New Year's Concert 2026 im Wiener Musikverein

About the Event

He can't even count to three! – That's what people like to say when someone seems to be a little out of their mind. One, two, three, it's child's play, that's what it means. But the fact that the elementary and seemingly simple in music can be among the most special, delicate, and difficult things of all is proven whenever it comes to making the Viennese waltz swing and float. It is much more a case of counting “one‐two – and maybe three,” as Bruno Walter once tried to teach an American orchestra. The two earlier, the three later, so “maybe”: it's all about feeling. Musicians have a feel for it – just as they do for fast polkas, marches, and many other genres of so‐called light music. It is so difficult because you must not feel any heaviness. At the turn of the year, you should not feel the weight of advancing age “one, two, three at a brisk pace,” but rather be lifted up by the music. Then you are comforted – and consoled. The Tonkünstler ensure this every time: Happy New Year!

Wiener Musikverein

The Wiener Musikverein is one of the world's great concert halls. The home of the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra and the centre of Viennese musical life, the building was opened in 1870 as a part of an ambitious plan to create an elegant cultural boulevard along the Ringstrasse. Designed in the Neo‐Classical style to resemble an Ancient Greek temple, the Great Hall of the Musikverein is deemed to be one of the best music halls in the world thanks to its impeccable acoustics.
In 2004 four new halls were added to the building. The Austrian architect Wilhelm Holzbauer recognised the aesthetic importance of the existing building and sought out ways to echo the style in a modern language of form. Each of the four New Halls focuses on a different material — glass, metal, stone, and wood.