The Vienna Prater Picnic offers the perfect opportunity to enjoy a classical concert for free on a warm summer evening. With this open-air concert, the Wiener Symphoniker invite their audience to pack their picnic baskets and relax on the green Kaiserwiese of the Vienna Prater in front of the famous ferris wheel. This edition of the Picnic features Austrian singer Julian le Play as well as soprano Annette Dasch and baritone Georg Nigl. At the podium of the Wiener Symphoniker, Dirk Kaftan entertains with a crowd-pleasing programme featuring Johann Strauss II, Franz Lehár, Arturo Márquez and more.
Popelka conducts Dvorak and Strauss
Together with the Wiener Symphoniker and cellist Gautier Capuçon, Petr Popelka proves to be “a conductor who knows how to unleash storms” (Kurier). First, Capuçon shines with a repertoire favourite – Antonin Dvorák’s cello concerto in B minor. “In the midst of the marvellously accompanying symphony orchestra, he was able to showcase all his skills and, above all, his stunningly full-bodied instrument” (Die Presse). What followed in the second half was equally brilliant with Strauss’ tone poems Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche: The Dream Team captivated the audience with their exuberant joy of playing and a cornucopia of sound…enchanting changes of mood and tempo, magical moments of calm, poetry and light-footed mischief: it was all there” (Der Standard). PROGRAM: Dvorak – Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 104; Strauss – Don Juan, Op. 20; Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op. 28
Springtime in Vienna 2024
Say goodbye to winter blues with this musical bouquet of wonderful melodies. Every year, the Wiener Symphoniker ring in the spring season with their Easter Concert, which has been a major highlight of Vienna’s musical calendar for more than 40 years. This edition features conductor Manfred Honeck, the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien and world-class soprano Diana Damrau, who dazzles the audience with Puccini’s “O mio babbino caro”, Lehár’s “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß” and Poulenc’s “Gloria” among others. PROGRAM: Music by Bruckner, Brahms, Puccini, Lehar, Orff, Poulenc.
The Vienna Christmas Concert
The Wiener Symphoniker perform a grand Advent concert at Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral featuring a diverse program conducted by Marie Jacquot. The concert includes works from various composers, such as Michael Praetorius, Leopold Mozart, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Albert Malotte, and Adolphe Adam. Soprano Fatma Said, tenor Jonathan Tetelman, and the Singverein will explore global Christmas traditions, with classics like Bach’s “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” and “O du fröhliche” concluding the event.
Vienna Prater Picnic Concert
With their Prater Picnic, the Wiener Symphoniker offer a very special open-air concert to their audience: visitors are invited to pack their picnic basket and enjoy a colourful concert on the Kaiserwiese in the Vienna Prater in front of the spectacular backdrop of the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel. This year, under the musical direction of Dirk Kaftan, the Wiener Symphoniker, together with soprano Vera-Lotte Boecker and baritone Rafael Fingerlos, embark on a musical journey around the world to mark the 150th anniversary of the Vienna World’s Fair of 1873 – with works by composers of this era from Robert Stolz and George Enescu to George Gershwin, Cole Porter and John Lennon.
Springtime in Vienna 2023
For more than 40 years, “Springtime in Vienna”, the TV Easter Concert of the Wiener Symphoniker, has been a major highlight of Vienna’s musical calendar. Featuring the world’s most in demand soloists, the Wiener Symphoniker celebrate the upcoming spring with a colorful bouquet of lively melodies. This edition features Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann. Within just a few years, she has established herself as one of the leading sopranos of her generation being acclaimed by audiences and critics alike for her exceptionally beautiful timbre and sensitive performances, most recently “outstanding as a radiant Pamina” (The Telegraph) at the Salzburg Festival. She has received numerous awards and prizes and in 2015, she was finalist of the “Cardiff Singer of the World” Competition.
Honeck conducts Beethoven & Schmidt
Young Spanish violinist María Dueñas is currently conquering the concert stages of the world and performing with the most renowned orchestras and conductors of our time. Her technical skills, artistic maturity and interpretations full of character come together in her performances. Winner of several violin competitions, she was selected by BBC Radio 3 as one of the New Generation Artists 2021-23. In this concert with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck, she presents Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with her own cadenzas. “Her mixture of tautness and elasticity, verve and sensitivity was as enchanting as the focused, luminous tone of her violin” (Der Standard). The concert is rounded off with Franz Schmidt’s (1874–1939) Fourth Symphony.
Vienna Advent Concert at St. Stephen’s Cathedral
The Christmas concert of the Wiener Symphoniker in St. Stephen’s Cathedral is a wonderful way to get in the mood for Christmas. It opens the heart and makes one ready to welcome Christ in every person. For this concert French conductor Fabien Gabel presents timeless oratorio classics by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, as well as romantic church music by Gioachino Rossini, Giacomo Puccini and Hector Berlioz. The soloists are soprano Elsa Benoît, tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Diana Tishchenko on violin and ARD Music Prize winner Selina Ott on trumpet. In addition, the Wiener Sängerknaben and the Chorus Viennensis created a Christmas atmosphere in the festively decorated cathedral. Programme: Bach: Magnificat, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen; Handel: Overture to Samson, Thus when the sun, Awake the trumpet lovely sound, Let the Bright Seraphim; Puccini: Preludio sinfonico; Rossini: Domine Deus from Petite messe solenelle; Berlioz: L’Adieu des bergers à la Sainte Famille from L’Enfance du Christ; Massenet: Méditation from Thaïs; Glasunov: Album leaf; Schreker: Valse lente; Strauss: Wiegenlied (Lullaby); Anonymus: Adeste fideles
The Vienna Christmas Concert from the Stephansdom
The festive concert from St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna spreads pre-Christmas mood with four well-known vocal soloists, the Vienna Boys’ Choir and the Vienna Symphony
Orchestra. The program under the musical direction of David Afkham includes sacred and solemn music from all over Europe, from J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Charles Gounod’s “Sanctus” to the grand finale with Engelbert Humperdinck’s Evening Blessing from “Hänsel und Gretel”. At the end of the concert, the Christmas carol “Adeste fideles” is sung together.
An evening with Lehár
Franz Lehár, the founder of the Silver Operetta Era and creator of unforgettable melodies, would have turned 150 in 2020. He has been a central artistic companion of the Wiener Symphoniker who initiated a fabulous concert with renowned artists including Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund and tenors Piotr Beczala and Michael Schade. Manfred Honeck conducts. The concert at the beautiful Theater an der Wien features Lehár’s most popular pieces from The Merry Widow, The Land Of Smiles, Zarewitsch, The Count Of Luxembourg and Giuditta including the hits Meine Lippen, Sie Küssen So Heiß and Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz.