New Year's Concert: The Complete Works / Neujahrskonzert: Die gesamten Werke

This is a comprehensive set of music. 26 CDs with 11-16 works per CD. It is a wonderful compilation, and one-of-a-kind. If manufacturing stopped for this set, you (and the World) would really be at a loss. It is such joyous music, with the implied happiness of beautiful dancing. It never gets old. I listen to it over and over at work, and there's nothing like it to balance out a hard day.For the most part the fidelity of the recordings is excellent, but it is inconsistent at times, the music sometimes blunted by old or inferior recording. Eg, Schwert und Leier, Walzer, Op. 71 is blunted and would probably be otherwise magnificent. But, alas, some of this must be expected for an anthology spanning such a length of years. If there is an older recording that is interesting, it still catalyzes perhaps a separate purchase dedicated to the work, if one exists.Some comments mention the lack of cogent indexing. It would be nice to listen to the music in an order for academic assessment, but, since the works can be enjoyed independently for the most part, it is not necessary for enjoyment of the music itself. The reason for song placement might simply be economics: with 350ish works, to minimize the CD set, you need to run the formula "computer place the songs onto limited-space CDs to accomplish the smallest CD set...." It becomes a puzzle of placement. Placing the songs into an sequential order would force a lot of unused CD space, thereby increasing the number of CDs, thereby increasing cost, weight, shelf space, etc., and perhaps costing the product out of the market. Once the cost to manufacturer exceeds a minimum cost, it will limit volume of sales and then it might make the product unfeasible. Therefore, I'll just thank Sony and buy the product. I personally listen to these in random order anyway.This is a significant work, and it is a legacy buy. Once you have it in your family, it will supply generations of your family access to the genre. Strauss is so joyous and accessible it is a very easy entering point for a classical music newbie, and no less appreciated by the aficionado. So, buy it, it's not just for you.And, I will mention it for the record. Streaming services run at about 170-340 kbps, a CD is about 1411 kbps (thousand binary digits per second), so CD's or CD burned to a computer (at "lossless") will provide superior quality of sound. This will change for either or both in the future as bandwidth and technologies improve, but, for now, if you listen to this magnificent music by any means of a quality speakers or headphones, there is a significant blunting of sound by compression from, eg 1411 to 170 kbps, if it's streamed over the Internet, rather than from these CDs. (There are some CD quality streaming services, but they are constrained by cost or music availability) Therefore, simply stated, if you have an appreciation for the music, then you want to hear all of its magnificence, and CDs are still the best way to achieve it. This set has 26 CDs and it is a magnificent and essential compilation.

This timely set from Sony gathers together all of the pieces played at the fabled Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Day concerts, marking the 75th anniversary of the advent of these now-illustrious affairs.For the novice collector, there's a whole lot of light Viennese music in stellar performances by the Vienna Philharmonic and noted maestri. For the seasoned collector, it's a great way to get not only all the music from these concerts, but to also procure 25 previously unreleased tracks from the ORF archives, along with an entire CD of music recorded especially for this edition that was recorded this year by a smallish ensemble in an effort to include every piece ever played over the 75 years in this box set (from the editorial product review: Contains all 319 works ever performed at the concert over its 75-year history. A unique collection of musical highlights performed live under 14 great conductors. Includes 25 previously unreleased recordings from the ORF s broadcasting archives as well as a special CD with 13 new recordings by members of the Wiener Philharmoniker, capturing music from the concert s early years not recorded at the time). Best, of all, one doesn't have to deal with myriad duplications of the repertoire played over the years, so it makes sense from the perspective of effectively building or adding to one's collection.I've listened to the first 14 CDs in the set so far. The sound is superb. There's applause between each track which serves as something of an aural vamp that allows one track to flow into another without a hitch, even though the actual recording dates of the tracks may be separated by decades. Note to Karajan fans: this set includes but a single track from his 1987 appearance at these concerts. That's OK with me, because I already own two DVD copies of the complete concert as well as the 2-CD set of the *complete* concert on DG as part of their "Karajan 1980s" set (the single-CD version of this concert on DG is missing three pieces). There's a good representation from Carlos Kleiber's two appearances, though to my sensibilities his tempi are simply two fast in this music (exciting on the initial hearing, less so on repeat hearings).The one drawback to the set is that you occasionally get a really great performance of a piece led by Maazel or Mehta or Muti followed by a pedantic, joyless and (ultimately) aggravating performance led by Harnoncourt, Barenboim or some one else who is not to the manner born, but who is hell-bent on ignoring tradition and occasion to make a revisionist "point" about how one should perform Strauss "correctly." The difference can be jarring when heard side by side. It's not what one would experience if, say, they were listening to an entire concert led by Barenboim, as one tends to adjust to his approach over the course of 90 minutes. But here, you can't escape the feeling that some people think that Strauss waltzes are written in 4/4.Sony has taken care to program and sequence the tracks on each CD to showcase variety, with the same kind of fast-slow, loud-softer alternation between the basic tempi and tone of each work that one finds when one listens to the concerts every January 1.Packaging is very nice, with a hard-cover, perfect-bound book that contains track and repertoire listings and photos of the maestri involved. The CDs and booklet are housed in a very sturdy cardboard box that lifts off from the top.At a little more than $3 a CD, this set is a real bargain. Pick it up while it's still available.Highly recommended.A customer service note: Bravo to amazon's customer service department! I pre-ordered this set and paid $79 to receive it on release date. It arrived last Friday, and my account was charged $79.99. While I was writing this review, I noticed that amazon had dropped the price on the set by $20.40 to $59.59, less than a week after the product was released (if you're going to lower the price 4 days after the street date, why not lower the price on the street day so those people who help you judge your initial orders by pre-ordering product get the same discount?). So, I initiated a chat with amazon's CS rep, who immediately and without question gave me a credit of $22 toward my account. Now, THAT'S customer service!

To have all the works ever played by the Vienna Philharmonic, at the annual New Year's Day concert in one place, is a brilliant concept. This extended edition builds on the original set, by updating the collection to the 2020 concerts. Even though the many pieces are mixed together from the many concerts in different years, the 26 discs have been arranged thoughtfully to ensure listening pleasure with refreshing variety.The majority of pieces are taken from concerts from the last 20 years, but there are earlier examples too, including performances by Karajan, Kleiber and Boskovsky. Some works have been performed only once, so the compilers had no problem in choosing the best performance, both some of these were from early concerts that were not recorded. The works in question were recorded specially for this edition, and appear on the final disc.The Vienna Philharmonic plays these works like no other, but not all conductors are equally sympathetic to the orchestra's style. Most handle the music with style and sensitivity and bring out the best from this world class orchestra. However, one Nikolaus Harnoncourt, can be too fussy, and the result is a reduction in the Viennese lilt in the waltzes, and an unwelcome heaviness in what are supposed to be dances. This, I must add, is a personal observation, and I'm certain that many people will be perfectly happy with Harnoncourt's interpretations.Overall, this is a magnificent set, though for absolute completeness, you now need to add the recording of the 2021 concert.

I bought this for my husbands birthday and he absolutely adores it. He listens to a new disk everyday and is enjoying it immensely. Each CD contains a mixture of recordings from different New Year's Day Concerts.

The quality of presentation including the hardbound book you get as well is really first class. for about £2.20 a disc plus the book it's amazing value. . . Buy it . . . you wont regret it.

Present for hubby - 23 cd's and he is working his way through them! Beautiful quality and extra tracks included too with booklet. Saw it in Vienna but cheaper online!

Other reviewers have already noted all the tracks on the CDs in this box, so I'll skip that except to say there's a lot of Strauss, but also quite a few other composers on these discs. The recordings are live, so you get the enthusiastic applause from the audience after each track, which actually adds to the recording in this case. Each disc is a nice mix of music, composers, and tempo, usually lively (as befits the primary composer), and all quite enjoyable. My first exposure to the New Year's Concerts was with LPs, with a vivid memory of the first "digital" recording I heard on LP, and I have heard and seen (on DVD) a few more since then.The recordings are clear and wide dynamically, although the live audience does add a bit of background noise which is usually below the music enough as to not be present. The VPO performs masterfully, as you would expect. The accompanying book (small hardcover affair) is informative is a little brief. Overall, I really enjoyed working through these discs, one or two a day, revelling in the New Year's excitement that really does come across in these performances.