New Year’s Concert 2026: Yannick Nézet-Séguin enjoys and makes individuals benefit from the music of the Strauss | Culture | EUROtoday

The origin of the Vienna Philharmonic’s invitation to Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Montreal, 50 years previous) to conduct its prestigious New Year’s Concert has a relationship as surprising as it’s revealing with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The Canadian director’s first conferences with the orchestra, beginning in 2010, didn’t persuade an ensemble that was as demanding because it was tough to seduce. For years, the connection progressed with out enthusiasm.

Everything modified, nevertheless, on February 25, 2022. That day, Nézet-Séguin changed within the extremes to Valeri Gergiev at Carnegie Hall in New York, after the orchestra broke relations with the Russian conductor for refusing to publicly condemn the invasion of Ukraine. It had been 5 years because the Canadian had led the Vienna Philharmonic, however he agreed to take cost of the three live shows of the American tour with out modifying a single work on this system, and in addition whereas rehearsing Don Carlos by Verdi on the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

The effort was as intense because it was decisive. “Those concerts changed our relationship with him,” acknowledged Daniel Froschauer, president of the orchestra, through the press presentation of the New Year’s Concert, on December 29 on the Imperial Hotel in Vienna. Nézet-Séguin fell in poor health shortly after that musical feat and needed to resign from conducting Verdi’s opera on the Met, however his bond with the orchestra has continued to strengthen since then.

It was very clear on the morning of January 1, with probably the greatest begins to the New Year’s Concert lately. Far from opening with a march, Nézet-Séguin opted for the overture to Johann Strauss Jr.’s first operetta, Indigo and the forty thievesa dangerous alternative during which among the distinctive options of its studying have been already perceived: the care within the articulation and the subtlety within the connection of the totally different sections of this advanced medley.

The concord with the orchestra was additional strengthened within the first novelty of this version, the attention-grabbing waltz Legends of the Danubeby Carl Michael Ziehrer, with an beautiful introduction conceived as a musical journey by the territories bathed by the good river, the place Hungarian sounds comply with each other, a quick Ländler Austrian and a wheel Bosnian, offered with notable refinement.

The first spark of shared enjoyment between Nézet-Séguin—who performed your complete program from reminiscence—and the orchestra turned seen within the subsequent new characteristic of this system, Malapou-Galoppby Joseph Lanner, with its preliminary shouting and the inclusion of in style Indian devices, such because the reed flute, enhanced by Michael Beyer’s sensible tv manufacturing. The third novelty, the quick polka, was much less impressed. bubbly impby Eduard Strauss, which handed with out leaving a comparable mark.

The first half, nevertheless, handed like a sigh, marked by freshness and appeal, and culminated with two particularly sensible performances: the well-known quadrille with motifs from the operetta The batby Johann Strauss Jr.—current yearly on the conventional Vienna Philharmonic Ball—and the gallop Carnival in Parisby Johann Strauss Sr., closing the block with contagious power.

After the intermission movie—during which a number of work from the Albertina got here to life to have a good time its 250th anniversary, with modern music that linked Monet with Ravel and Kandinsky with Poulenc, carried out by members of the Vienna Philharmonic—, the second half opened with one other overture: The lovely Galateaby Franz von Suppè. The Canadian turned it into a possibility to showcase the orchestra’s glorious wind soloists, together with trumpet participant Josef Reif and flutist Karl-Heinz Schuetz.

Next got here the polka mazurka Siren songsby Josefine Weinlich, the second composition signed by a girl included in a New Year’s Concert. Much extra attention-grabbing and putting was the later novelty, the rainbow waltz by the African-American Florence Price, heard in an association by Wolfgang Dörner, with a swing American as uncommon as it’s efficient on this context.

Shortly earlier than, the primary pre-recorded ballet scene had been seen, with the Diplomat’s Polka by Johann Strauss Jr., filmed on the Hofburg. It was a breath of freshness because of the basic narrativity of the American choreographer John Neumeier and the mental class of the Swiss designer Albert Kriemler. Yannick Nézet-Séguin naturally recovered the enjoyable in items just like the Copenhagen Steam Railway Gallopby Hans Christian Lumbye, though with out reaching the musical excellence that Mariss Jansons imposed in 2012. Something comparable occurred with the very well-known waltz Southern Rosesby Strauss Jr., used within the second ballet scene, this time filmed on the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna: the Canadian directed it, eliminating quite a few repetitions and with out the highly effective world imaginative and prescient that Riccardo Muti set in 2018.

It is obvious that the Canadian maestro must delve a lot deeper into some elementary scores, as evidenced by his studying of the Egyptian marchby Strauss Jr., which sounded extra convincing in 2014 with Daniel Barenboim. All in all, the very best of the New Year’s Concert was as soon as once more, as soon as once more, the music of Josef Strauss. A well-phrased and nuanced model of the waltz had already been heard earlier than. Dignity of ladieshowever the true musical peak of the matinee was palms of peacethe place the director exhibited beautiful mastery of the transitions between his 5 waltz sections, regardless of additionally eliminating some repetition.

Among the ideas, the marked Straussian aroma of quick polka was stunning Circusby Philipp Fahrbach Jr., which additionally debuted within the New Year’s Concert. earlier than the waltz Next to the gorgeous blue DanubeNézet-Séguin took benefit of the standard greeting to ship, in French and English, a message in favor of peace and kindness, additionally inviting us to simply accept and have a good time our variations by the music that unites us.

The well-known waltz by Strauss Jr. was as soon as once more a perfect instance of the Canadian’s freshness. The ultimate strake with the Marcha Radetzkathe place he displayed his pure appeal, main the applause from the stalls for the primary time. In the concluding part she returned to the stage and closed from the rostrum, however not earlier than stopping to provide a kiss to her husband, the violist Pierre Tourville, who was exceptionally included into the Viennese orchestra.

The Vienna Philharmonic appears keen to broaden the record of conductors invited to the New Year’s Concert, and in 2027 the Russian conductor Tugan Sókhiev, linked to the orchestra since 2009, will make his debut at this occasion. There is much less time left for a feminine conductor to take the rostrum on this vital musical liturgy.