Melting strings, brass fanfares, bel canto and dancing at the festive New Year's concert with the Vienna Opera Ball Orchestra at the Stadtcasino in Basel 

Who nowadays experiences such an original, dignified Viennese evening as the musical New Year's greeting that took place on 18 January in the historically restored music hall of Basel's Stadtcasino in front of a full stalls and balcony? 

Conductor Andreas Spörri stood at the podium of his Vienna Opera Ball Orchestra and sailed singers and musicians with sure hands over the waves of waltzes from the symphonic ‘Poet and Peasant’ overture to the obligatory Blue Danube Waltz, the opus 314 by dynasty prince Johann Strauss in a swinging triple metre including radiant solo singing and galloping dance on the concert stage at the Rheinknie. Spörri has the flair to stretch out the opening of the classic Viennese waltz until the violins release their bows for the downstroke. The strings are joined by the wind instruments in the row below the organ prospectus, providing a counterpoint of signals and festive sounds. 

Erwin Belakowitsch, the presenter, caricatured the social norms of the time and their infidelities in a deliciously funny way with fine Viennese humour. The entertaining evening was festively fiery with a long interval after the champagne gallop to toast! Soprano Claudia Goebl and tenor Vincent Schirrmacher contributed their solo parts brilliantly, including duets. 

Extract from the concert review by Jürg Erni                                                                                                                                           
27 January 2025, former music editor at the Basler Zeitung, and at the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation