The Radetsky March
from the New Year's Concert from Vienna (shown on PBS). It cracks me up that some people in the audience are clapping @ the wrong time even though Maestro Ricardo Muti is gently cueing them in as to when to clap!
God, this is same story all over again, with this clapping at New Year's Vienna Concert
, which is so funny sometimes thinking that those are pieces all about this distinct rhythm like March, Waltz, Polka...
, but yes - the New Year's Concert is always a great experience!
The thing I found funny was the false start to the "Blue Danube". OK, so we all know it's done every year, but this was the first time that I noticed the audience actually anticipating it. As soon as the music stopped, they started clapping straight away, before Muti even got a chance to wish everybody a Happy New Year.
And on that subject, I did find it amusing hearing somebody speaking German with a strong Italian accent.
Was it just me, or was the first half a lot shorter than usual this year? The concert started at 10:15 GMT, yet the interval started at 10:55 GMT. 40 minutes seems very short for the first half of a concert. Especially since the second half was 95 minutes (it was supposed to be 90 minutes, but it over-ran, causing both the BBC and RTÉ to cut away before the credits came on!)
Since I have a chance, I have to congratulate the BBC for showing the whole concert LIVE on BBC2 this year. Normally they only join it at the start of the second half, for reasons I have never understood. RTÉ, on the other hand, always showed the whole thing LIVE. But, they always put a set of adverts in the middle of the interval film.
In previous years, what I would have done is watch RTÉ's coverage, and then run into the kitchen to watch ZDF's coverage during the ads, and then when I heard it back on RTÉ, run back into the sitting room!
This year, I still watched the concert itself on RTÉ, partly because I've found that the sound is better on RTÉ1 HD than on BBC2 HD, but mainly because I really like the RTÉ commentator's voice! (
Niamh McManus who, through looking for a link about her there now, I have discovered looks as lovely as she sounds!
) But, the difference was that I was able to stay in the sitting room and flick over to BBC2 for the whole of the interval film.
Incidentally, last week, RTÉ showed another Vienna Philharmonic concert (not LIVE, as there were some very rough edits in the coverage). This one was from Budapest, and was commemorating the 150[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary of the Compromise Of 1867 (when Hungary got devolved power back from Austria, which was the start of the Dual Monarchy).
The thing I found intesting yesterday was that these two concerts had different conductors. The one in Budapest was conducted by an Indian, Zubin Mehta, while the one in Vienna was conducted by an Italian, Ricardo Muti.
But, although the conductors were different, the encores weren't!
Normally, the "Blue Danube" and the "Radetzky March" are stuck in my head for weeks after the New Year Concert. But, this year, I've heard them both twice in the space of a week, not to mention at an Ulster Orchestra concert in a neighbouring town at the end of August.
They'll be stuck in there forever!!!
(Not that I'm complaining!
)
Incidentally, I'm going to another Ulster Orchestra concert in April. But, according to the description, this time the music is from Rossini, Mozart and Mendelssohn.
Oh, and the concert is being held about 500 yards from where I live!
CaroLiza_fan
(I’m not even sure that they are real words! 
:
