One Of The Finest New Year's Eve Concerts in Recent Memory
John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 02/27/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Without a doubt, this year's New Year's Eve concert (broadcast on PBS here in the United States) was among the finest I've heard from the Wiener Philharmoniker in recent memory. Much to my amazement, Zubin Mehta was truly magnificient in leading the orchestra in lesser known waltzes, polkas and other dances composed by the Strauss family, with most of the concert devoted to the works of Johann Strauss and Josef Strauss. He truly demonstrated much empathy for the music, leading the orchestra in passionate, quite memorable, performances (I had also forgotten how superb a conductor Mehta truly is, and this concert was a splendid reminder of his superb talent as one of our foremost conductors of classical music.). It's reasonable to state that this concert merely reaffirms recent critical praise which the Wiener Philharmoniker has received from a French magazine which listed this orchestra as Europe's finest; clearly the overall quality of the Wiener Philharmoniker's musicianship is exceptional, which this fine DVD merely emphasizes both sonically and visually. From a musicological perspective, the 2007 concert was as intriguing as Nikolaus Harnoncourt's two New Year's Concert series held earlier in this decade, in which the venerable Austrian musicologist and conductor did a fine job in clearing the cobwebs of some of the Strauss family's best known works, and introducing audiences to other elegant, but lesser known, works of theirs. Zubin Mehta apparently adhered to Harnoncourt's philosophy too, with ample popular acclaim earned from the Musikverein's spellbound audience. True to tradition, the concert concluded with a New Year greeting from Maestro Mehta spoken in immaculate, flawless German, followed by the traditional encores of Johann Strauss Jr.'s Blue Danube Waltz and his father's Radetzky March."
Mehta brings the true Strauss tone back to Vienna
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/01/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Since he trained with them as a young condcutor, one could call the Vienna Phil. one of Mehta's home orchestras. He shows real empathy for Strauss style, and I agree with the other reviewers who rate the 2007 New Year's concert as a great improvement over Muti, Maazel, and Jansons. Mehta's previous New Year's concerts on Sony were among his best recordings. This one isn't quite as lively -- his beat has grown stately over the years (too much so in the concluding Blue Danube Waltz) -- but the program is full of happiness and high spirits, which counts for a lot.
So does the inclusion of two rarities that sparkle here: Josef Strauss's Flattergeister Waltz and Johann's Wo di Zitronen blumen Waltz, both delightful in Meht'as experienced hands. DG's sound is very good, and of course the orchestra cannot be bettered in this material. My only caveat is that Mehta, like Muti before him, includes very few familiar numbers and no famous waltz besides the Blue Danube."
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1