DVD REVIEW
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NEW YEAR’S CONCERT 2026
WIENER
PHILHARMONIKER
YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN
Sony 019802996689*
For the 87th year
this was an even more than usual
joyous affair in the floral
splendored Golden Hall of the
Musikverein in Vienna on New
Year's Day morning, with the
charismatic Canadian conductor
– MD of The Philadelphia
Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera
(New York) and Artistic Director
and Principal Conductor of
Orchestre Métropolitain de
Montreal – clearly chuffed
at being in charge, the first
from his country to do so.
Approximately 50 million people
watch the concert annually in
over 150 countries with about
2000 in the hall.
The album's 18
tracks, as well as the Strauss
family four has pieces by fellow
Austrians: Lanner, Ziehrer,
Fahrbach Jnr and von Suppé. Of
the six pieces making their New
Year's Concert debut (including
one each from the first three
composers named above and Eduard
Strauss) there is an especially
noteworthy first in having not
one but two by female composers.
These are Rainbow Waltz
by the pioneering black American
Florence Price (1887-1953), and Sirenen
Lieder (Siren Songs) Polka mazur
by Josefine Weinlich (1848-87),
an Austrian pianist,
violinist-conductor and composer
who in 1868 founded and conducted
Europe's first all-female
orchestra. The VPO, which had an
all-male policy until 1997, still
lags behind in having less than
20% women players in full
membership.
It was good to
hear again Lumbye's Copenhagen
Steam Railway Galop with the
conductor taking the role of
stationmaster. Later he surprised
the audience – and the BBC's
presenter Petroc Trelawny –
by going among them to conduct
the clapping that always
accompanies the Radetzky March.
In the traditional
short address prior to the
playing of The Beautiful Blue
Danube, Nézet-Séguin was
passionate about his vision for
classical music as a bridge. He
emphasised that while the concert
celebrates the "golden
age" of the Strauss family,
it must also look forward. He
echoed the sentiment –
expressed last year by Riccardo
Muti – that music serves as
“a medicine for the
soul” and a force for unity
in a world often divided by
conflict.
As normal on DVD
there are dance sequences
provided by the Vienna State
Ballet accompanying two tracks,
one of which is Roses from
the South, and an interval
film that celebrates the 250th
anniversary of the Albertina
Museum in Vienna.
Always a
recommendable annual release, and
this year's well-balanced
programme one of the best.
© Peter
Burt, February 2026
* There is a 2-CD
on Sony 19802996662. It is also
on Vinyl LP (4) and Blue-ray.
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