Live, TV and public screenings

The world’s most famous concert is broadcast on television and streamed to more than 150 countries, reaching 50 million viewers. If you want to be there live in Vienna, you need a bit of luck, because tickets are allocated by lottery each year due to high demand on the Vienna Philharmonic website. 

Another option is to head to one of Vienna’s public screening locations. The concert will be broadcast live in the open air at Stephansplatz (one of the stops on the New Year’s Eve Trail). At Riesenradplatz in the Prater, the live broadcast from the Vienna Music Society always starts at 11:15 am on January 1. And in 2026, the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts will also host a screening, which is fitting since the ballet scenes for the 2026 interval film were shot here.

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Fascinating Strauss sounds

The New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic combines the best of the best: The joyful and lively, but at times also contemplative music program with works by the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries will ensure a good start to the new year. The most Viennese music ever written is performed, from the waltz to the polka, interpreted with artistically value.

2025 is a special year, with all of Vienna celebrating the 200th birthday of the Waltz King Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899) with exhibitions, concerts, balls and events. But beyond the Strauss Year 2025, his music is heard every year on January 1. One item in the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert programme is always a fixture: Strauss’s masterpiece, the Blue Danube, has long since attained cult status as an encore. The principal horn plays the first bars of a legend. In a traditional ritual, the piece is interrupted right at the beginning, and the Vienna Philharmonic call out their greeting: “Prosit Neujahr!” In 2026, five works by Johann Strauss II are also scheduled.

At this year’s New Year’s Concert, the Vienna Philharmonic will perform two works by women composers: the Sirens’ Songs by the conductor, composer and musician Josephine Weinlich (who founded the first women’s orchestra in Europe in Vienna in the 1860s and attracted international attention) and the Rainbow Waltz by Florence Price (1887-1953; she was the first African American woman to gain recognition in the United States as a classical composer).

2026 concert programme

• Johann Strauss II: Overture to the operetta “Indigo and the Forty Thieves”
• Carl Michael Ziehrer: Donausagen. Waltz, op. 446
• Joseph Lanner: Malapou-Galoppe, op. 148
• Eduard Strauss: Brausteufelchen. Quick polka, op. 154
• Johann Strauss II: Die Fledermaus Quadrille, op. 363
• Johann Strauss I: Carnival in Paris. Galop, op. 100
• Franz von Suppè: Overture to the operetta “The Beautiful Galatea”
• Josephine Weinlich: Sirens’ Songs. Polka-mazurka, op. 13
• Josef Strauss: Women’s Dignity. Waltz, op. 277
• Johann Strauss II: Diplomats’ Polka. Polka française, op. 448
• Florence Price: Rainbow Waltz
• Hans Christian Lumbye: Copenhagen Railway Steam Galop
• Johann Strauss II: Roses from the South. Waltz, op. 388
• Johann Strauss II: Egyptian March, op. 335
• Josef Strauss: Palms of Peace. Waltz, op. 207

© Österreich Werbung, Fotograf: Diejun

Ballet in three-four time

The highlights of the New Year’s Concert include outstanding dance performances by the Vienna State Ballet in costumes created by leading contemporary designers, filmed in enchanting locations such as palaces and imperial gardens.

Musical ambassadors of Austria

The musicians play right at the top of the league of leading international orchestras - they are the Vienna Philharmonic. The conductors are also amongst the best in the world. The orchestra is conducted by somebody different every year. Guest conductors have included Mariss Jansons (2016), Gustavo Dudamel (2017), Andris Nelsons (2020), Daniel Barenboim (2022), Franz Welser-Möst (2023), Christian Thielemann (2024) and Riccardo Muti (2025).

On the podium in 2026: the Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a representative of the younger generation of conductors. He combines the genres that make up the musical language of the Vienna Philharmonic as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and as Principal Conductor of major international orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra. This will be his first time conducting the New Year’s Concert, but his relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic began back in 2010. The 2023 Summer Night Concert under his musical direction was a particular highlight.

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From the Golden Hall

The New Year's Concert is held in the Musikverein, the center of classical music for music fans in Vienna. The Grand Hall is also called the Golden Hall. It is considered to be not only one of the most beautiful halls in the world, but also one of the best in terms of acoustics. For the New Year's Concert, the hall, which is built in the historical style based on the model of antiquity, is decorated with wonderful flower arrangements. Columns, caryatids and gable reliefs create the impression that a temple of music has been created here.

New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic

Annually on 1 January
Start: 11.15 am
Live broadcast on ORF2 and Ö1, as well as on television and streamed to more than 150 countries worldwide
Program, information: www.wienerphilharmoniker.at

New Year’s Eve concerts at Vienna’s major venues