New Years Concert/Barenboim/VPO

[Iago]

The quality of these concerts has now hit an all time low.

I thought it was pretty bad last year with Pretre conducting. But this one outdid even that one for interest. Only Ozawa, Pretre and Harnoncourt have equaled tonights concert in the area of ineptitude.

Of course the VPO usually plays marvelously, but tonight they were sleepwalking because a real dullard was on the podium.
The choice of works was nondescript and totally uninspired.Even the audience in the Musikverrrein seemed uninvolved.
Julie Andrews (the hostess) talked even more than Walter Cronkite has in the past, thus making an ostensibly 90 minute program no longer than 60-75 minutes. And the ballet dancers were so inept they were actually funny.

Director Brian Large (who is usually top notch at this sort of thing) displayed a love affair with the mountains in Austria and the flowers bedecking the orchestral platform. When I watch this program., I want to see a great orchestra, under a great conductor, playing enjoyable, pleasant music, designed to bring a smile to ones face. And I don't want a travelogue. I didn't think the VPO could give a poor rendition  of the Blue Danube. But they did tonight, with the "luftpausen" seeming to be "luftstoppage". Barenboim should stick to Wagner and Bruckner and leave The Strauss family to others.

And next year, George Pretre is returning to bore us once again.

Where is James Levine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Most or even Simon Rattle?  If the VPO really "had a set", they would engage Gustavo Dudamel to lead one of these things. But instead they probably will sooner or later engage Boulez to perform Carter, Xenakis, Lutoslawski and some of his own awful music. Lets see what kind of a worldwide audience that would draw? I don't even think the Musikverrein would be full for that one.

[Homo Aestheticus]

Where is James Levine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Most or even Simon Rattle?

Yes, or Claudio Abbado... I remember his excellent concerts from 1988 and 1991.

[Brian]

I thought the program itself - with operatic tie-ins and a bit of Haydn - was quite promising and fairly well-constructed. And the flowers and mountains were beautiful, honestly. But definitely concur with you on the rest - the orchestra seemed to sleepwalk through some of the performances and there was a brief stretch, capped by the "Alexandrine Polka," of incredibly boring music. Barenboim's conducting style was a little bizarre, particularly in Thunder and Lightning, when he stood stock-still, not even keeping time, except to jerk his body around whenever the bass drum came in. And his acting during the Haydn disguised the fact that the performance itself was pretty boring.

Julie Andrews seemed to forget her lines occasionally and the ballet performances were marred by absolutely awful costume design. The sight of dancers dressed head to toe in bright blue standing in front of a green garden was painful, and if anything the children running into the concert hall and standing in front of annoyed concertgoers was even worse!

[PSmith08]

I didn't catch it, but I was a little surprised when I saw that Barenboim would be on the podium. I didn't associate him with the music of the Strauss family, especially since he has made his mark with Wagner, Bruckner, and some Mahler. Apparently, there's a reason why I didn't associate him with such music.

[Hollywood]

Here in Vienna my husband and I watched it live, as we do every year nowadays. It has become a part of our New Year's tradition.

Since the VPO has never had principal conductors. Each year they chose a subscription conductor to conduct all concerts of the respective season at our Musikverein. So it is almost like "the luck of the draw" as to which conductor will be performing at our New Year's Day Concert. Since not all conductors share the same concept in which a piece of music should be performed, the orchestra in many cases has no choice but to follow their leader (unfortunately this time it was Barenboim). 

It's ashame that my favorite conductor Herbert von Karajan is no longer with us. He knew how to get some of the best performances out of the VPO.