Why I love New Year's Day....

I just got home, and was afraid I was gonna miss the New Year's concert from Vienna fully for the first time in 34 years... They are in the break, but not before I heard a fabulous 'Perpetuum Mobile' by Strauss that was so driving, and frenetic, and I haven't heard it that good in years.

For those of you who do not know.... The New Year's concert in Vienna is an institution. Held in the so-called 'Golden Hall' of the Musikvereinssaal in Vienna. The Vienna Philharmonic orchestra is so wonderful, they defy description.

It is the strings. Every country has a strong point in music. In America, it is the brass instruments, and reeds... No one does it better, and I say that without envy. In Vienna, it is the string instruments... no one does that better, not that I have ever heard....

Almost all the music in these concerts is by the Strauss family. Uplifting, and just beautiful...

If anyone has PBS there, they usually broadcast this a couple of days later in America. People would KILL to get tickets to this... you only get them per lottery. Just the setting and the acoustics are so terrific, you want to melt.

Oh... just heard that they are doing something different this year, using other composers as well.... Otto Nikolai, and Offenbach, for instance. Good move. (Nikolai is on now, was a prussian, and one of our music schools is named after him... He was just as sweet and sugary and light as the Strauss family, but has his own note. Lovely.)

Gawwd, I want someone to get up and waltz with, and Preciousses, I doesn't dance. Always has too much baggage in its' pocketses. Gorgeous. If they keep this up, it is gonna go down in history as one of the best of all time since Karajan directed.

It will end as it always does.... But what I am hearing is so exceptional at the moment, I want to just melt away.... The past few years have been 'par for the course', but believe me when I tell you, I 'know' remarkable when I hear it.

Whoever heard of a RenB wanting to get up and dance about the room? Even alone? Unthinkable.

Oh God, now they are doing the Champagne Polka... Strauss. What is it about the horns here? They always sound muffeled.

This is turning into live blogging. Right now, I want to do a polka mazur with someone.

Silly RenB.... he nevah dances...

Oh the end... is always our sneakret national anthem, 'The Blue Danube Waltz'. Followed by the ever popular Radetzky March. I lurv me that once a year. It is so much fun to clap along with..

Oooo, Offenbach. First opera I ever saw, and the music is magnificent. The story is macabre... 'The Tales of Hoffmann'. If you have never seen an opera, that is the one you should start with, believe me. What they are playing takes place in Venice, and it would be familiar to you if you heard it. And it just broke my heart. I saw it in Vienna, after having seen it in Graz a few times. The Vienna production had top stars, and it knocked my socks off. This was beautiful.

Oh man...

More Strauss with so much verve, it is incredible.

The audience has been reserved till now, but they are warming up, which is normal, sometimes I could throttle them. Let's wait a bit.

Oh... another waltz where you want to melt. Und want someone to dance elegantly with in a tux. Silly RenB... who never dances, or waltzes, unless it is by himself with emptiness in his arms...

When no one can look or make fun of his clumsiness....

Oh... now a danish composer, more champagne... He stole it from Johann Strauss. It's ok. It is pretty. Different, but pretty...

The official part is over. Oh, I wanna polka...

Oh gawwd... our sneakret national anthem, and I'm going to lose it. And the audience is finally going nuts. Yup, am gonna--am crying. Not especially because of the music, which is so beautiful... Peter just called for the second time since I got home. It wasn't good.

I still don't know who this conductor from France is... he is fucking amazing, and sets accents I have never heard before. Oh my gawd, it is so furious, sensuous, and this has to set a record. My gawwd... I have NEVER heard it like this before. Brilliant.

People are screaming bravo... No, not since Herbert Karajan have I ever heard that so good.

The audience is completely freaked.

The veritable end is the Radetzky Mach... The horns sound muffled.

I haven't heard this kind of reaction from a Viennese audience in ages. Screaming, shouting, yelling 'Bravo'.

When I began this idjit post... it was just another New Year's day, and we have our little traditions. And as I explained, I have never missed one in 34 years. Mostly they aren't exciting, they are just nice. And that is whatchoo do, while preparing dinner, and listen...

Most times, it is just, 'aw yeah, heard it before'. Nothing to get excited about.

It is always 'nice'. I LIKE listening to Strauss on New Year's DAY, so shoot me or something.... it is uplifting for me. Bucks me up, so to speak. It's just a tradition.

But once every decade... you get bowled over by the sheer virtuosity of that orchestra if they have an exceptional conductor.

Today was one of those days.

It freaked me out.

If you like classical music, try to catch it on PBS in the next few days.

Extraordinary. And you won't be sorry, I promise....