The Viennese public, almost all critics and almost all the orchestras of central Europe danced during the 19th century to the beat (ternary, of course) of two composers who received the nicknames “Mozart of the waltz” and “king of the waltz.” The first was Johann Strauss Sr., who at the age of 23 founded the orchestra that bore his own name with the aim of having a worthy group on hand to perform his music with the nuances and exact rhythm with which he conceived it. The second was his son, who was born in 1825 and grew up in a house where the musicians of the orchestra spent the day rehearsing waltzes, marches, polkas and the occasional overture to famous operas. The king of the waltz, Johann Strauss II, turns two hundred years old in 2025 and the Vienna Philharmonic, in its New Year’s concert, will remind us of his figure and the enormous stature of his lineage and his closest friends.
But let’s stop. What do you mean by ‘almost’ all the critics and ‘almost’ all the orchestras? Could any heartless person be able to resist the charms of his pum-chin-chin? Well yes. The most famous critic of the moment, Eduard Hanslick, frowned after some of the premieres of Strauss Jr.’s popular works. What is worse: the Vienna Philharmonic itself, which today venerates its most dancing compatriots, refused for years to perform his works. They did not give in until composers of the level of Wagner, Liszt and Brahms insisted that they do the favor of freeing themselves from mental closure and carefully reviewing the Strauss scores. There was a lot of rhythm and a lot of people there, yes, but also a lot of music of enormous quality.
In the face of so much insistence and after several work sessions with Strauss Jr., the Philharmonic teachers agreed to perform the works that today are the hallmark of the orchestra and, incidentally, a source of significant income for the group. Oh, the prejudices… The fact is that we reach 2025 with the New Year’s Concert more than consolidated since Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s right-hand man, saw in this event an excellent way to finance the German Army during the Second War World and, in the process, make the world known about the greatness of the Aryan culture.
On this occasion, leading the orchestra we will once again have the Italian maestro Riccardo Muti, one of the best conductors in the world, who has also been collaborating with the Viennese ensemble for half a century. He has conducted the New Year’s Concert six times. Now, Muti offers a generous selection of pieces by Strauss Jr., accompanied by works by the father and other members of the lineage, to which he adds two curiosities. One is a march taken from the operetta ‘Das Veilchenmädchen’ by Josef Hellmesberger Jr. This composer began studying the violin and it so happens that he made his public debut at the same concert in which Strauss premiered ‘The Blue Danube’. The talent of the child prodigy was about to eclipse the most famous of all the waltzes the king wrote.
The other pearl is a composition by Constanze Geiger. Her ‘Ferdinandus-Walzer’ (original for piano, orchestrated by W. Dörner) will be the first piece written by a woman to be heard in the history of the New Year’s Concert. Until now, no composer worthy of making us happy on the morning of January 1st had been found. Oh, the prejudices… However, Geiger’s presence in the program is due more to her friendship with Strauss Jr. than to her notability as a composer. She hung up the staves after marrying Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1862 and did not write a single measure again until her death, so her production is limited. When it comes to claiming women composers of waltzes, there is Clara Schumann, to name just one with a much more substantial catalogue.
If anyone in Vienna needs ideas, they can turn to the map of women composers from all periods and countries that musicologist Sakira Ventura so wisely posted on the internet. In fact, there are a good handful of Spanish composers from the 19th and 20th centuries with a longer and more interesting production than Geiger’s: Paquita Madriguera, Lluïsa Casagemas, Emiliana de Zubeldía, Eugenia Osterberger, Narcisa Freixas and María Rodrigo, for example. mention only a few at random.
The rest of the program will include works by Strauss Sr., his sons Johann and Josef, as well as Eduard. Before offering the ‘Radetzky March’ and ‘The Blue Danube’ as a tip, Muti will vindicate the figure of Strauss II with ‘Wein, Weib und Gesang’, a waltz in which the composer demonstrated his talent with orchestration more than in any other. : thus he invites us to explore his production with eyes that see beyond what we heard about him on January 1st.
At the end of the concert, it will be announced, as is tradition, who is the man who will lead the Vienna Philharmonic on January 1, 2026: the legendary orchestra has not yet found a female baton worthy of conducting it in such a worthy concert. Oh, the prejudices… In fact, until 1997 he did not allow women to take the tests to obtain a place in the orchestra. We had to wait until 2003 to see a non-white musician on stage.
Except for a major surprise, we will have to continue waiting for the suspicion towards female directors to also end up falling. Marin Alsop continues to warm up the bench and, for those who want a glimmer of hope, it is worth mentioning that in 2024 we have seen, for the first time in the one hundred and eighty years of history that the group has accumulated, a woman leading one of the concerts subscription to the Vienna Philharmonic. Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla has had the honor of breaking that ceiling that was not made of glass but of, once again, prejudice.
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