Interactive database of the New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic

The site includes a complete interactive database of all concerts from 1939 to today, a full catalogue of all pieces ever performed, and statistical analyses of repertoire, composers, conductors, repetitions, and long-term trends.

Select a year
New Year's Concert

(*Click on conductor, pieces, musical forms, and composers.)

Conductor: ‍

Program:

    Encores:

      Information

      ‍

      Catalogue of pieces
      Analysis and context of the New Year’s Concert
      What does a New Year’s Concert consist of?

      Overall structure. Each New Year’s Concert follows a well-established structure. The core of the event is the main programme, which typically includes around 15 pieces. The concert is divided into two parts. The first part is shorter, lasting about 30 minutes. This is followed by an intermission of similar length, during which a documentary or short film is often broadcast. The second part of the concert is usually longer, often exceeding one hour, and concludes with a small set of additional pieces known as encores, which are not listed in the official programme. While the main programme varies substantially from year to year in both length and content, the encores are highly ritualised.

      The ritual of the encores. Since 1969, The Blue Danube and the Radetzky March have been performed almost every year as encores, with a single exception: the Radetzky March was omitted in 2005 following the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

      The Blue Danube. A distinctive tradition accompanies The Blue Danube. After the opening bars, the orchestra briefly stops and the conductor turns to the audience to deliver a short address, which may range from a few words to a simple New Year’s greeting in German: the conductor says “Die Wiener Philharmoniker und ich wünschen Ihnen” and the orchestra completes with Prosit Neujahr”

      Finale. The concert traditionally closes with the Radetzky March, during which the audience often joins in by clapping in rhythm, guided by the conductor.

      This plot displays the evolution of the main program size over time.

      Who is the conductor of the New Year’s Concert?

      The beginning. The New Year’s Concert was initially shaped by long, stable periods under a single conductor. Clemens Krauss led the concert from 1939 to 1954, with only a brief interruption in 1946 and 1947.

      The Boskovsky era. Krauss was followed by Willi Boskovsky, who conducted the concert consecutively for from 1955 to 1979, holding the longest uninterrupted tenure and the record for the highest total number of appearances as conductor (25 editions). During this period, many of the musical and ritual traditions that still define the event today were firmly established.

      Transition years. In the 1980s, Lorin Maazel became the central figure, conducting seven editions during that decade and later returning on four additional occasions.

      Rotating conductors. A major structural change occurred in 1987, when the Vienna Philharmonic adopted a policy of regularly rotating conductors instead of appointing a long-term musical director for the concert, beginning with Herbert von Karajan.

      Recent pattern. Since then, the podium has alternated between returning and first-time conductors. Some have reappeared intermittently over the years, most notably Riccardo Muti, who has conducted the New Year’s Concert seven times.

      This plot shows how many New Year’s Concerts each conductor has led, highlighting the difference from long, uninterrupted tenures (Boskovsky, Krauss, and Maazel) to the modern era of rotating conductors.
      Just polkas and waltzes? What gets played and how it evolves

      Musical forms. The identity of the New Year’s Concert is strongly shaped by the musical forms of the performed pieces. The programme is largely dominated by polkas, waltzes, and marches, reflecting the central role of 19th-century Viennese dance music in the concert’s tradition. Closely linked to social dancing and festive public occasions, these forms define the stylistic boundaries of the event, while other musical forms appear only marginally.

      Considering all pieces performed across every edition of the New Year’s Concert (including repetitions), the repertoire is largely dominated by a small number of musical forms. We show the most frequent forms: Polkas ( performances), waltzes (), and marches () account for a large fraction of the total program, while all other forms appear comparatively rarely and are therefore grouped as Others.
      Looking at the repertoire itself (each piece counted once, no repetitions), there are unique pieces that have ever been played. This histogram ranks musical forms by how many pieces of each form exist, and shows the most common forms. Even without repetition, polkas () and waltzes () still lead, followed by overtures (), marches (), and galops ().
      Each bar is one edition. Pieces are grouped by musical form (Polka, Waltz, March, Galop, Overture, and Others) using the piece type in the dataset, with Polka subtypes merged into 'Polka'.
      Same information as the stacked bars, but shown as time series. Each curve represents the percentage share of a musical form within a given edition.
      Is the New Year's Concert only about the Strauss family? Strauss vs non-Strauss

      Strauss origins. The New Year’s Concert was conceived from the outset as a celebration of the music of the Strauss family. The first work by a non-Strauss composer did not appear until 1961, when Josef Lanner’s Hofballtänze, op. 161, was included in the programme.

      Gradual broadening. Over the last few decades, the repertoire has slowly expanded beyond the Strauss family, with an increasing presence of other Viennese composers. This broadening remains limited, but it marks a clear shift away from an exclusively Strauss-centred programme.

      Which composers have appeared in the program? Which Strauss is the most performed?

      Two notions of prominence. The role of a composer in the New Year’s Concert can be measured in two distinct ways: by how often their music is performed (counting repetitions), and by how many different works by that composer have appeared at least once in the programme.

      A clear hierarchy. By a wide margin, Johann Strauss II is the most performed composer in the concert’s history. He is followed at some distance by his brother Josef Strauss, and then by their father Johann Strauss I. The panels below contrast dominance through repetition with breadth of repertoire, and show how this balance evolves over time.

      This horizontal histogram ranks composers by total appearances across all performed pieces (including repeats). The plot shows the top and groups the rest as Others. By far, the most performed composer is ( times), followed by (), (), and ().
      This horizontal histogram ranks composers by how many unique pieces they contributed to the New Year’s Concert repertoire (each piece counted once). It shows the top and groups the rest as Others. The largest contributors are ( pieces), followed by (), (), and ().
      Each bar is one edition. Pieces are grouped by composer (Johann Strauss II., Josef Strauss, Johann Strauss I., Eduard Strauss, Josef Lanner, Joseph Hellmesberger Jr.), with all remaining composers grouped as Others.
      Same grouping as the stacked chart, but shown as percentages to remove the effect of editions having slightly different program lengths.
      Which pieces are often performed at the New Year’s Concert?
      Some pieces have become inseparable from the identity of the New Year’s Concert. The most frequently performed piece is , which has appeared times across editions. The second most frequently performed piece is ( appearances). The third piece is ( appearances). This contrasts with the fact that, out of the entire catalogue ( pieces), have been performed only once (%).

      This histogram shows the most repeated pieces.
      This plot shows the full distribution of appearances: each point is one piece, ordered from least played to most played. In total, different pieces have appeared at least once in the concert, and out of (%) have been played only once.
      Evolution of the repertoire over time: new pieces and repetitions
      In the early years of the New Year’s Concert, most performed pieces were being played for the first time. As the decades passed, the repertoire gradually stabilised, and by the late 1980s familiar works were returning regularly while genuinely new additions became rarer. A clear change coincides with 1987, when the Philharmonic adopted the policy of regularly rotating conductors, starting with Herbert von Karajan. From that point on, the influx of new pieces increases again, showing how each conductor tried to leave a personal imprint on the program.
      Each bar is one edition. A piece is counted as new in a given year if it had never appeared in any earlier New Year’s Concert; otherwise it is counted as a repeat. Across all editions in this dataset, distinct works enter the concert’s repertoire at least once (i.e., they appear as 'new' in the year of their first appearance), while performances are repeats of works that had already been heard before.
      Same idea as the count chart, but expressed as percentages so that editions with different program lengths are comparable. The most 'novel' edition (highest share of new pieces) is with % new pieces.
      This plot follows all performed pieces (repeated or not) accumulated across editions, in chronological order. The horizontal axis counts the total number of pieces performed (including repeats), while the vertical axis shows how many distinct works have appeared so far. The growing gap between the two curves represents the accumulation of repetitions over time. Earlier in the concert’s history, this gap widens rapidly, reflecting the frequent reuse of a small, established repertoire. In more recent decades, the gap expands more slowly, indicating a tendency to introduce more new pieces.