The New Year’s Concert, one of the world’s most famous and spectacular classical music events, returns for the 80th time to present to viewers a sensational programme made up of the vast repertoire of the family of Johann Strauss and its contemporaries. In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the greatest media event in classical music, Sony Classical released in 2015 a complete edition of all the works ever played at the Wiener Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Concerts. Performed in the “Golden Hall” of the Musikverein between 1941 and 2015, the iconic live performances were issued for the first time in a single box set of 23 CDs. Now, in 2020, this edition will be available as a 26-CD extended version, with all the new repertoire from the last five years compiled on three additional CDs.

Every year since 1939, The Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s finest orchestras, put on a show filled with lively, uplifting, yet nostalgic music which is broadcast in over 90 countries to a worldwide audience of 50 million viewers. Since 1980 the Philharmonic has invited leading conductors to join them in Vienna to usher in the New Year. From 1980 to 1986, and again in 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2005, Lorin Maazel was on the rostrum. He was followed by Herbert von Karajan (1987), Claudio Abbado (1988, 1991), Carlos Kleiber (1989, 1992), Zubin Mehta (1990, 1995, 1998, 2007, 2015), Riccardo Muti (1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2018), Nikolaus Harnoncourt (2001, 2003), Seiji Ozawa (2002), Mariss Jansons (2006, 2012, 2016), Georges Prêtre (2008, 2010), Daniel Barenboim (2009, 2014), Franz Welser-Möst (2011, 2013), Gustavo Dudamel (2017), Christian Thielemann (2019) and Andris Nelsons (2020).

This wildly anticipated event has been broadcast on New Year’s Day on BBC 2 TV and BBC Radio 3. Founded in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic is a world renowned orchestra. In 2008, Gramophone magazine listed the orchestra as one of the world’s top 5 orchestras.