The range of classical music performances in Munich is quite impressive. Whether opera, symphony or ballet, there is no shortage and we can also attend numerous performances on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. But if you want to listen to a concert that is second to none, you should take a trip to Austria.
Tradition with a dark past
The Vienna New Year’s Concert took place for the first time on December 31, 1939 and was dedicated to the War Winter Relief Organization, which had previously been reopened by Hitler. The concert was part of the propaganda machinery of Joseph Goebbels, whose plan was to stage Vienna as a city of “optimism, music and conviviality” after the annexation of Austria. However, the Vienna Philharmonic was not subordinate to Goebbels, meaning that its commitment to the Nazi regime was largely self-determined.
The conductor at the time, Clemens Krauss, conducted the concerts until the end of the war and in 1944 was included in the National Socialists’ list of pardoned conductors, which was another part of Goebbels’ propaganda apparatus. After the end of the Second World War , Krauss was banned from conducting for two years by the Allies and only took over the baton again for a further seven concerts in 1948. The first concert after the end of the war on January 1, 1946, conducted by Josef Alois Krips, was called the “New Year’s Concert” for the first time.
The program of the Vienna New Year’s Concert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFfDiFvAE0I
Clemens Krauss was a great lover of the Strauss dynasty, which still characterizes the New Year’s Concerts today. Until the early 1960s, the Vienna Philharmonic played music exclusively by the Strauss family, consisting of Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss. In 1961, the orchestra included works by other composers in its program for the first time, but the focus was and still is on the Strauss dynasty. Furthermore, every year the Philharmoniker perform songs that have never been heard before in any of the New Year’s concerts, so you can always look forward to something new.
The concert is divided into two parts with a break in between and there are three encores at the end of the second part. While the first is a free encore, the second and third encores have traditionally been the Danube Waltz “An der schönen blauen Donau” and the Radetzky March since 1958. The audience claps along to the latter.
What to expect at the Vienna New Year’s Concert 2026
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Right from the start, the concert will take place in the Großer Musikvereinsaal Wien, which seats around 2,000 guests. The concert is also broadcast live on television and streamed in 150 countries and around 50 million people watch from home every year. The broadcast of the second part on television by Eurovision dates back to 1959; before that there was already a radio broadcast. Since the early 90s, viewers at home have also been able to enjoy the full concert.
The Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin will make his debut as conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert in 2026. He has already conducted the orchestra himself several times in the past, for the first time in 2010 during the Salzburg Mozart Week.
The Vienna New Year’s Concert 2026 begins on January 1 at 11:15 a.m. and will once again take place in the Great Hall of the Musikverein. As always, the focus will be on the compositions of the Strauss dynasty; other composers you can look forward to include Joseph Lanner, Josephine Weinlich and Franz von Suppè .If you are attending live, you can easily reach Vienna from Munich by train in around 4.5 hours. Otherwise you can watch it on ZDF or online in the media library. And if you can’t get enough of classical music, you can attend one of the many candlelight concerts in Munich.
📍 Location: Great Hall, Musikvereinspl. 1, 1010 Vienna
📅 Date: January 01, 2026, 11:15 am
💶 Price information: €35 to €1,200
📺 Broadcast: ZDF and ORF, both on TV and online in the media libraries