Vienna is often called the capital of classical music. But what happens there during Carnival? Vienna’s citizens invite us on a journey through the Danube metropolis and its imagined, countless corners brimming with gemütlichkeit. If we lose ourselves in the abundance of parties and balls, we might encounter Mozart in a chic wig or Johann Strauss’s son sporting his whiskers. Or perhaps we be captivated by the cosmopolitan merry-go-round of dance and lyrical music from around the world? 

Every fin de siècle has its own classicism. The Viennese Classicism is most often associated with the work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At the beginning of the evening, we will hear the famous joker’s piano quartet. Giacomo Puccini’s Chrysanthemums will set the mood for an elegiac tone. This work, far removed from the verismo language, was composed to commemorate the Italian prince and King Amadeus of Spain. Edward Elgar will shake listeners from their melancholy with his Salut d’amour – an expression of young love, an engagement gift for his future wife. The great Viennese violinist Fritz Kreisler will also feature. The artist, who emigrated to America immediately after the outbreak of World War I, perpetuated the legend of the imperial-royal city in compositions such as Marche miniature viennoise.

The concert will include works by the accordionist Christian Bakanic. Believing in the creative power of tradition, the Austrian combines classical forms with folk music from both near and far, with a particular preference for tango nuevo. The admixture of this genre will bring new colours to the Viennese carnival, although we will also hear Ideocello, which brims with rock energy, and Valse rouge, which only seemingly borders on Parisian stereotypes.

The superb Bakanic has also composed the arrangements that comprise the second part of the programme. In it, Strauss, a favourite of waltz lovers, will present the overture from his signature operetta, Die Fledermaus. Franz Schubert, known as a classic of Romanticism, will play Pierrot in the song Die Nebensonnen from the rather pessimistic part of his catalogue. A janissary band, illustrated by Mozart in his piano sonata KV 331, will surely make some noise. Add to this the South American rhythms of Astor Piazzolla juxtaposed with the Central European waltz of Kreisler’s Schön Rosmarin, Dave Brubeck’s 1950s American cool jazz, and Bakanic’s tango in five-quarter metre. If it’s carnival, it’s carnival!