New Year's Concert in Vienna (Neujahrskonzert in Wien)
The television broadcast from Vienna of the New Year's Day concert has attracted to the podium across the past 40 years or so a number of starry conductors, but none more so than Carlos Kleiber. In this 1989 concert, he brings to life the music of the Strauss family in an extraordinarily vital manner. The program blends favorites like the waltzes--"Accelerations," "The Blue Danube," and "Artist's Life"--with less common pieces like "The Dragonfly" polka in which Kleiber's arm at one moment seems to be drawing the insect's flight path! There's one break from tradition in that there is no dancing in this film. Director Brian Large knows the music inside out, providing close-ups at key moments such as the lovingly shaped introduction to the "Artist's Life" waltz, which begins with a breathtakingly played account of the opening tune on oboe. Play this at the end of a weary day and be transported to another world of unadulterated musical luxury.--Adrian Edwards