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The Vienna Philharmonic - New Year's Concert 2000

The Vienna Philharmonic - New Year's Concert 2000

List Price: $26.99
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Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Color
  • Dolby


Description:

Since 1941, the first great event in the classical calendar has been the New Year's Strauss concert by the Vienna Philharmonic. January 1, 2000 marked the end of the "Strauss year," 1999 being the centenary of the death of "Waltz King" Johann Strauss II and the 150th anniversary of the passing of his father, Johann Strauss. The previous May, the Vienna Philharmonic gave an outdoor Johann Strauss Gala, though only "The Blue Danube" waltz and "Radetzky March" overlap with this New Year's Concert. Here the orchestra gives an infectiously warm and confident performance, from the opening "Lagunen" waltz to the utterly exuberant "Eljen a Magjar!" polka. Mixing well-loved gems with such rarities as the "Albion" and "Hellenen" polkas, this music-making is a real delight, the lavishly garlanded hall as ravishing to the eye as the music to the ear. In homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, "The Blue Danube" is wittily shot as a series of graceful aerial pans across the outside of the Musikverein concert hall and over Vienna itself. Riccardo Muti, conducting his third Vienna New Year's concert, thoroughly enjoys himself, and it is clear everyone else does too. --Gary S. Dalkin, Amazon.co.uk
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