Press conference with board member Froschauer, Maestro Thielemann and ORF general director Weißmann
Vienna (OTS) – The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s rehearsals for their world-famous New Year’s Concert in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein have already begun. Under the direction of German star conductor Christian Thielemann, who is once again setting the pace after 2019, the top orchestra has been preparing for its big performance on January 1, 2024 since yesterday (December 27th). The 84th New Year’s Concert will again be broadcast live by ORF from 11:15 a.m. on ORF 2, Ö1 and as a live stream via TVthek.ORF.at and oe1.ORF.at as well as (mostly live) in more than 90 countries worldwide. As part of the traditional annual press conference for the sonorous cultural start of the year, Philharmonic board member Daniel Froschauer, Maestro Christian Thielemann and ORF general director Roland Weißmann presented details of the concert and the ORF TV production today, Thursday, December 28, 2023. In addition to the live broadcast in the best HD quality, this also includes the so-called “intermission film” – this time a homage to 200 years of Anton Bruckner – as well as the New Year’s Concert Ballet, which was also pre-produced and which, among other things, refers to the European Capital of Culture project “Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024”. . For the eighth time, classical music veteran Michael Beyer is responsible for the TV direction of the 66th ORF concert broadcast with a total of 14 HD cameras, as well as – for the eleventh time – for the New Year’s Concert Ballet production. After her debut last year, ORF culture presenter Teresa Vogl will once again take over the German-language live commentary.
Froschauer: “Varied program with nine premieres”
“We are looking forward to playing the New Year’s concert with Christian Thielemann. We have had a close artistic partnership with him since 2000. For the New Year’s Concert, we have put together a varied program with nine premieres,” announces the board of the Vienna Philharmonic, Daniel Froschauer. And: “For the first time, a work by the 2024 Regent Anton Bruckner will be performed. Climate protection and environmental protection are also very important to the Vienna Philharmonic. That’s why we have dedicated a work by Eduard Strauß, ‘Die Hochquelle’ – a polka mazur that was composed on the occasion of the opening of the Viennese high spring pipeline – to environmental protection and this year’s New Year’s concert donation of 100,000 euros to an environmental protection project of the umbrella organization of the Austrian Alpine Associations (VAVÖ ) given. “Thanks to our long-standing media partner ORF, the musical message of the New Year’s concert will be presented in the best possible way all over the world,” says Froschauer.
Thielemann: “Mutual trust has become even greater”
The Vienna Philharmonic has had a successful partnership with Maestro Christian Thielemann that has lasted almost 25 years, most recently culminating in the joint recording of the complete cycle of all eleven Bruckner symphonies, which was only released in October 2023. The native German finds his renewed engagement as conductor of the New Year’s Concert to be a “wonderful task because it is wonderful when you know an orchestra better or vice versa: when the orchestra knows a conductor better. In the last few years in particular, we have intensified our collaboration so much that the mutual trust that was already there has become even greater.”
Weißmann: New Year’s concert part of the “versatile and indispensable range of services offered by public broadcasting”
“With the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert and its musical message of peace, a new year really begins for millions of people around the world. “It makes me very proud that over the past decades the ORF has succeeded in placing a cultural production in the most prominent international position with this outstanding classical concert, thereby uniquely illustrating the importance of Austrian music as one of the country’s most important cultural assets,” emphasizes ORF General Director Mag. Roland Weißmann. “The ORF is thus fulfilling its role as the most important media cultural mediator and once again underlines the importance of public broadcasting and its diverse and indispensable range of services. I am pleased that we as ORF FOR ALL can once again deliver impressive images and sounds of this glamorous event free of charge to the door and front row on January 1, 2024,” said Weißmann.
ORF accompanying program and concert dacapos
To get you in the mood for the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, ORF 2 will present the traditional making-of “Prelude to the New Year’s Concert” by director Thomas Bogensberger on Monday, January 1, 2024, at 10:35 a.m. with a look behind the scenes of the New Year’s Concert and Ballet. The most important protagonists have their say, including conductor Christian Thielemann.
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.
During the concert break, at around 11.50 a.m., ORF 2 will show Felix Breisach’s film “Anton Bruckner – A Journey of Discovery”, in which two St. Florian Boys’ Choir trace the most important stages in the life of the musical ruler of the year.
Radio Ö1 uses the concert break for a conversation with TV director Michael Beyer in the Ö1 talk “Intermezzo”.
If you miss the live broadcast of the New Year’s concert in the morning, you have three other TV opportunities to experience the event on ORF:
ORF III Culture and Information offers the tried and tested Dacapo in the main evening program on January 1st (8:15 p.m.). ORF 2 is showing the brilliant cultural event again in the “matinee” on Epiphany, on Saturday, January 6th (10:05 a.m.) – introduced by the “pause film” (9:05 a.m.) and the making-of, this time under the title “Behind the scenes of the New Year’s Concert” (9.30 a.m.). 3sat will also broadcast the classical music event on January 6th (8:15 p.m.), and the concert film at intermission on Sunday, January 7th at 10:05 a.m.
Further details about the concert, the intermission film “Anton Bruckner – A Journey of Discovery”, the New Year’s Concert Ballet, which was choreographed for the fourth time by Davide Bombana and decorated for the first time by fashion designer Susanne Bisovsky, as well as the accompanying ORF program can be found at presse.ORF.at or oe1.ORF.at available. The ORF.at network and ORF TELETEXT also provide detailed information.