New Year's Concert
Gergely Madaras Johann Strauss jr.
Franz Liszt
Franz Lehár

Vienna’s traditions for New Year’s concerts date all the way back to 1838. The format, which has become a global TV event, originated in the 1930s, always with music by the Strauss family and some other composers, and with a selection of waltzes, mazurkas, polkas and marches.

Conductor Gergely Madaras grew up in Budapest and crossed the Danube daily. The distance between Budapest and Vienna via the Danube is short - Hungarian folk music and dance music has been very popular in the Austrian capital and left its mark on orchestral music there. 

Some of Vienna's prominent composers were Hungarians - like Franz Lehár (1870-1946). The Gold and Silver Waltz is one of his most famous works. The piano phantom Franz Liszt (1811-1886), represented by Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, also left a mark on the city.

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was German, but still one of Vienna’s leading figures from the 1860s and on. Some of Brahm’s best friends were Hungarians, and he was strongly influenced by Hungarian music. At this concert you can hear three of his popular Hungarian Dances for orchestra. 

Nobody ranks higher than the Strauss Family in the Vienna New Year’s concert. Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899) is represented by seven pieces at the concert, among them An der schönen blauen Donau. The concert ends with the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss Sr. (1804-1849).