2012 New Year's Day Concert

Radio Three live in Vienna this New Year's Day.

A very happy New Year to you. Good morning from Vienna as we welcome

viewers to BBC Two. Here in the Australian capital at midnight last

night, fireworks crackled, toasts were made in mulled wine and sekt

and every radio and television blasted out the Blue Danube waltz

and 2012 arrived. The party has moved from the streets into the

ornate Golden Hall of the Musikverein where the Philharmonic

are on stage for the annual feast of waltzs and galopps. Music by

Tchaikovsky and the famous Vienna Boys' Choir added into the mix,

conducted by mar is Jansons. As if this 140-year-old concert hall were

not rich enough, the room is filled with 130,000 flowers, a gift of the

Italian garden city of San Remo. Music by all three Strauss brothers

ahead and their father, but we'll start with a piece by Joseph

Hellmesberger, he succeeded Mahler, not totally successfully, lighter

music is where his strength really lay. Mar is Jansons returns to the

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rostrum and we hear the Danse Mariss Janson's putting the fizz

into the New Year, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in the Ousmane

Dabo, bioHan Hellmesberger, long time conductor of the Orchestra and

the distinguished operatic composer. The excitement here always cranked

up a little for the second part of the New Years day concert. A

popular favourite next that's made many appearances over the years, a

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The French Polka artist greeting. Now 2012 marks the by season teenry

of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the Viennese Society

of Music Friends, the organisation that built this incredible concert

hall. Throughout its life, it's been used for grand balls, as well

as concerts, and for the very first ball in 1870, you Han Strauss wrote

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Enjoy Life, the message of that waltz by Johann Strauss, written

for the celebrations 140 years ago. Accompanied by the ballet dancers

performing live amongst the artistic treasures of the Belvedere

Pass. Now for something by Johann Senior. Sperl Galopp. Music from

particular operas soon found its way into the dance hall in the 19th

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Mixture of Rossini and Johann Strauss Senior in the Sperl Galopp.

We are going to leave Vienna for a little. Work now by Hans Christian

Lumbye. This is to celebrate the work of the first railway in

Denmark, the sound of the journey from Copenhagen to killed killed

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The Steam Railway Galopp by Hans Christian Lumbye, included in this

year's programme as today marks the start of Denmark's presidency of

the European Union. Mariss Jansons himself, one of the whistle-blowers,

not a railway in Copenhagen, but pictures of the cog railway, the

oldest steam locomotive, offering stunning views of the Tir Kneen

alps. Tyrolean alps. Johann Strauss's Fireproof Polka

commissioned by a leading Viennese industrialist to celebrate a

company making its 20,000th fire proof safe. Mariss Jansons will

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play once again, the Anville this APPLAUSE. Mariss Janson's joining

the percussion section of the Philharmonic playing the Anville

with two hammers in a polka celebrating a Viennese product sold

around the world. The guaranteed fire proof safe bioreceive Strauss.

The Vienna Boys' Choir divided into four different performing choirs.

Earlier, another choir sang mass, continuing a tradition unbroken

since 1498. It became known as the Vienna Boys' Choir with the ending

of the monarchy in 1918 when they gave up their old imperial uniform

which used to include a sword, we placed with the blue and white

sailor suits they wear today. It's 1924 that they made their first

foreign appearances, soon regarded as Austria's ambassadors. You can

see highlights of the whole of today's concert on BBC Four tonight

at 7 o'clock. Mariss Janson's father conducted the Leningrad

Philharmonic and would lead the Orchestra in its New Years

programme which sewed the seeds for the younger Janson's interest in

the Strauss family. They have their own Russian connection. Johann and

Joseph spent time at St Petersburg. We'll hear more from Pavlovsk as

the morning progresses. We are going to hear a work by the third

sibling, Eduard Strauss, overshadow by his brothers, best remembered as

a dance leader than a composer. This is works from Bizet, the

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Eduard Strauss's Carmen Quadrille. From music inspired by opera, we

move to the ballet. We leave Vienna and head to imperial St Petersburg,

there 112 years ago, Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty got its premier at

the Maryinsky Theatre. It will be the waltz first, then the Panorama

when the prince approaches the palace by moonlight and wakes the

sleeping palace. Johann and Josef Strauss had a long residence there.

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They wanted to change the mood of The waltz and before it the

Panorama from Tchaikovsky's ballet Sleeping Beauty. Performed in St

Petersburg, the city well known to Johann and Josef Strauss. A short

train ride from the city at paf loss stands the grand summer

resident built by Tsar pull I. The great concert hall there drew

artists from across Europe, including the Strausss who returned

season after season. This is a piece they wrote together while

working at Pavlovsk for the Orchestra there. The Pizzicato

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APPLAUSE. Played no less than nine times when it was premiered. The

Pizzicato Polka. The New Year's day concert often involves works that

Johann Strauss wrote for heads of state. A piece he wrote for the

Shah of Persia, composed after being awarded the Persian order of

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The Persian March by Johann Strauss. He's very proud of that,

particularly the snatch of the then Persian national anthem he managed

to include in one section. A change of mood next. A polka that Josef

Strauss wrote while in Russia, far from home, lonely and desperately

missing his beloved wife Carolina. Brennende Liebe, or as it loosely

translates, Burning Love, Mariss Janson conducting the Vienna

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Philharmonic Orchestra at this 2012 Mariss Janson's been conducting

this. The dancers at the Belvedere palace. Inspired by the love he had

for his wife. Brennende Liebe. Wagner's Mastersingers of Nuremberg,

six hours of wonderful music starts at 2.45 on Radio Three. It's also

online and on digital radio. Here in Vienna, one of Josef

Strauss's finest waltzs next, work that seems to reflect his

complicated personality, someone who was both melancholy but also

able to conjure up the fluff and glitter required by Vienna's dances.

The Delirium Waltz now with a sense of menace. Mariss Janson's back on

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the platform to conduct the Vienna Delirium Waltz bioreceive Strauss,.

A horse-drawn street sweeping machine was amongst his creations.

That brings us nearly to the end of this 2012 New Year's Day Concert

officially anyway. Not that anyone's in any doubt as to two of

the encores still to come. The Philharmonic's base drum player,

perhaps the loudest of Strauss's pieces, Thunder and Lightning or

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Donner und Blizt, polka Schnell's Thunder and Lightning. Music by

Johann Strauss I ch. There was a Johann Strauss III, son of Eduard,

a composer and a violinist as well. He made the first recordings of

Strauss' waltzs in 1903. He died in Berlin in January 1939, the start

of the year that saw the very first Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Day

concert. As Mariss Janson is presented with flowers, he

presented them to the leader of the Philharmonic. There are encores

aplenty. As many as 50 million people watching with us today

around the world, the concert televised across Europe, America,

Japan, China, Australia, 73 countries in total broadcasting it

this year from Vienna. Mozambique, Nigeria and Mongolia amongst them

also. 2,000 people lucky enough to get their hands on the much-prized

tickets to be actually in the Golden Hall, including Julie

Andrews, one of the distinguished ges. A man told me yesterday he was

offered a pair of tickets for today's concert but politely

decline when he was told they would be 3,000 euros each. Mariss Janson

is back on the platform. There are certain rituals associated with the

encores of the New Year's day concert. The first one is perhaps a

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little bit of a surprise. The clock Mariss Janson being handed a giant

alarm clock which he rang the bell on at the end of the Tik-Tak Polka.

Working with tunes from Danse Die Fledermaus. He must be

remembering the orchestras that his father conducted years ago with the

Leningrad Philharmonic. All the flowers, 30,000 plus, from Sam Remo.

Not that the place needs much help, it's a little overcast in Vienna

today so no sun shining, but gold reflected everywhere by the

television lights. The ceiling line has paintings of Apollo. Vast

chandeliers here too. He's back on the platform. This place was once

described as a place that throws off everything that reminds you of

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Blue Danube waltz. The second Viennese national anthem, performed

with the traditional false start, the state ballet performing live at

the Belvedere palace this morning. Mariss Janson conducting with the

traditional false start. They bade us all happy New Year. Blue Danube

came out of a bleak time for the imperial empire, composed in the

wake of an USA roon defeat in Prussian forces. -- wake of a

Austrian defeat in Prussian forces. If that's one fixed part of 2 New

Year's Day Concert, the next part is one where the audience are asked

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The Radetzky March with full audience participation, conducted

this year by Mariss Jansons. That is it for audience and Orchestra,

perhaps a light lunch ahead in one of the city's great cafes, maybe a