Daniel Barenboim conducts dance music from all round the world
31 Dec 2001
New Year’s Eve Concert
Berliner Philharmoniker
Daniel Barenboim
Johann Sebastian Bach
Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068: Gavotte I and II (4 min.)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Divertimento in D major, K. 334: Menuetto (5 min.)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Rondo for piano and orchestra in D major, K. 382 (11 min.)Daniel Barenboim Klavier
Giuseppe Verdi
Aida: Dance of the Little Moorish Slaves (1 min.)Antonín Dvořák
Slavonic Dance in G minor, op. 46 no. 8 (4 min.)Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The Nutcracker, op. 71: Waltz of the Flowers (8 min.)Jean Sibelius
Valse triste, op. 44 (5 min.)Johann Strauss
Emperor Waltz, op. 437 (12 min.)Zoltán Kodály
Dances of Galánta (20 min.)Horacio Salgán
A fuego lento (4 min.)Zequinha de Abréu
Tico Tico (5 min.)Johann Strauss
Thunder and Lightning, op. 324 (3 min.)José Carlí
El Firulete (3 min.)Johannes Brahms
Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor (5 min.)
In 2001, the Berliner Philharmoniker and conductor Daniel Barenboim celebrated New Year’s Eve with dance music from three centuries. The proceedings began with a gavotte by Bach – the first time that one of the Thomaskantor’s works had been heard at a New Year’s Eve concert since 1984, when Karajan conducted the Magnificat. There followed a minuet by Mozart and the Rondo for Piano and Orchestra K. 386, for which Barenboim abandoned the conductor’s podium for the keyboard – much to the delight of the audience.
After this Classical and Baroque opening, it was the turn of the Romantics with the cheeky Dance of the Moorish Slaves from Verdi’s Aida and Dvořák’s impassioned Slavonic Dance No. 8. A series of very special waltzes followed in the form of Tchaikovsky’s gossamer-light Dance of the Flowers from The Nutcracker, Sibelius’s melancholy Valse triste and the splendid Emperor Waltz by Johann Strauß, encouraging listeners and musicians alike to revel in the music’s triple-time rhythms.
With Kodály’s Dances of Galánta Barenboim then moved into the 20th century before ending his programme with two bonnes bouches from his Latin American homeland: with Horacio Salgán’s tango for orchestra, A fuego lento, and the catchy, jazz-inspired Tico Tico, the orchestra once again showed that there is no musical language in the world in which it is not at home. As one critic wrote, “There are not many symphony orchestras, especially in Europe, that could articulate these exotic rhythms with such razor-sharp clarity.” The audience’s enthusiasm persuaded the orchestra to perform three encores before conductor and orchestra were allowed to leave the platform, after which the concertgoers hurried away to other New Year’s Eve celebrations.
© 2001 EuroArts Music International
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