Johann Strauss takes over Mallorca

If you are a fan of Johann Strauss (the second) and his Viennese dance music of the nineteenth century, then you are spoilt for choice this New Year.

There are six concerts of the highest calibre either dedicated exclusively to Strauss or with a predominantly Strauss programme.

Returning to Palma on January 2 is the Strauss Festival Orchestra. Founded in 1978, it has established itself as a leading orchestra that interprets Viennese music all over the world. The SFO regularly tours over the New Year period, and Palma is one of the venues.
Highlights of the programme, naturally enough, include ‘The Blue Danube’ and the ‘Radetzky March’, and something that sets this concert apart from the others is that it also features dance. The orchestra is accompanied by the Strauss Festival Ballet Ensemble.
Also on Thursday an ensemble from the world renowned Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing classics from the Strauss Dynasty, such as the ‘Rosen aus den Süden’ (Roses of the South) waltz medley and the fast polka ‘Auf der Jagd’ (On the Hunt). This will be the day after the orchestra performs for the traditional concert at Vienna’s Musikverein that is broadcast to almost 100 countries round the world.

If Thursday will see two orchestras from Vienna, Wednesday will have two home-grown orchestras and one of the six concerts not being staged in Palma. The exceptional Mallorca Chamber Orchestra’s New Year’s Day concert in Inca will have a selection of Strauss waltzes and polkas plus dashes of Franz Lehar, Jacques Offenbach and Pyotr Tchaikovsky (‘Waltz of the Flowers’ from ‘The Nutcracker’). There is a second concert in Alcudia on January 2.

The Balearic Symphony Orchestra’s New Year’s Day concert is the most diverse in terms of composer. As well as seven pieces by Strauss, this also features Lehar’s ‘Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss’ and, among others, Bernstein’s ‘I Feel Pretty’. The soloist will be American soprano Lauren Urquhart, who has been a full-time member of the Volksoper Wien (Vienna) since 2019, when she was one of the youngest ever recruits. (The second concert in Manacor had sold out by time of writing.)