New Year’s concert on Jan 1

VIENNA - Agence France-Presse

Latvian conductor Lariss Jansons will conduct the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s concert on Jan 1. REUTERS photo

The London Olympics and Denmark’s EU presidency will get a musical salute at the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s concert on Jan. 1, conducted for the second time by the Latvian Mariss Jansons.

Broadcast as every year around the world, the 2012 event will see the return of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and, unusually, live performances by the Vienna Ballet, amid the usual Strauss waltzes and polkas.

Among the highlights to be performed at the Musikverein’s lavish Golden Hall, the Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop by Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye, often known as the “Strauss of the North” will greet the start of Denmark’s European Union presidency on Jan. 1,.

Next summer’s Olympic Games in London will also get a nod with Johann Strauss’s Albion Polka, dedicated to Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, and Josef Strauss’s Jokey-Polka (Jockey polka), a tribute to his favorite equestrian sport.

“The most watched classical concert on TV,” this 72nd edition will be broadcast as every year in over 70 countries around the world. It will also be available on TVthek.ORF.at and oe1.ORF.at.
The concert will start at 11:15 am (1015 GMT) on Jan 1.