as part of the performing arts anthology ''

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is produced by the PBS member statio ...

'', in abridged form),

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

in China since 1987 (being telecast live since 1989, except in 1990) while also being broadcast live by CNR in China since 2013,

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

in Japan since 1973,

MetroTV PT Media Televisi Indonesia, operating as Metro TV, is an Indonesian free-to-air News broadcasting, television news network based in West Jakarta. It was launched on 25 November 2000, and now has over 52 relay stations all over the country. ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, KBS in South Korea, and SBS in Australia (until 2018, on delay). Since 2006, the concert has also been broadcast to viewers in several African countries (

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

Swaziland Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

and

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

). In Latin America the concert is shown in Chile by La Red, and in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. Indonesia's MetroTV broadcasts the concert although it is delayed by four to five days. The concert was broadcast for the first time in

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

in 2010.

Recent history

In 2021, the Vienna New Year's Concert took place without an audience, for the first time in the concert's history, because of public-health restrictions during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The 2022 concert with

featured a live audience limited to 1,000 patrons, and the ORF radio transmission on Ö1 featured as presenter, the first female radio presenter for ORF in the history of the concert. The 2023 concert featured the Vienna Girls Choir (Wiener Chormädchen) in its first-ever appearance in the concert, the first female choir ever to participate in the concert. The 2025 concert included the "Fernandus-Walzer" of Constanze Geiger, in an orchestration by Wolfgang Dörner, the first music by a female composer ever programmed in the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Day concert.

Commercial recordings

A commercial recording has been made for every concert from 1987, the more recent being released within a matter of days of the event.

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

made the first of the live commercial recordings in 1975. The 1979 digital recording was the label's first digital LP release, marking Boskovsky's last appearance. The recordings made with Maazel in 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983 did not specify the year on the album cover (opting instead for the titles, ''New Year's in Vienna'', ''New Year's Concert'', ''Prosit Neujahr!'' and ''Wiener Bonbons'' respectively). The 1983 concert also marked the first simultaneous CD release (all the earlier concerts would follow as CD reissues). The Karajan recording was similarly undated on the cover, being entitled ''Neujahrskonzert in Wien''. Only with the first Abbado concert in 1988 was the year specified, which has been the case on each release thereafter.

Other New Year's concerts in Vienna

The Vienna Hofburg Orchestra's traditional

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

Concert takes place on 31 December in the halls of the

Hofburg Palace The Hofburg () is the former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty in Austria. Located in the center of Vienna, it was built in the 13th century by Ottokar II of Bohemia and expanded several times afterwards. It also served as the im ...

. The program features waltz and operetta melodies by Johann Strauss,

Emmerich Kálmán Emmerich Kálmán ( ; 24 October 1882 – 30 October 1953) was a Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian composer of operettas and a prominent figure in the development of Operetta#Austria–Hungary, Viennese operetta in the 20th century. Among his most p ...

Franz Lehár Franz Lehár ( ; ; 30 April 1870 – 24 October 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas, of which the most successful and best known is '' The Merry Widow'' (''Die lustige Witwe''). Life and career L ...

and opera arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The all-female chamber ensemble La Philharmonica gave its inaugural concert on 1 January 2025, with selections by Leopoldine Blahetka, Gisela Frankl, Constanze Geiger, Joseph Hellmesberger Jr., Mathilde Kralik, Johann Strauss II, Maria Anna Stubenberg, and Josephine Amann-Weinlich.

References

External links

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra German-language page on the Neujahrskonzert

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra German-language page on the New Year's Concert

"The History of the New Year's Concert"
by Dr. Clemens Hellsberg, Vienna Philharmonic {{Portal bar, Austria, Music Classical music concerts Vienna Philharmonic New Year celebrations Annual events in Vienna 1939 establishments in Austria Recurring events established in 1939 Classical music in Austria Winter in Austria