The Music Center at Strathmore is hosting a glorious New Year’s Day ball Saturday afternoon, and all are invited to join in the celebration. Once again, as it has for the last 16 years, the Salute to Vienna concert series, produced by Attila Glatz Concert Productions, celebrates the new year at Strathmore, and in cities throughout North America, with a favorite musical tradition based upon Vienna’s famous and beloved Neujahrskonzert.
| IF YOU GO |
| Salute to Vienna |
| Where: The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda |
| When: 2 p.m. Saturday |
| Info: $49; 301-581-5100; strathmore.org |
“I wish I could take the credit for the [idea], but the credit goes to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, who decided 75 years ago that they were going to have a New Year’s concert with the music of Johann Strauss Jr.,” Glatz said, adding in his Hungarian accent, “They call him the Waltz King.”
That first Viennese celebration was so successful the orchestra still performs the concert, which now is televised to 1.5 billion people across the world. Here in North America, Glatz noted his production company presents 22 live concerts countrywide and all within a three-day period.
“Basically we have 12 companies covering the major cities [here],” Glatz continued. “We have conductors, singers and dancers from Europe performing onstage.”
At Strathmore, the Strauss Symphony of America, under the baton of conductor Guido Mancusi, will be joined by Hungarian soprano Anita Lukaca, Hungarian tenor Zsolt Vadasz, members of the National Moravian-Silesian Ballet, as well as international ballroom dancers in a program that features famous polkas and operatic excerpts by Strauss and his contemporaries. While the program differs in various cities, there are two mandatory pieces that must be included.
“The ‘Blue Danube’ waltz and the ‘Radetzky March,’ written by the senior Strauss, must be played by all,” Glatz noted. And regarding his choice of conductors, he said it is “so important that there be conductor[s] from the Old Country because they have the feel for the music and know how to interpret it for the audience.”
Other pieces to be performed include Victor Herbert’s “Freikugein Polka” and the “Gypsy Baron Overture” by Johann Strauss Jr., as well as favorite ballroom dances and ballets.
“We hear from our audiences year after year that once [they] have the concert behind [them], they feel like the year ahead will be a good one,” Glatz said.
