Karajan: New Year’s Concert 1987 (SACD)

Product Description

Experience the legendary 1987 Vienna New Year’s Concert, the first and only time Herbert von Karajan took the podium for this globally celebrated event. This live recording from January 1, 1987 at the Musikverein in Vienna captures the moment when the New Year’s Concert evolved into a major international occasion, eagerly followed each year by classical music fans around the world.

Karajan, then Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic and a long‑time collaborator of the Vienna Philharmonic, leads a radiant program devoted to the Strauss family, crowned by a luminous guest appearance from soprano Kathleen Battle. Her performance provides a breathtaking climax to a concert that has since passed into legend, made all the more precious as Karajan passed away just two years later, never to return to this stage.

• Composers and Repertoire Highlights:
  Johann Strauss II: Overture to Die Fledermaus; Annen-Polka Op.117; Tourist Train Polka Op.281; Thunder and Lightning Polka Op.324; Voices of Spring Op.410; The Blue Danube Op.314
  Josef Strauss: Music of the Spheres Waltz Op.235; Delirien Waltz Op.212; Without a Care Polka Op.271
  Johann Strauss I: Annen-Polka Op.137; Radetzky March Op.228
  Johann Strauss II & Josef Strauss: Pizzicato Polka
• Performers: Kathleen Battle (soprano, in Voices of Spring); Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
• Recording: Live at the Musikverein, Vienna, January 1, 1987.