2014年维也纳新年音乐会由来自以色列的指挥大师丹尼尔·巴伦博伊姆（Daniel Barenboim）担任指挥。这是巴伦博伊姆继2009年之后再度亮相维也纳新年音乐会指挥台。2009年的维也纳新年音乐会开创了这场音乐会的一个新的纪元，从那一年开始，维也纳新年音乐会便在每一年都上演一到两位新的作曲家的作品。而在2014年，维也纳新年音乐会上将迎来克莱芒·莱奥·德里布和理查德·施特劳斯两位新作曲家的作品，继续为这场音乐会注入新鲜的血液。值得一提的是，理查德·施特劳斯的那部《随想曲》是他的最后一部歌剧，而剧本的创作人之一正是维也纳新年音乐会的首位指挥家克莱门斯·克劳斯。同时我们还发现，在这一年的维也纳新年音乐会上，爱德华·施特劳斯的一首四对舞将作为开场曲目，这也是近几十年来绝无仅有的一次开场选曲。同时，约翰·施特劳斯的《百万富翁圆舞曲》、《维也纳森林的故事圆舞曲》等经典圆舞曲将重返舞台。
本次音乐会曲目共计二十一首，其中有八部作品是首度出现在维也纳新年音乐会上。二十一首曲目分别出自于八位作曲家之手：除了施特劳斯家族的四位成员(老约翰、小约翰、约瑟夫、爱德华)以及经常露脸的小约瑟夫·赫尔梅斯伯格以及约瑟夫·兰纳之外，2014年将有两张“新面孔”登陆这台历史悠久的音乐盛会，他们是1864年出生、在2014年将迎来诞辰150周年纪念的德国人Richard Strauss[理查·斯特劳斯]以及法国著名歌剧及芭蕾舞剧作曲家Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (克莱芒·菲利贝·里奥·德利布)。
The New Year’s Concert live from Vienna is one of the world’s most famous and spectacular classical music events. It is broadcast on TV and radio in almost 80 countries with more than 40 million viewers. The annual New Years Day Concert in Vienna has been a major event for more than seven decades. The resulting recordings with works from the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries are among the classical markets most important releases. In 2014 The Vienna Philharmonic invited Daniel Barenboim to conduct the New Years Concert.
The programme traditionally revolves around waltzes and polkas by the Strauss family (Johann father and son, as well as Josef and Eduard Strauss), and includes works by other composers of that era. The proven formula blends well-known classics with premieres of works that have never been recorded or are rarely heard – and the result is invariably both joyful and moving.
The Vienna New Year’s Concert can trace back its origins to 31 December 1939. The concert initially took place on the last day of the year. By 1941, however, it was being held on 1 January, when the Vienna Philharmonic established a tradition that continues to flourish to this day. The list of names of leading conductors who have led the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concerts includes great maestros such as Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, and Franz Welser-Möst.
It continues to be works by members of the Strauss family – Johann Strauss Father and Son as well as Eduard and Josef Strauss – that are central to this media event. Old favourites from their output are heard alongside others that have never been recorded or are only rarely heard; all of them programmed around two fixed points in the concert: the Blue Danube Waltz and the Radetzky March.
Daniel Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires to parents of Russian-Jewish descent. He began piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continued musical studies with his father, and gave his first official concert in Buenos Aires when he was seven. In 1952, the family moved to Israel, and two years later his parents took Daniel to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch’s conducting classes. In 1955 and 1956, he studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
From the mid-1960s, Barenboim began to devote more time to conducting. From 1975 to 1989 he was chief conductor of the Orchestre de Paris, with whom he often performed contemporary works by composers such as Lutoslawski, Berio, Boulez, Henze, Dutilleux and Takemitsu. In 1973 he made his opera debut at the Edinburgh Festival and in 1981 his debut at the Bayreuth Festival, where over 18 consecutive summers he conducted Tristan und Isolde, The Ring, Parsifal and Die Meistersinger.
In 1991, he succeeded Solti as music director of the Chicago Symphony and in 2006 was named “honorary conductor for life”. In 1992, he became general music director of Berlin’s Deutsche Staatsoper and in 2000, the Berlin Staatskapelle appointed him “chief conductor for life”. He also appears regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker. In 2007 he began a close relationship with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he conducts opera and concerts as well as playing chamber music. In 2011 he was appointed music director of the legendary Milan institution.
In 1999, together with the late Palestinian-born writer and Columbia University professor Edward Said, Barenboim founded the West-Eastern Divan workshop and orchestra. For his efforts towards reconciliation in the Middle East as well as his musical achievements, Barenboim has been the recipient of many prizes and honours. He previously conducted the New Year’s Concert in 2009.
