The First Gift Of The Year - The New Year's Concert

First of All let me wish Happy New Year as this is my first post this year. 2019 was an eventful year on Steem, a bit bumpy but a good year in my opinion. I hope 2020 will be at least as good as not better.

Today I'd like to dedicate this port to a very important historical building that is hosting a prestigious event each year. This is the famous Vienna State Opera that is hosting the New Year's concert on the first day of the year. It's an old tradition that grew to a very high standard event sponsored by Rolex.

I've been watching this concert every year even though it's quite early, starts at midday and after a new year party people tend to rest at that time. I'm always making an effort to watch it.

Last year (in 2019) I had the chance to see the building in person even though it was only from outside. It was a great pleasure to be at the venue and see for myself what it looks like.

This is the famous door that you see opening at the beginning of the program and closing at the end of the concert.

The building is an old and very stylish one, built between 1861 and 1869.

The inauguration took place in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elizabeth of Austria.

There's a wonderful fountain next to the opera house that was working perfectly at the moment of my visit.

These arcades are surrounding the building and it's a pleasure walking here if you like architecture.

The Event

The concert is organized each year and aired worldwide for an estimated audience of 1000 million people in 54 countries.

source

Due to extremely high demand, tickets for the three traditional end of year concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic are drawn by lot over this website in February of each year. In this way, music lovers from all over the world have an equal chance to purchase these highly desired tickets. Between February 1 and 28, 2019, applications will be accepted to take part in the drawing for tickets to the end of year concerts 2019/20. source

Judging from the text above, you can see how hard it is to get tickets to the concert. Basically it's impossible unless you're lucky. If you're lucky, you need a good credit card to pay for the tickets as these are not cheap, ranging between €35 and €1200.

Decoration

This concert hall is lovely and marvelous by itself, without any decoration but for this event Vienna florist are decorating it with various flower decorations. Each year there's a theme, certain types of flowers are selected. One year I remember there were only carnations. This year there were tropical flowers among which orchids. Compared to other years, I think this year there were too many colors and I didn't like it. Regardless, it's an artwork what you see each year.

Music

If I think of music in the 19th century in Europe, the Strauss Dynasty is the first that comes in my mind. Johann Strauss I father and his three sons, Johann Strauss II., Eduard Strauss and Josef Strauss. I love their music, for me waltz means Strauss and there's no New Year concert in Vienna without their music. This year however I think there was less Strauss music. The event is always closed with The Blue Danube and the Radetzky Marsch. That is a must. This year the Latvian Andris Nelsons conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Choreography and Ballet

Each year during the break and during different performances TV viewers have the pleasure of watching ballet performances. This is also a tradition that seems to be changing. In the past year these ballets were recorded in different ball rooms in Vienna. This year they went out in the city and we got to see a good part of Vienna which I'm very grateful for. the ballerinas costumes were also different, they were dressed in 19th century clothes.

Beethoven was born 250 years ago, in 1770, and this year the concert has dedicated a good part to commemorating his life and work. During the break time we got to see those places where he lived and worked. The choreography was exceptional. Watch the video I liked in my post (37:00) to see the wind blowing out of the window Beethoven's music notes and a lady collecting them from all over Vienna.

Conclusions

If you like classical music, this is the cream of it of the cherry on the top. It's a Rolex quality event that must be watched. It's a true pleasure listening to the best music and to watch the best ballerinas, not to mention the places, some ball rooms that you can never visit. This year for example the lady collecting Beethoven's music notes went to the library of Vienna, which is indescribably beautiful.

I may never get the chance to take part in it in Vienna but this is an event that I can never miss in TV.