Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

World champion: a concert of many superlatives

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Riccardo Muti

(Bild: (c) Dieter Nagl für die Wiener Philharmoniker)

When Riccardo Muti conducts Waltzes on the first of January, a year of hard work lies behind him. For a concert that goes beyond all dimensions.

The Golden Hall has around 1700 seats. They have to be sold first. But on the first of January, the Musikverein could be filled countless times over. That's how coveted tickets for the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert are.

And demand is growing: "There are more and more every year. There are tens of thousands, it's crazy," reports Michael Bladerer, Managing Director of the orchestra, which is organized as an association. His board member Daniel Froschauer adds: "We have personalized all tickets for the first time this year. This means we know exactly who is going to the concert. That was an important step in preventing the black market."

Riccardo Muti on the podium at the New Year's Concert.

(Bild: (c) Dieter Nagl für Wiener Philharmoniker)

Due to the run on tickets, they are now being raffled off. It remains a matter of luck, even though they have been trying for years: "The draw has to be objective. The lucky winners are drawn from the tens of thousands of applications. Some then cancel, perhaps because the ticket prices are too high for them," says Bladerer. They are indeed among the very best. For the concert on January 1st between €35 and €1,200, for the New Year's Eve concert on December 31st between €25 and €860. Nevertheless, this does not dampen demand.

When it comes to marketing, the Vienna Philharmonic is a world champion with its New Year's Concert: ORF "makes the beautiful pictures", says Froschauer, the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, takes care of the distribution, the orchestra's record label produces CDs, DVDs and LPs - but the strings for "by far the largest television concert in the world" all come together at the orchestra. Incidentally, the orchestra also takes second and third place in the TV concert rankings with the Schönbrunn Summer Night Concert and its EBU concert.

But the first concert in January remains the superlative: "All the conductors say it's the hardest concert of their lives. They are shaking and sweating blood. With the waltzes, there are no eight bars at the same tempo. Every transition has to be delicate. If you do too much, it's cheesy, if you do nothing, it's bland," explains Bladerer.

The Golden Hall will also be magnificently decorated with flowers for the New Year's Eve concert on December 31.

(Bild: (c) Dieter Nagl für die Wiener Philharmoniker)

The fee is divided fairly among the members 
The conductors spend a year preparing for the event. For example, Froschauer, who is responsible for the program, visited Riccardo Muti at home in Ravenna last January to discuss the selection of pieces for 2020. These included Constanze Geiger's "Ferdinandus Waltz", the first piece by a woman at a New Year's concert.

As the Philharmoniker see themselves as a democratic association, the fee for the New Year's Concert, the amount of which is of course kept confidential, is also divided up according to a fair system. Not every member has a place on the podium every year. Some groups of musicians even take turns in the wheel to send New Year's greetings from Vienna to the world.

Israel and Ukraine recently had the highest ratings. Daniel Froschauer was touched by this, "because you can see how the people there long for an hour of beauty, hope, peace and love in this music."