New Year's Day Concert Vienna Musikvervein

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New Years Day Concert in Vienna - Musikvervein 2010 tickets

We are pleased to advise that we are also able to offer seats in all the above categories for the New Years Eve Concert at the Musikverein, with regard to the actual programme this will not be released until late August or early September the conductor for this years concerts will be Georges Prêtre.

Georges Prêtre (born 14 August 1924) is a French conductor.

He was born in Waziers (Nord), and studied harmony under Maurice Duruflé and conducting under André Cluytens among others at the Paris Conservatoire. After graduating, he conducted in a number of small French opera houses sometimes under the pseudonym Georges Dherain before making his Paris debut at the Opéra-Comique in Richard Strauss' Capriccio. His debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden came in 1961, with first appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, and La Scala, Milan, later in the 1960s. He worked with Maria Callas on a number of occasions, and made recordings of Carmen and Tosca with her. For a time he was music director of the Paris Opera.

Aside from opera, Prêtre is best known for performances of French music. He is especially associated with Francis Poulenc, giving the premiere of his opera La voix humaine at the Opéra-Comique in 1959 and his Sept répons des ténèbres in 1963. In 1999 he gave a series of concerts in Paris to celebrate the centenary of Poulenc's birth. In 1988 Marcel Landowski dedicated his Fourth Symphony to Prêtre.

He also conducted the La Scala Orchestra in Franco Zeffirelli's 1982 film versions of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. Both films starred Placido Domingo.

The Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2010 will be conducted for the second time by the French conductor Georges Prêtre. Philharmonic Chairman Clemens Hellsberg stated that the decision was made "in recognition of our many years of collaboration and Prêtre's extensive experience with this genre." The success of Prêtre's debut at the New Year's Concert 2008 "was for both conductor and orchestra very gratifying." Georges Prêtre has been honored several times for his artistic achievements in his home country and also in Austria. In 2004 he was named a Commander of the French Foreign Legion and in the same year was awarded the Austrian Honorary Cross for Science and the Arts, 1st Class.

Since 1987 the conductors of the New Year's Concert have alternated yearly. Herbert von Karajan conducted in 1987, followed by Claudio Abbado (1988 and 1991), Carlos Kleiber (1989 and 1992), Zubin Mehta (1990, 1995, 1998, 2007), Riccardo Muti (1993, 1997, 2000, 2004), Lorin Maazel (1994, 1996, 1999, 2005), Seiji Ozawa (2002), Nikolaus Harnoncourt (2001, 2003), Mariss Jansons (2006), Georges Prêtre (2008) and Daniel Barenboim (2009). In 2010 Prêtre returns to the podium of the New Year's Concert for the second time.

THE NEW YEAR'S CONCERT PICTURES

New Year's Concert 2010

The Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2010 will be conducted by Georges Prêtre

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's New Year's Concert is by far the most popular of this orchestra's functions, but also Austria's most noteworthy cultural export. Throughout the world the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert is televised worldwide and is without doubt the most widely seen and heard of all regular musical presentations performed in the equally famous Musikvervein Concert Hall. Reaching an audience of over 1,200 million people since transmission commenced in the Republic of China in the 1990's. Inside Austria it constitutes an important part of the nation's cultural identity. The worldwide popularity of the New Year's Day Concert goes all the way back to the "King of the Waltz" himself Johann Strauss. The historical facts, however, tell quite a different story. Despite the fact that many future Philharmonic members began their careers in Strauss' orchestra, the "Philharmonic Concert Association", as it was called at the time, generally ignored the most charming and "Viennese" music which has ever been written. Probably the musicians did not wish to jeopardize the social advancement they had experienced upon becoming members of the Philharmonic by associating themselves with dance and entertainment music. It should be noted, however, that the Strauss dynasty enjoyed the highest respect among great composers of the day, such as Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. The Philharmonic musicians themselves, through several encounters with Johann Strauss, had opportunity to observe the importance of this music and the charismatic personality of its creator, which had enraptured all of Europe

It has long been a Philharmonic tradition at the New Year to present a program consisting of the lively and at the same time nostalgic music from the vast repertoire of the Johann Strauss family and its contemporaries.

Worldwide Ticketing is pleased to be able to offer tickets for this most prestigious event in the Musikvervein Concert Hall and being a part of a very unique experience.