Experienced veteran Michael Beyer stages the 66th ORF TV broadcast from the Vienna Musikverein as well as the New Year’s Concert Ballet
Vienna (OTS) – Preparations for the 84th New Year’s Concert, with which the Vienna Philharmonic and ORF will once again send a musical message of greeting to the whole world on January 1, 2024, are in full swing. The orchestra as well as the broadcaster, which will broadcast the brilliant cultural event live from the Vienna Music Association around the globe for the 66th time in its TV history. Around 100 countries are now taking over the ORF images of the major event, which always welcomes the new year with a cheerful, contemplative program of works by the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries – this year with a total of nine compositions that have not yet been performed in this context are. From 11.15 a.m. ORF 2 and Ö1 will be there live when Maestro Christian Thielemann takes the conductor’s podium for the second time in the Golden Hall with its unique acoustics. New Year’s concert veteran Michael Beyer will be conducting the ORF production’s 15 HD cameras for the eighth time. After its successful premiere last year, ORF cultural presenter Teresa Vogl will also comment on the concert live for the German-speaking television audience on January 1, 2024.
To get you in the mood, ORF 2 is presenting a making-of documentary with a look behind the scenes of the concert and TV production, as well as this year’s ORF New Year’s Concert Ballet, which consists of two waltzes, which director Michael Beyer also staged, as well as the already traditional one ORF music film during the concert break, which pays tribute to the annual musical ruler Anton Bruckner.
Attuned TV “matinee” and concert dacapos
As part of the New Year’s “matinee” on January 1st on ORF 2, the traditional making-of documentary “Prelude to the New Year’s Concert” (10:35 a.m.) gets the TV audience in the mood for the live broadcast of the most famous of all philharmonic concerts. For more than half a year, director Thomas Bogensberger and his camera team accompany the most important preparations and steps until the worldwide broadcast on January 1st. When we look behind the scenes, the most important protagonists, including conductor Christian Thielemann, have their say.
Before that, at 9:05 a.m. on ORF 2, the documentary “Dream Castles and Knights’ Castles – The Eastern Waldviertel” will be a guest at the Rosenburg in Lower Austria, which served as one of the locations for the ORF New Year’s Concert ballet production.
The ORF film during the concert break, designed by Felix Breisach, opens the anniversary year of the Upper Austrian composer’s 200th birthday under the title “Anton Bruckner – A Journey of Discovery” (approx. 11.50 a.m.), who will also be honored with a piece in the program of the New Year’s concert.
Anyone who misses the live broadcast of the New Year’s concert in the morning has three additional TV opportunities to experience the event: On January 1st, ORF III Culture and Information offers the tried and tested Dacapo in the main evening program (8:15 p.m.), introduced by the “Prelude to the New Year’s Concert (7:40 p.m.). ORF 2 will show the top-class cultural event again in the “matinee” on Epiphany, on Saturday, January 6th (10:05 a.m.), and to get you in the mood beforehand, the so-called “intermission film” (9:05 a.m.) and the making-of documentary, this time below entitled “Behind the scenes of the New Year’s Concert” (9:30 a.m.). 3sat will also present the classical music event on Saturday, January 6th (8:15 p.m.), and the concert film during the break on Sunday, January 7th, at 10:05 a.m.
Two ballet interludes with choreography by Davide Bombana, costume premiere by Susanne Bisovsky
The glamorous annual highlight of the ORF live broadcast of the New Year’s Concert is the traditional New Year’s Concert Ballet, produced in advance by ORF, for the eleventh time under the direction of Michael Beyer. There are already two top-class dance performances from the Vienna State Ballet, for which the Italian choreographer Davide Bombana has been hired for the fourth time. The Austrian designer Susanne Bisovsky makes her debut at the New Year’s Concert Ballet with costumes in haute couture quality and special “Viennese chic”, which she developed together with her partner Joseph Bonwit Gerger. They danced to two special waltz compositions, one of which is celebrating its New Year’s concert premiere. The filming locations were also chosen for the first time as locations for the New Year’s Concert Ballet.
With the “Ischler Waltz” from the estate of Johann Strauss Sohn and the ballet performance performed for the first time at a New Year’s concert, the Vienna Philharmonic and the ORF are making reference to the European Capital of Culture project “Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024”. The ballet filming took place in the Kaiservilla and in the adjacent Marmorschlössl in Bad Ischl. In the Rosenburg in the Waldviertel, five couples dance to the waltz “Wiener Bürger” by Carl Michael Ziehrer in the second ballet. In the precious and magnificent costumes by Susanne Bisovsky, whose dresses decoratively take up the rose motif of the romantic castle roses visible everywhere, the ten soloists discover the magic of the castle between the marble hall, library, arbor and castle courtyard as well as its gardens between the water lily pond and the falcon courtyard where the ancient tradition of falconry is still practiced today.
“Anton Bruckner – A Journey of Discovery”: ORF film during the concert break on the composer’s 200th birthday
For the first time, a composition by Anton Bruckner (arranged by Wolfgang Dörner) will be heard at the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert with the Quadrille WAB 121 on the occasion of his 200th birthday. The 24-minute ORF film during the concert break, designed by Felix Breisach, is also dedicated to the musical ruler of the year 2024, which, with the participation of two choir boys from St. Florian Abbey, looks for traces of the most important stages in Bruckner’s life. The two boys go on a long journey of discovery and explore the most beautiful Upper Austrian landscapes in a balloon, explore Anton Bruckner’s birthplace Ansfelden, hike through Bad Ischl, the Ars Electronica in Linz and Bruckner’s Viennese place of work, the Musikverein. And they admire and support several philharmonic ensembles that interpret various adaptations of Bruckner’s works in iconic locations. Back in St. Florian, where Anton Bruckner himself was a choir boy, later an organist and teacher and finally found his final resting place, the two choir boys start their secret hymn, the famous choir Locus iste, where Bruckner is buried under the large organ.
The New Year’s Concert 2024 on Ö1: Live broadcast and “Intermezzo” during the break
On January 1, 2024, Ö1 will also broadcast the “New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic” as the traditional opening of the year at 11:15 a.m. live from the Vienna Musikverein. During the concert break, the cultural talk “Intermezzo” is on the program at around 11.50 a.m.
The world-famous classical music event online and in teletext
The ORF.at network provides detailed information in advance about the concert program, orchestra and conductor – including on news.ORF.at, topos.ORF.at and oe1.ORF.at. news.ORF.at, TVthek.ORF.at and ORF Topos will broadcast the famous classical music event on January 1st in the usual manner via the web or app in a live video stream across Austria. The ORF film will also be available live and on demand online throughout Austria during the concert break. The ORF will subsequently make the New Year’s concert available online on TVthek and on ORF ON (on.ORF.at) as video-on-demand. The audio stream of the world-famous music event is offered by the sound.ORF.at and oe1.ORF.at platforms (live and on demand), and the concert can also be viewed live via the Ö1 app on HBBTV-capable televisions (newer generation) with an internet connection 5.1 Dolby Digital can be heard. ORF TELETEXT also puts the top-class cultural event around the turn of the year at the center of its current cultural reporting.