New Year on the beautiful blue Danube

There will be a Viennese New Year's concert with a Hungarian flavour when Gergely Madaras conducts the Oslo Philharmonic in "New Year on the Danube". He is joined by two of Hungary's most talented traditional musicians: Lajos Sárközy Jr. on violin and Jeno Lisztes on cimbalom.

Vienna's tradition of New Year's concerts dates back to 1838. The format that has become a global TV event originated in the 1930s, always featuring music by the Strauss family and a few other composers, with a selection of waltzes, masurkas, polkas and marches.
Conductor Gergely Madaras grew up in Budapest and crossed the Danube daily. The distance between Budapest and Vienna via the Danube is not long - Hungarian folk and dance music has been very popular in the Austrian capital and left its mark on orchestral music there.
Some of the most prominent composers in Vienna were Hungarians themselves - such as Franz Lehár (1870-1946). The waltz Gold and Silver is one of his most famous works. The piano phantom Franz Liszt (1811-1886) - represented here with Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 - also left his mark on the city.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was German, but one of Vienna's leading figures from the 1860s onwards. Some of Brahms' best friends were Hungarian, and he was strongly influenced by Hungarian music. In this concert you can hear three of his popular Hungarian Dances for orchestra.
In the Viennese New Year's tradition, no one stands higher than the Strauss family. Johann Strauss the Younger (1825-1899) is represented by seven pieces at the concert, including  An der schönen blauen Donau. The concert ends with the Radetzy March by Johann Strauss the Elder (1804-1849).

Music by, among others, Johann Strauss the Younger,
Franz Lehár, Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt.
Conductor - Gergely Madaras
Violin - Lajos Sárkösy Jr
Cimbalom - Jenö Lisztes