Regarding repertoire for the NYE concerts–I haven’t watched either. I haven’t watched a single Vienna concert since high school. I can’t stand much of the Viennese waltzes; I admire the historical associations and the tradition, but on a personal level, that repertoire just doesn’t speak to me. The NYP show looks like a bad Boston Pops concert; I know they needed to play some populist stuff to please the PBS bean-counters, but nothing says middle-of-the-road like a lot of Copland. I actually kind of like Copland, but I think it needs the right contextual programming around it, and the Phil’s show hardly does that. (Again, I’ll admit I haven’t watched either. I’m judging this based on your descriptions and past experiences with this sort of concert….so take what I’m saying with a grain of salt)

Regarding dress: I think the traditional formal wear of tuxes is problematic so I completely sympathize with the trend among certain people in classical music circles regarding the need to ‘dress down.’ I DO however, think most people in this camp have taken the wrong approach the correcting the problem. Neither Hawaiian shirts (I’ve seen this happen) or all black are the way to go. Nor is jeans and an untucked shirt. I’ve also seen this happen.

What I’d really like to see are some contemporary style suits and gowns or perhaps bring in a slick fashion designer (here is where too avant garde is NOT good)…I want fashionably-hip formal rather than slob-casual (which is what happened when you start dressing down orchestras) or the too formal (i.e. white-tie all the time). There’s a place for white-tie, but I don’t think that should be the norm today.

Great blog, Will, by the way. Totally agreed on almost everything. Part of the beauty of a Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s day concert (they do not play any New Year’s eve concert) is that every year they sound the same! Each time they play a piece, such as this Die Fledermaus overture, the same phrasing– take the oboe theme starting at 5.12, how the group of sixteenth notes is slightly delayed and how the 1st of the sixteenth notes is play slightly with a tenuto and the other three rushed. These small playful timing issues are all over the concert. Every piece they play on these New Year’s concerts is saturated with the most lovely, complex, yet totally organic nuance. This is really the highest form of musicality.

As for the clothing issue, I’m a proud dress-downer for symphony concerts! Casualization is my middle name!