Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2026

[bluestateprommer]

Time for the annual Vienna Philharmonic New Years Day thread, 2026 edition. First, the link to the program(me) from the VPO’s website, minus the unannounced and two standard closers. Next is the concert program, but with the first “unknown encore” included (not from the VPO, of course):

https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/en/konzerte/new-years-concert/10738/

Johann Strauss II: Overtüre to the Operetta "Indigo and the Forty Thieves" (Indigo und die vierzig Räuber)
Carl Michael Ziehrer: Donausagen (Danube Legends). Walzer, op. 446 (*)
Joseph Lanner: Malapou-Galoppe, op. 148 (*)
Eduard Strauss: Brausteufelchen (Devil's Brew). Polka schnell, op. 154 (*)
Johann Strauss II: Fledermaus-Quadrille, op. 363
Johann Strauss I: Der Karneval in Paris. Galopp, op. 100

(Interval)

Franz von Suppè: Overture to the Operetta "Die schöne Galathée" ('The Beautiful Galatea')
Josefine Weinlich: Sirenen Lieder (Siren Songs). Polka mazur, op. 13 [arr. W. Dörner] (*)
Josef Strauss: Frauenwürde (Woman's Dignity). Walzer, op. 277
Johann Strauss II: Diplomaten-Polka. Polka francaise, op. 448
Florence Price: Rainbow Waltz [arr. W. Dörner] (*)
Hans Christian Lumbye: Københavns Jernbane-Damp-Galop ('Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop')
Johann Strauss II: Rosen aus dem Süden (Roses from the South), Waltz, op. 388
Johann Strauss II: Egyptischer Marsch (Egyptian March), op. 335
Josef Strauss: Friedenspalmen (Olive Branches) Waltz, op. 207

‘Unannounced’ (at least mostly elsewhere) encore:
Philipp Fahrbach (der Jüngere / The Younger / Jr.; 1843-1894): Zirkus ('Circus'), Polka schnell, op. 110 (*)

As usual, a (*) is next to works which are receiving first performances at the New Years Concert. My count is 6 novelties for the Vienna New Year's Concert (please feel free to double-check). With two selections, the Vienna Philharmonic has upped the ante from last year, the works by Josephine Weinlich and Florence Price. This doubles (well, obviously) the number of selections by female composers compared to last year, and also adds the first American (indeed, non-European) composer ever to feature in the Vienna New Year's Concert, and an African-American female composer at that. (Talk about sticking it to the US political right-wing, and even to the Austrian political right-wing.)

However, IMVHO, the inclusion of Florence Price is more than just tokenism or wokeism (wokeness?), because Yannick Nezet-Seguin has become an advocate for African-American composers like Price and William Levi Dawson in his time with the Philadelphia Orchestra, to the point of recording their works for DG. Since the VPO starts to plan the New Year's Concert about 3 years in advance, my guess is that once the VPO extended the invitation to YNS and he accepted, YNS planned to suggest something by Florence Price from the get-go.

Even with the return visitors, several of them haven’t featured in a good while:

Johann Strauss I: Der Karneval in Paris (last performance in 2010)

Johann Strauss II:
Roses from the South (last performance in 1998)
Indigo and the Forty Thieves Overture (last performance in 2008)
Fledermaus Quadrille (last performance in 1999)
Diplomaten-Polka (last performance in 2006)

Josef Strauss: Frauenwürde (last performance in 1951) (!)

Franz von Suppe: The Beautiful Galatea Overture (last performance in 2005)

The standard bsp-collated links radio links follow. From ORF, links for Part I, the Intermezzo interval feature, and Part II (although information from the ORF links seems quite sparse at the moment:

Part 1:

https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20260101/818933/Neujahrskonzert-der-Wiener-Philharmoniker

Intermezzo:

https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20260101/817434/Intermezzo-Kuenstlerinnen-und-Kuenstler-im-Gespraech

Part 2:

https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20260101/817435/Neujahrskonzert-der-Wiener-Philharmoniker

Eva Teimel is listed once more as ORFs presenter, so she seems to be pretty well ensconced there. (Of course, one last glass ceiling for women remains with this concert, perhaps to be addressed sometime in 10 years or so.)

By contrast with ORF's pages, the BBC R3 page for this concert has much more info (to a slight bit of excess, probably unintentionally):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002npw4

As in past years, Petroc is in the presenters box for R3, and will presumably also have a travelogue interval feature. (A perhaps silly question: I wonder if he gets to hear the concert in full either on December 30 or 31, because in the presenter's box, I would think that there is still a barrier to hearing the concert in full, i.e. the window of said box).

Besides wondering who'll get the 2027 concert (obviously to be answered on 1 January 2026), it'll be interesting to see what happens with presentations of works by female composers next year, and indeed future years. The alternative New Year's Concert by the Ehrphilharmonie Wien gives potential hints / suggetions:

https://ehrbarsaal.at/konzerte/neujahrskonzert-der-komponistinnen-2026/

[pastoralguy]

Thank you for that that comprehensive information. Yes, Y N-S is a great advocate for Florence Price’s music. We heard him conduct, iirc, her Second Symphony at the Edinburgh Festival 2022, a performance that was to be duplicated at The Proms but, alas, had to be abandoned due to the demise of Her Majesty, The Queen.

I was lucky enough to get a chat with Mr. N-S since he was involved in a performance of Mozart’s Chamber music at the Queen’s Hall with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He signed a couple of CDs for me and I described how I would listen to F P’s symphony at work as I sat in my office at work in the hospital, (Quite quietly, I hasten to add!), and patients who were awake would ask what it was. He was quite touched by this and presented me with a signed programme of the following day’s concert!

Very pleasant chap to talk to although he had in his entourage an extremely big guy who was obviously his ‘minder!’ ( Not strictly necessary at a genteel Edinburgh morning concert ) I really must listen to that F P symphony again.

[mikealdren]

Hi PG,
I doubt it was the 2nd symphony as that was withdrawn and no longer exists, Classic FM mistakenly included among their top 10 symphonies of all time!!!
Best wishes
Mike

[Petrushka]

YN-S comes a long way down my list of conductors who would be in my own frame for this concert but, as the VPO can play this music in their sleep, perhaps that doesn't matter too much.

I like the programme, though shoe-horning Florence Price in just because she's a woman is patronising and unnecessary.

[Pulcinella]

YN-S comes a long way down my list of conductors who would be in my own frame for this concert but, as the VPO can play this music in their sleep, perhaps that doesn't matter too much.

I like the programme, though shoe-horning Florence Price in just because she's a woman is patronising and unnecessary.

And it's merely an arrangement, to boot.

[vinteuil]

YN-S comes a long way down my list of conductors who would be in my own frame for this concert.

... M Séguin is one of the few who might interest me here - but as you wisely hint, the Viennese can do this without a conductor - so either way it probably doesn't matter...

[pastoralguy]

Hi PG,
I doubt it was the 2nd symphony as that was withdrawn and no longer exists, Classic FM mistakenly included among their top 10 symphonies of all time!!!
Best wishes
Mike

Thanks, Mike. Yes, it was the First Symphony! I wrote the above whilst being cosy in bed and didn’t want to get up to check!

[richardfinegold]

Historical digression here. The original concert was given after Austrian Tourism began to decline after the Anschluss. Clemens Krauss was the driving force behind it.
As with many prominent conductors, Krauss is a difficult figure to evaluate historically 85 years later. Creating this tradition was clearly meant to buttress the cultural credentials of the Nazis at a time when many prominent artists shunned them. Krauss personally corresponded with Hitler and Goebbels. He did however help many people who were in the crosshairs of the regime and post war was able to resume working.
There really isn’t much about Krauss on the Internet. Most of it seems to be AI regurgitations from one original source.
Just wondering if the erudite posters have anything more to contribute re: Krauss.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled program of Wiener schnitzel and sachertorte…

[vinteuil]

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program of Wiener schnitzel and sachertorte…

... you remind me why I loathe Austria in all its recent and current incarnations

[smittims]

Whatever his pollitics (and Isaiah Berlin was one of those who disliked him for his Nazi sympathies) Clemens Krauss was a wise and erudite conductor, his best legacy being the Decca recordings made by Victor Olof who admired him so much that he left Decca after Krauss' death. Mostly with the Vienna Philharmonic,they include a set of the Strauss tone poems and the first complete recording of a Strauss opera, Salome. A personal friend of Strauss, he authored the very witty libretto of Capriccio.

Krauss had an interesting parentage. His mother was Clementine Krauss, an unmarried ballet dancer at the Vienna Hofoper, who never revealed the name of his father , Hector Baltazzi, a courtier of Empereor Franz Josef: a situation worthy of one of Strauss' operas.

Although I've shaken hands with a man who shook hands with Hitler, having lived for 73 years in a country which hasn't been invaded since 1066 I cannot imagine what it must have been like to work , or survive, under the Third Reich, so I'm not quick to condemn those who had to make choices and ended up on the wrong side of history. We're all human,we all have our failings. let one without sin cast the first stone.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Hi PG,
I doubt it was the 2nd symphony as that was withdrawn and no longer exists, Classic FM mistakenly included among their top 10 symphonies of all time!!!

That’s not difficult to believe. I’m keeping a tally of their seemingly endless string of significant errors.

[mikealdren]

That’s not difficult to believe. I’m keeping a tally of their seemingly endless string of significant errors.

That'll keep you busy!

[Pulcinella]

That's keep you busy!

And deserving a medal for enduring CFM to spot them in the first place.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Historical digression here. The original concert was given after Austrian Tourism began to decline after the Anschluss. Clemens Krauss was the driving force behind it.
As with many prominent conductors, Krauss is a difficult figure to evaluate historically 85 years later. Creating this tradition was clearly meant to buttress the cultural credentials of the Nazis at a time when many prominent artists shunned them. Krauss personally corresponded with Hitler and Goebbels. He did however help many people who were in the crosshairs of the regime and post war was able to resume working.
There really isn’t much about Krauss on the Internet. Most of it seems to be AI regurgitations from one original source.
Just wondering if the erudite posters have anything more to contribute re: Krauss.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled program of Wiener schnitzel and sachertorte…

According to Wiki the first concerts were intended to raise money for the Nazi Winterhilfswerk fund. This was another murky Nazi racket . Some of the money , intended initially for social relief programmes , went straight into the war effort - possibly even into the pockets of individuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterhilfswerk

We wait in vain for an interval feature highlighting this. Instead we’ll have endless GV’s of the Danube. Of course Austria has never really faced up to its past in the way Germany was forced to and they tend to think of themselves as much victims of Nazi-ism as any where else. And now we have the far-right Freedom Party on the march - thankfully currently excluded from power.

I’ve been reading an excellent novel based on the life of the the director G.W,Pabst . He ended up making films for Goebbels - and when you read the account of how the latter pressurised him you can see why.

[LHC]

Historical digression here. The original concert was given after Austrian Tourism began to decline after the Anschluss. Clemens Krauss was the driving force behind it.
As with many prominent conductors, Krauss is a difficult figure to evaluate historically 85 years later. Creating this tradition was clearly meant to buttress the cultural credentials of the Nazis at a time when many prominent artists shunned them. Krauss personally corresponded with Hitler and Goebbels. He did however help many people who were in the crosshairs of the regime and post war was able to resume working.
There really isn’t much about Krauss on the Internet. Most of it seems to be AI regurgitations from one original source.
Just wondering if the erudite posters have anything more to contribute re: Krauss.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled program of Wiener schnitzel and sachertorte…

I'm not sure if you've seen this article about Ida and Louise Cook, two British sister who used regular visits to Germany in the late 30s to help Jews escape from Germany. They were friends with Clemens Krauss and his wife and it was his wife who first suggested that they might help Jews escape from Germany. Krauss also helped them evade the Nazi authorities and arranged performances to coincide with their visits to provide cover for their activities.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-38732779