New Year's Concert Opens 2025

‘The March of Freedom’ by the patriarch of the Strauss family opened the world’s most famous concert, the New Year’s Concert from Vienna. For the first time, the repertoire includes a composition by a woman, 'Fernando's Waltz' by Constanze Geiger. It is conducted by the Italian maestro Riccardo Muti (Naples, 83 vigorous years), who is leading for the seventh time and is the living conductor who has directed the Vienna Philharmonic the most times in the first concert of the year, which in 2025 celebrates its 85th edition.

This musical piece was followed by the waltz 'Swallows from an Austrian Village' (with a background of birds) by Josef Strauss and two works by Johann Strauss II: the French polka 'Demolition Men’s Polka' and the 'Lagoon Waltz'. The musical program includes eight other pieces (out of a total of 17) by Johann Strauss II to mark the bicentenary of his birth. The rest of the program features works from the Strauss family and a piece by Josef Hellmesberger Jr., who was the principal conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic between 1901 and 1903.

The New Year’s Concert, one of the great traditions of the morning of January 1st, has been held since 1941 in the iconic golden hall of the Musikverein, decorated for this occasion with 30,000 fresh flowers, including roses, anthuriums, carnations, and amaryllis.

The program, based on compositions from the Strauss family, includes two pre-recorded ballet scenes and an intriguing documentary titled '2025: A Strauss Odyssey', which reveals aspects of the life and musical work of Johann Strauss II, who is considered the king of the waltz. The plot centers on a spaceship approaching Earth on New Year’s Day 2025 with a single crew member: a 34-year-old captain named Thomas Strauss, the true great-great-grandnephew of Johann Strauss II.

The New Year’s Concert is a classic of January 1st, watched by a billion viewers and listeners in over a hundred countries worldwide and about 6,000 people live (attendance costs 35 euros for standing tickets and up to 1,200 euros for front-row seats). Throughout the nearly two-hour concert, waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and military marches can be heard, as well as the classic encores at the end with 'The Blue Danube' and the 'Radetzky March' closing the event with audience applause.

Riccardo Muti, one of the world’s finest conductors, last directed this concert in 2021 without an audience in the hall due to the pandemic, during which he delivered a memorable speech on the transformative power of music.

The great novelty of this edition is the inclusion, for the first time in the 85-year history of the New Year’s Concert, of a work written by the child prodigy Constanze Geiger, aged 12, who left music after marrying Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1862.

At the end of the concert, it will be announced who will conduct the New Year’s Concert in 2026, and it will be revealed whether a woman will finally lead the Philharmonic in the golden hall of the Musikverein. The legendary orchestra has yet to find a female conductor for such a prestigious event. In fact, only 15% of all musicians in the Philharmonic are women.