Monday can wait. New Year needs to be gently ushered in by stylish people in stylish surroundings.
First broadcast in the UK in 1959, the annual New Years Day concert from the Musikverein in Vienna is a musical soundtrack for launching the year. Elegant classical entertainment. Good looking people in understated style celebrate the new start to the year with a sophisticated air. This vision makes me pine for a straight tie and a sharp suit. Even having lost four and a half stone, I still doubt I’d look as good as some of those in the auditorium.
Watching it every year provides a paradoxical palette cleanser after the emotional excesses that have gone before. A gentle, reliable check-in with the rest of Europe who do occasions with a much-greater, much-appreciated sense of decorum, something that takes the edge off the brutal conclusion of the holiday season.
In the Vienna Philharmonic, the articulation in the brass and wind is crisp. The strings have a high tog white duck down duvet feel. Even if the music wasn’t intended as such, the nostalgic air in scores by the Strauss family and their contemporaries evokes the idea of a tradition that is much older than the event itself. The Vienna Phil’s New Year’s concert is a reassuring musical flourish reminiscent of the excitement a city yet to be explored promises when sat at a hotel breakfast contemplating the day ahead.
Before the penultimate encore, a timely word from conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a gentle reminder that there aren’t many moments in the schedule post-Christmas where a captive audience gets to hear a timely message.
“With peace comes kindness. Or should I say, only with kindness comes peace. So I wish also kindness in our hearts, kindness towards one another, kindness in accepting each other’s differences and celebrating them. Music can unite all of us because we live on the same planet.”
The concert feels longer than its scheduled two and a half hours, though it being New Years Day its still perfectly acceptable to be in a dressing gown for the Blue Danube at the end. The tight-fitting socks from my mother-in-law are a more comfortable fit than I anticipated. This moment is not to be rushed. The more disciplined day can get underway on Monday. No point in rushing a return to normal service.
