Complete the New Year’s Concert held every January 1 in the Great Hall or Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, without performing the popular march Radetzky by Johan Strauss, It would be a “sacrilege” for those who would attend and for those who would listen to it from home.
The director of the one which took place on January 1, 2026, the French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Not only did he end the big musical event with this well-known piece, but he did something else: he walked down from the stage to the corridor and led the enthusiastic audience, baton in hand.
The audience rose from their seats to applaud and accompany the conductor as he moved down the central aisle of the Musikverein.. One more gesture from someone who can be said to have innovated within the closed structure of the Vienna Philharmonic: in the program you introduced two pieces composed by women, the African-Americans Florence Price (1887-1953) and Josephine Weinlich (1848-1887), something unprecedented.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is 50 years old and has a very personal style. Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, he dresses a custom Louis Vuitton suit, designed by her husbandthe violinist Pierre Tourville, with classic lines reinterpreted with a contemporary air and finished with a shiny brooch on the neck, with her signature painted nails and earrings.
Nézet-Séguin is very active in the defense of LGBTQ+ rights and has shown his solidarity with Ukraine. Endorsed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris during the election campaign in which she was defeated last year by Republican Donald Trump.
The concert of this 1 had moments of humor, like when some philharmonic musicians wore railway caps when executing“The Jernbane-Damp gallop in Copenhagencomposed by Hans Christian Lumbye to celebrate the railway connection between Copenhagen and Roskilde.
With this 86th edition of the Concert, the celebration of bicentenary of the birth of Johann Strauss Jr.central figure of Viennese music, to whom Austria devotes numerous events throughout the year.
About The Author
