Since yesterday afternoon (December 27th) there have been vigorous rehearsals in the Vienna Music Association for the 85th New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic. For the seventh time – after 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2018 and 2021 – the Italian star conductor Riccardo Muti will take over the direction of what is probably the most internationally famous classical music event, which the ORF will host on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, for the 67th time in its history will be broadcast from the Golden Hall to the whole world. From 11:15 a.m., the Austrian audience can watch live via ORF 2, ORF ON and Ö1, as can millions of people in another 92 countries who will watch the impressive ORF HD images from a total of 14 cameras under the proven TV direction of Michael Beyer become. The ORF radio broadcast will be heard in around 30 countries worldwide.
As part of the traditional annual press conference for the sonorous cultural start of the year, which this time also opens the anniversary year of Johann Strauss’s son’s 200th birthday, Philharmonic board member Daniel Froschauer, Maestro Muti and ORF general director Roland Weißmann presented today, Saturday, 28th. December 2024, details about the concert and the ORF TV production. In addition to the live broadcast, the latter also includes the ORF film during the concert break with the title “2025 – A Strauss Odyssey” as well as the New Year’s Concert Ballet, also pre-produced under the direction of Michael Beyer – both tributes to the musical ruler of the year. Teresa Vogl will again provide the German-language live commentary during the concert broadcast. A making-of documentary with a look behind the scenes of the concert and TV production will get you in the mood for the classical music experience on January 1st at 10:35 a.m. on ORF 2 (and on ORF ON).
Froschauer: “Wonderful partnership and collaboration is based on shared experiences, the greatest trust and the claim to offer first-class quality.”
“Riccardo Muti holds an extraordinary place in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic. He has been an honorary member since 2011 and has uniquely shaped the repertoire and the specific sound of the orchestra over decades. With Riccardo Muti we are ringing in the Johann Strauss anniversary year,” announces Vienna Philharmonic board member Daniel Froschauer. And: “We are particularly pleased to be performing a work by Johann Strauss’ contemporary Constanze Geiger for the first time: the Ferdinandus Waltz. In 2025, the 30th anniversary of Austria’s EU membership will also be celebrated. We dedicate Josef Strauss’s Transactions Waltz to this occasion. We would especially like to thank ORF. The wonderful partnership and collaboration is based on shared experiences, the greatest trust and the claim to offer first-class quality. We are pleased that the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert with its musical message can be captured and made accessible to a broad public through television and radio broadcasts,” emphasizes Froschauer.
Muti: “Music is the best medicine for the soul.”
“The message of the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert 2025 means not just playing the Danube Waltz beautifully once again, but the hope that the waves of this blue Danube carry ships full of beauty and love. We can bring a message of peace to the world from Vienna,” says Riccardo Muti, who is looking forward to the audience in the Musikverein again after his previous New Year’s concert in 2021, which took place without an audience for the first time in its history due to the pandemic. Because: “Especially in times like these, music is the best medicine for the soul. Our world needs more harmony, beauty and peace. Unfortunately, we musicians are only a small part of the people in this world and can only make a small contribution to more peace, beauty and harmony, but a very important one. We need music more than ever!” said the maestro.
Weißmann: “We bring Austrian cultural heritage, which is part of our identity, to its best advantage with the highest technical quality.”
“Culture for everyone in an ORF for everyone will continue to be one of the main concerns of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation in the coming year. Therefore, 2025 begins with the live broadcast of the brilliant New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, which the ORF, as the most important media mediator and multiplier of art and culture, makes available to both the TV audience in Austria and millions of people around the world. In this way, we are once again showcasing Austrian cultural assets, which are part of our identity, in the best possible way with the highest technical quality and also helping to strengthen the country’s international reputation,” emphasizes ORF General Director Mag. Roland Weißmann. “In addition, the ORF gives this top-class cultural event its own creative touch every year with the self-produced ballet and the film during the concert break – this time in honor of the musical ruler of the year, Johann Strauss Sohn, whose 200th birthday will be celebrated in a big way in 2025. I would like to thank everyone involved and partners who contribute to the success of these productions and wish them much success,” said the ORF boss.
ORF accompanying program on TV and radio as well as concert dacapos
To get you in the mood for the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, the New Year’s “matinee” on January 1st on ORF 2 (and on ORF ON) will show the traditional making-of documentary “Prelude to the New Year’s Concert” (10.35 a.m.). For more than half a year, designer Barbara Pichler-Hausegger and her camera team accompanied the most important preparations and steps until it was broadcast worldwide. From the ballet filming in the summer to the rehearsals with Maestro Riccardo Muti, the film offers exciting insights into otherwise hidden circumstances surrounding one of the largest television and concert productions.
The musical ORF film for the concert break, designed by Barbara Weissenbeck, looks at the musical ruler of the year from an unearthly perspective under the title “2025 – A Strauss Odyssey” (approx. 11:50 a.m.). Six selected ensembles from the Vienna Philharmonic take part here, as does the jubilee’s great-great-grandnephew, Thomas Strauss, who, as the only crew member of a spaceship and thus its captain, is encouraged to explore the music of his famous ancestor on a lonely journey through space and time.
The ballet interludes by the Vienna State Ballet shown for two selected concert pieces also pay tribute to the musical ruler of the year, Johann Strauss Sohn, on his 200th birthday. The ballet production produced by ORF was filmed in the Technical Museum (around the impressive locomotive 12.10) as the setting for the polka “Either-Or” and in the rooms of the Südbahn Hotel, which has become famous primarily for the Semmering Railway, for the “Acceleration Waltz”. The British Cathy Marston, who has also been director of the Zurich Ballet since last year, is making her debut as the choreographer of the 2025 New Year’s Concert Ballet. Also celebrating his premiere at the New Year’s Concert Ballet is the Anglo-Irish set and costume designer, director and universal artist Patrick Kinmonth.
Before the Ö1 broadcast of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert (live at 11.15 a.m.) commented by Eva Teimel, Irene Suchy speaks in the “prelude” to the New Year’s Concert (11.03 a.m.) with Constanze Geiger biographer Raimund Lissy and Philharmonic board member Daniel Froschauer about the Selection of compositions, anniversaries and dramaturgies. During the concert break, the cultural talk “Intermezzo” moderated by Sebastian Fleischer (approx. 11.50 a.m.) – with Ursula Wex, cellist with the Vienna Philharmonic, and Ursula Erhart-Schwertmann, cellist, arranger and composer – is on the program.
Anyone who misses the live TV broadcast of the New Year’s concert in the morning can experience the event three more times on television: On January 1st, ORF III Culture and Information offers the tried and tested Dacapo as a “late riser service” in the main evening program (8:15 p.m.) , introduced by the “Prelude to the New Year’s Concert” (7:40 p.m.). 3sat presents the classical music event on Saturday, January 4th (8:15 p.m.). ORF 2 is showing the top-class cultural event again in the “matinee” on Epiphany, Monday, January 6th (10:00 a.m.), and to get you in the mood beforehand, the so-called “break film” (9:05 a.m.) and the making-of documentary, this time under the title “Behind the scenes of the New Year’s Concert” (9:30 a.m.).
The world-famous classical music event online and in teletext
Around the turn of the year, numerous channels in the ORF.at network provide information about concert programs, orchestras and conductors as part of current cultural reporting. On January 1st, there are several ways to enjoy the concert online: The video live stream is available throughout Austria via the web or app on news.ORF.at as well as ORF ON and ORF Topos, and the audio live stream is provided by ORF Sound and oe1.ORF.at. And the concert is available in 5.1 Dolby Digital on the Ö1 app from the ORF-HbbTV offering (if you have a newer generation device with an internet connection). The ORF film during the concert break is also available in a live video stream throughout Austria. The concert and film will also be available on demand later, on ORF ON as part of its own video collection including other intermission films from previous years. ORF TELETEXT also puts the top-class cultural event around the turn of the year at the center of its current cultural reporting
Further details about the concert, the ORF film “2025 – A Strauss Odyssey”, the New Year’s Concert Ballet and the accompanying ORF program are available at presse.ORF.at and oe1.ORF.at.