New Year’s concert (France 2): do we zap or watch?

Sunday January 1, 2023 on France 2 at 11:15 a.m., viewers will find, as every year, the New Year’s Concert. A concert presented by Stéphane Bern, whose magnificent message for the holidays delighted his followers and already at the head of La grande soiree du 31 à Fontainebleau, who will then host the show Viennese getaway. A concert followed by 100 million viewers worldwide, including 3 million in France alone! Created in 1941, this show has been broadcast in France since 1958 and remains the biggest classical music event broadcast in Eurovision (yes, like the famous competition of the same name), and now in Mondovision, like the Football World Cup. Something to take a closer look at this first unmissable event of the year!

The best orchestra in the world

Deputy director of theater and international events at France Télévisions, Nicolas Auboyneau has taken care, with undisguised pleasure, of this program for 16 years. “It is an immutable tradition with a device that we know by heart: the flowers, the orchestra and especially the Viennese waltzes! And a schedule that never varies as well.“Indeed, this tradition requires being on a war footing from 11 a.m., and this the day after New Year’s Eve!”In the houses, we celebrated, we danced… Many put the program to do their cleaning in music“, laughs Nicolas Auboyneau. “More seriously, it is an appointment that many are waiting for because it is the opportunity to hear the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the best orchestra in the world. They have in their genes this ability to play Strauss family waltzes and polkas..” Because, as every year, the Strauss family is honored for this concert. It is the conductor of the 2023 vintage, Franz Welser-Möst, who chose the pieces from the musical library of the ‘Vienna Orchestra. He has selected the essential The Radetzky March by Johann Strauss father or The Beautiful Blue Danube by Johann Strauss Jr., but also rarer pieces by the other two Strauss sons, Josef and Eduard.

Follow the guide !

If the concert is entirely managed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (choice of pieces, composers and conductor) and the Austrian channel ORF which captures the event, France Télévisions dresses the event with a program, before and after release: Viennese getaway. “Benoît Duteurtre for France Musique and Stéphane Bern for France 2 will launch the program by specifying its summary“, emphasizes Nicolas Auboyneau. “Then, for five years, Stéphane returns after the concert for a walk in the Austrian capital and its surroundings. It’s a great idea, I think, to prolong the moment with these new and often unusual walks.“And this year again, the companion of Yori Bailleres is no exception to the rule by taking viewers to the Saint-Etienne cathedral in Vienna, to the heart of the villa Hermès (the summer residence of the Empress Sissi), or in the workshop of a 200-year-old crystal factory. What an elegant way to start the year 2023!