Vienna celebrates the “Waltz King”.
By Julian Mattocks • Photographs Courtesy Julian Mattocks
It’s one of the most unmistakable musical introductions ever composed: a trembling violin chord is answered by the first gently rising bars of a solo horn player. As the annual tradition goes, the audience is allowed to interrupt with light applause before the orchestra responds with a Prosit Neujahr! But when the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played the first notes of its second encore, the legendary Blue Danube waltz, at this year’s New Year’s Concert—to the delight of the estimated 50 million viewers in the over 90 countries it was broadcast to—it was also ushering in a mass celebration that continues throughout 2025. With a host of special events, concerts, exhibitions and installations, the Austrian capital is in a festive mood for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Johann Strauss II, its cherished “Waltz King”.
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