Sony Classical Releases 2013 New Year's Concert With The Vienna Philharmonic and Franz Welser-Most

Sony Classical announces the release of the recording of one of the world's most famous classical music events: the 2013 New Year's Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic. Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Most returned to direct the 2013 concert following the success of his debut in 2011. On January 4, 2013, the live recording will be available exclusively at Arkiv Music and via Amazon.com's CreateSpace's Disc on Demand service and as a download through all major digital service providers. The CD will be released nationwide on January 22. The DVD and Blu-ray will be available on February 5.

The New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic is firmly established as one of the longest-standing and most prestigious music events worldwide. In its history of more than seven decades, the orchestra has been led by many of the most famous conductors and experienced by millions of people via TV broadcasts in over 70 countries.
As Clemens Hellsberg, the chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic, emphasized, the plaudits that Franz Welser-Most earned for this event in 2011 and his close association with the musical life of Vienna as General Musical Director of the State Opera made him a natural choice for the role in 2013.

For Decades the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has presented from Vienna's Musikverein an entertaining and heartfelt annual program of music from the wide repertoire of the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries. The proven formula blends well-known classics with premieres of works that have never been performed before at the New Year's Concert and the result is invariably both joyful and moving. This year's repertoire included 11 premieres (more than ever before) and also pays tribute to Wagner and Verdi in advance of their 2013 anniversaries.

For ten years Welser-Most has been musical director of the Cleveland Orchestra, with whom he has built close relationships with Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein in Vienna and the Lucerne Festival and presented Eleven world and fourteen United States premieres. In recent seasons his fully-staged productions of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas have re-established The Cleveland Orchestra as an operatic ensemble.

For all his international connections, Welser-Most is an Austrian, who has delighted audiences of the Vienna State Opera with extremely well-received interpretations of the Wagnerian repertoire, among other highlights, and has a special personal connection with the music of the Strauss family: one of his great grandmothers was a daughter of the owner family of Vienna's old-established Cafe Dommayer, where many works by the Strauss dynasty and Josef Lanner were premiered.

The tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic goes back to 1842, when Otto Nicolai conducted a Grand Concert with all members of the imperial "Hof-Operntheater". This event was originally called "Philharmonic Academy" and is regarded as the origin of the orchestra. Since its founding the orchestra is managed by the administrative committee - a democratically elected body - and works artistically, organizationally and financially autonomous. All decisions are reached on a democratic basis during the general meeting of all members.