New Year's Day from Vienna 2016

The Vienna Philharmonic presents its annual salute to the waltz on New Year's Day 2016. 

Hear the hit tunes of many live from the Musikverein on Friday, January 1, 2016 at 11 a.m. on Classical 91.5. 

The program will include a beautiful mix of waltzes, polkas and more from the Golden hall of Musikverein. There is perhaps no other musical ensemble more consistently and closely associated with the history and tradition of European classical music than the Vienna Philharmonic. In the course of its 170 year history, the musicians of this most prominent orchestra of the capital city of music have been an integral part of a musical epoch which due to an abundance of uniquely gifted composers and interpreters must certainly be regarded as unique.

The orchestra's close association with this rich musical history is best illustrated by the statements of countless pre-eminent musical personalities of the past. Richard Wagner described the orchestra as being one of the most outstanding in the world; Anton Bruckner called it "the most superior musical association"; Johannes Brahms counted himself as a "friend and admirer"; Gustav Mahler claimed to be joined together through "the bonds of musical art"; and Richard Strauss summarized these sentiments by saying: "All praise of the Vienna Philharmonic reveals itself as understatement."