New Year's Concert 2025
“Strauss’ music is my message of peace”
Riccardo Muti (83), doyen of the international conducting elite and favorite of the Viennese, conducts the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein for the 7th time on Wednesday. He spoke to Dr. Karlheinz Roschitz for the "Krone".
"Not at home and yet at home," laughs maestro Riccardo Muti, "Vienna is my second home. Since I made my debut at the State Opera in 1973 with Verdi's 'Aida', I have had a lifelong friendship with many of the Philharmoniker, some of whom I have worked with for over 50 years. I am now conducting the New Year's Concert in the Golden Hall for the 7th time. And this year I found the work on the program selection and above all the discoveries we made there exciting. The rehearsals are going wonderfully."
A woman who knows what she wants
When I spoke to the maestro in Ravenna on the phone a few days ago about the program, he said: "It is right and important that the 'Wiener' - for the first time! - to perform a work by a woman at the New Year's Concert: I think the 'Ferdinandus Waltz' by the then only 12-year-old Constanze Geiger (1835 to 1890) is a jewel. Johann Strauss' father and son rightly premiered Geiger's 'Frühlingsträume' and 'Carlsklänge'.
Today, hardly anyone knows the 'universal artist' - Geiger was an actress, pianist and composer. But her music is bursting with energy and imagination. As if she wanted to say: 'I may be a woman, but I'm here'. A woman who knew what she wanted. After all, she made it all the way to the wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha." And as proof of Geiger's originality, Muti puts his cell phone on the piano and plays me - from his house in Ravenna - parts of her "Ferdinandus" waltz.
Muti takes it for granted that women can now play with the Vienna Philharmonic. "In the 19th century, there were women's orchestras in Vienna that mainly played compositions by women. I was head of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for thirteen years and am now music director emeritus for life there: "When I started in Chicago in 2007, I knew I had to bring Mediterranean sunshine, relaxation and Italian humor to the Chicago sound. 'Cantare, let the instruments sing', I kept telling them. The women in the orchestra, who were in the majority, helped me a lot.
And women also dominated at my opera academies in Japan or recently in China, where I worked on 'Cavalleria rusticana' with young female singers and musicians. It makes no sense to discuss the tiresome topic of men or women in the orchestra today! And if discussions are now beginning about whether a woman should conduct a New Year's concert of the 'Wiener', I can only say: I'm open to anything. The only thing that matters is the quality, the culture."
Muti is very satisfied with the New Year's concert program. The focus is on the Waltz King on the occasion of his 200th birthday with his "classics" such as the "Lagoon", "Transaction" and "Acceleration" waltzes, "Wine, Women and Song", the "Tritsch-Tratsch", "Either - or!", "Demolirer" and "Annen" polka.
Muti: "But the works that belong to the Vienna scene of the Ringstrasse era are also important to me, such as the melancholy pieces of Josef Strauss, the bravura and wit of Eduard Strauss or the court conductor Joseph Hellmesberger Jr, Gustav Mahler's successor as conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
"Cheap jokes don't fit into this concert!"
Muti is adamant on just one point: "Cheap jokes and jokes don't fit into this concert. I don't like jokes - Karajan didn't like them either. The world is full of tragic events, with jokes we make the meaning of this music less important. I have the utmost respect for Johann Strauss' music. I also see it as my message of peace!"
Even wife Cristina Mazzavillani-Muti enjoyed the press conference at the Hotel Imperial with her cute, white Maltese puppy on her lap. There were still a few things to announce shortly before the musical super event. And to experience how close the relationship is between the "Viennese" and the maestro from Naples.
A relationship that began in 1971 with the first concert and has been continued an incredible 500 times. Philharmonic board member Froschauer comments: "Every time I pick him up from the airport, it's a feeling of more than friendship, it's like family."
Of course, the first piece by a woman in a New Year's concert was also a big topic. Daniel Froschauer traveled to Ravenna especially for this with three pieces by Constanze Geiger for Muti to choose from. He also recalled the Covid New Year 2021 in the empty Musikverein: "Muti saved the concert."
That connects. For Muti, music is "the best medicine for the soul" anyway. In 1993, after his first New Year's concert, he no longer wanted to conduct one because "it is very demanding and technically difficult". On Wednesday, he conducts his seventh and emphasizes: "But this time it's the last!"
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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