I would immediately point out one mistake that is repeated too often: people talk and write about the "Vienna Philharmonic" concert, but the members of that self-governing orchestra insist that they are individual artists, philharmonic players playing music together, that it is not about the "Philharmonic institution" ".
I found out about this event by chance in Dubrovnik in 1964, where, among other things, one of the oldest operas in general was in the repertoire - "The Coronation of Popeye" by Claudio Monteverdi, which was first performed in 1643 in Venice during the carnival.
The controversial Lovro Matačić was hired as director and conductor, who could not perform in Belgrade because during the war in Zagreb he conducted in the uniform of an Ustasha major instead of a tailcoat. He justified himself by saving his Jewish wife, whom he divorced after the war, from death. The choreographer was Dia Luka from Vienna. By coincidence, I helped her with the translation when she was staging the ballet, and that's how I got to know her better. From 1961 to 1972, she was in charge of the choreography of the ballet parts of the New Year's concerts. After that, the organizers didn't pay so much attention to the ballet episodes, they didn't put them together live anymore, which was technically a huge and complicated job for the director. The ballet performances were more and more modestly recorded in advance.
Thanks to her, I watched the broadcast from the Golden Hall of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time on television on January 1, 1965. It will become a significant year for me, I interpreted for Tito for the first time and my son was born.
Too perfect
The conductor of the 2024 New Year's concert was sixty-four-year-old Christian Thielemann, who has an enviable career as head of large orchestras and conductor. Music experts say that it is very precise, that it analyzes every note, ironically comparing it to a metronome. They tell him that, as he does, orchestras will one day be led by artificial intelligence - perfectly, but without taste or smell.
I can't judge that, as a young, budding journalist, I tried my hand at being a music critic once and got a terrible beating from the experts, I remembered that lesson. As a layman, I can say that he did not seem "metronomically", he even danced a little, as we used to say "dancing", but from somewhere I had the impression that he rehearsed his gestures and smile in front of the mirror. They didn't seem spontaneous, just like his too-perfect-for-the-shade wavy hairdo, and the white handkerchief in his jacket pocket was folded like a work of art.
I remember Lorin Mazel, who conducted the New Year's concerts consecutively from 1980 to 1986, often taking the violin and conducting while playing, like Johann Strauss once did, like the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, Willy Boszkowski, before him. Mazel already had concerts as a violinist at the age of fifteen. Naturally witty, he made up jokes, loved to make the audience laugh and dazzle them with magnificent music. He wanted to be an entertainer, an entertainer, not a bloated artist.
Ballet contributions
This year we watched two ballets choreographed by the Italian master Davide Bombane. In the first, a pair of soloists performed something between a pantomime and a whimsical classical ballet in the imperial villa at the Spa of Ischl. Bad Ischl is one of the cultural capitals of Europe this year. I can sense what was going to be said. Empress Elisabeth, known as Sisi, reportedly did not like Ischl, but her husband Franz Joseph I insisted on summering there. Who among the audience around the world picked up on that allusion?
In the second part, the great ballet of the Vienna Opera showed its perfect mastery. The only question is why the music with the title "Citizens of Vienna" was played in the Renaissance castle of Rosenburg, and not in the streets, squares and parks of the Austrian capital. I can guess what it's about, it's easier to rent a castle, which today is a lonely restaurant, than to close public roads for several hours for the sake of filming.
Seriously for the end
Between the first and second parts of the concert, an excellent documentary film about Anton Bruckner, an Austrian composer from the 100th century, was shown. XNUMXth century, which, in the opinion of Bečlji, has been neglected on the international music scene. Bruckner was born XNUMX years ago, and for the first time one of his compositions was included in the program of the New Year's concert.
In earlier years, something humorous, surprising was always performed at the end. On this occasion, Tilleman decided to be serious, he addressed the audience with selected words about the wars that shake the world today, he emphasized that the beauty of music can be a counterweight, he suggested that everyone should think about what it associates with the melancholic sounds of the famous waltz "On the beautiful blue Danube". I think those were the right words with masterful music.
The camera just flew over the first gallery to show that the president of the state, the prime minister, the top of the country were present, and then it panned around the anonymous audience. And that is a gesture that I welcome, and in such a way the democracy of a society is shown.
