New Year's Concert 2008 / Pretre, Wien Phil.
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Manufacturer: Decca
Starring: Georges Pretre, Wiener Philharmoniker, Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper, Ballett der Wiener Volksoper, Lang Lang
Directed By: Brian Large
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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0044007432464
Format: Anamorphic
Label: Decca
Manufacturer: Decca
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Decca
Region Code: 0
Release Date: 2008-02-12
Running Time: 129
Studio: Decca
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
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Editorial Reviews:
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The New Year's Concert in Vienna has been a glorious tradition for over six decades. A best-selling classical event, the concert has a unique global appeal. It has been broadcast on TV and radio to over 50 countries, and is viewed by tens of millions of people all over the world. The 2008 New Year's Day Concert will be conducted by the eminent conductor Georges Prêtre, the first French conductor to receive this honor. The concert program for January 1, 2008 will be the customary collection of Strauss delights, but this time with a French theme. Receiving its first performance at a New Year's Concert, Napoleon March op. 156 by Johann Strauss II will open the program. The traditional encores of Blue Danube Waltz and Radetzky March will be joined by the Sport Polka as a nod to the European Football Championship to be held in Vienna in 2008. The Summer Olympics in Beijing is also being saluted by the orchestra with an early work of the elder Johann Strauss, his exotically colored Chinese Gallop.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Some first time inclusions
Comment: With a world-wide TV and radio audience guaranteed and a tradition going back nearly 80 years, the Vienna Philharmonic New Year concerts can now afford to present several first time inclusions selected from the works of the over-worked and over-stressed Strauss Family. Six items in the 2008 program make their first appearance. Two are by Strauss The Father including a waltz with a short introduction that becomes very loud. These two items acknowledge French inspiration, as does Johann The Son's "Orpheus Quadrille", entirely based (not merely providing "echoes" as the booklet writer asserts) on melodies from Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld".
Another first time inclusion is the veteran French conductor Georges Prêtre whose selection of tempi changes within the waltzes and polkas are nicely judged even if they remove the music far away from its dance origins.
Those who wish to have the concert in DVD format can access some ballet sequences - distinctly more modern in style than usually provided, but timed to fit the music perfectly.
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Summary: New Year's concert/George Pretre
Comment: It was a renewed experience to hear and see this yearly concert by the Wiener Philharmoniker. Always differento but always very happy and enjoyable.
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Summary: Splendid New Year's Concert From Pretre & Vienna Philharmonic
Comment: Distinguished French operatic conductor Georges Pretre was definitely an odd choice to lead this year's concert at Vienna's venerable Musikverein, but he demonstrates a warm affinity for the Viennese waltz tradition in this rather well-played concert. With the possible exception of the Blue Danube Waltz, I thought Pretre was absolutely superb in conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra), though perhaps it was more the Wiener Philharmoniker, not Pretre himself, who understood quite well the rich musical textures of J. Strauss II's scores. Nonetheless, this has to rank among the better New Year's Concerts in recent memory, even though I regard as more memorable both of Harnoncourt's concerts conducted earlier in this decade, as well as Mehta's exceptional 2007 concert. And yet, as I have noted before, Pretre demonstrates that he is a fine interpreter of the Strauss family's music, which is represented here by works composed not only by Johann Strauss II, but also several pieces - including the traditional encore "Radetzky March" - by his father Johann Strauss I and by his brother Josef Strauss. This annual New Year's treat also features excellent dancing from members of the Vienna State Opera Ballet, culminating in a fine "duet" that concludes within the Musikverein. Fans of the annual New Year's Concert will surely appreciate this latest addition from the Wiener Philharmoniker.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: New Years Concert 2008
Comment: Not your fault but this particular DVD sound track is not quite up to standard on my Stereo System. Sounds fine on regular TV with DVD Player. Would recommedn 2007 version or one of the Boskovsky recordings.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb concert, highly recommended
Comment: I have to concur with the positive reviews here. The most wonderful NY Vienna concert since Carlos Kleiber, by far. (Well, Wiener Philharmoniker's having had, relatively recently, the sinister Nikolaus Harnoncourt scientifically massacring Strauss' charming music, with his sledgehammer beat, wasn't exactly stiff competition.)
George Pretre seems to me not boring, rather the opposite of boring. Bringing excitement, as a conductor, does not involve waiving your bloody hair (if you still have it, which as a rule older conductors don't, fortunately) in the air, and waving your arms "passionately," without a good reason, in a plethora of gratuitous visual agitation, with no discernible effect in the sound.
Pretre's genuine conducting mastery is almost without equal among living conductors, insofar he gets more results with a wink or with a nudge than others with huge gestures. He makes the orchestra play exactly as he wants it to play, with at the same time youthful/fresh AND "wise"/magically economical gestures.
Pretre doesn't need to sweat on stage, reminding one of Richard Strauss' dictum - according to which not the conductor, but the audience should be sweating [with emotion]. The precious, well-balanced mixture of precision and flexibility, of warmth and elegance, makes his "2008" Vienna concert indeed the most memorable one since Carlos Kleiber's two (1989 and 1992) concerts. Even without having seen the DVD itself (and thus even before being able to comment on the production values per se), this DVD is on my most urgent "to get" list.
I won't comment on individual works, except for saying that, while Kleiber was perhaps even more inspired in some polkas and in the "Blue Danube," Pretre's version of the Imperial Waltz must be the warmest, most elegant I remember, notwithstanding classics such as Bruno Walter, Krauss, or even Furtwaengler's rare (and monumental) studio recording.
That a conductor as enriching, as inspiring as Georges Pretre is, can still be in such good a physical form at his age is something of a minor miracle, and orchestras everywhere should take full advantage of his being active, before it will be too late.
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