Wednesday 1 January 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR !




Musical New Year's greetings 
in the spirit of 

HOPE

   FRIENDSHIP 

 PEACE


A New Year's Concert from Vienna with the 
Wiener Philharmoniker

and a tribute to violinist/conductor
Willi Boskovsky (1909-1991)



New Year's Concert from 1974 in a light-hearted atmosphere,
conducted by Willi Boskovsky
All of the music performed was by the Strauss family,
with the bulk of it by Johann Strauss, Son

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Willi Boskovsky was born in Vienna, and joined the Vienna Academy of music at the age of nine. 
He was the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic from 1936 to 1979. 
He was also, from 1955, the conductor of the Vienna New Year's Concert
which is mostly devoted to the music of Johann Strauss II and his contemporaries. 
Along with the Vienna Philharmonic, 
he was also the chief conductor of the Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester up until his death. 
A forerunner of this ensemble was the 19th-century Strauss Orchestra founded by Johann Strauss I in 1835.

His style appealed to many Strauss listeners as he directed Strauss' music in the manner of the "Vorgeiger", 
i.e. directing the orchestra with the violin just as Johann Strauss I popularised this form of conducting waltzes, polkas and other dance music alongside Strauss' rival Josef Lanner in the early 19th century. 
This tradition was also carried on by Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss after their father's death. 
Boskovsky was sympathetic to the Strauss style. 


File:Musikverein Wien3.JPG


The New Year Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic

  takes place

each year in the morning of January 1 in Vienna, Austria. 
 As far as I can think back - 
each New Year's Day I've listen to this concert
which gives me such a wonderful start,
"waltzing" into the New Year!

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I wish each one of you a very 
Happy and Healthy Year 2014!


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The 74th annual New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic takes place today on January 1, 2014, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. This year the concert will be televised in over 90 countries with 16 cameras in use to capture the broadcast images. In the year 2014, the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I will be commemorated. Therefore the Vienna Philharmonic considered it to be essentially relevant to invite peace activist Daniel Barenboim for the New Year's Concert 2014 and to set a corresponding emphasis in the program.
full info 
here