Search - Muti, Vpo :: New Year's Concert 2000

This is good value at any price.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 08/02/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Happy the reviewer who was lucky enough to attend this concert! In far distant Australia we can only watch and listen enthralled to a telecast, a yearly rite which always brings tears to this reviewer's eyes. A CD of each concert is soon on the market, and the New Year 2000 issue is one of the best. The program itself is well balanced in all respects, not least in that it provides four items receiving their first performance at these concerts alongside many perennial favourites. Johann Strauss Jnr's longest waltz "Wein, Weib und Gesang" is here, complete with its superb introduction. Wagner selected this 1869 waltz to be played in the foyer at Bayreuth during intermission. Ricardo Muti achieves largely unfussy and unmannered performances. Some might consider the slight holding back of the flow early in IA and 3A sections of the waltz "An der schonen blauen Donau" a little excessive. Elsewhere the dynamic shadings, and the subtleties of phrasing sound as natural and as easy as breathing. EMI's engineers were on hand to record the event and they provide some of the most realistic sound quality I have ever heard. The well-mannered and well-heeled morning audience provide never an audible cough or sniffle (such is the magic of the Strauss Family), and they provide some disciplined clapping during the "Radetzky March". There is 92 minutes of music here, spread over 2CDs. This is good value at any price."

Among The Best Vienna Philharmonic Strauss Recordings Ever

John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 01/05/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Along with my recording of Nikolaus Harnoncourt's 2001 New Year's Concert, this has become my favorite in the longstanding Vienna Philharmonic series. Muti leads the orchestra in a series of elegant, unmannered performances of the Strauss family's music, with exquisite interpretations of the waltzes "Wine, Women and Song" and "On The Beautiful Blue Danube". The sound quality from EMI's recording team is absolutely first rate and much better than most who've recorded these concerts. The Penguin Guide To Classical Music rates this performance as among the definitive Vienna Philharmonic New Year concerts. ..."