Orchestra to abandon Nazi-era arrangement
V THE VIENNA Philharmonic is doing away with an arrangement of Johann Strauss I’s Radetsky March, set by the Naziera composer Leopold Weninger, for its forthcoming New Year’s Concert.
The orchestra’s leadership confirmed the decision to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, stating that henceforth the Philharmonic wanted a version of the march “unconnected to the Nazi past.”
Instead, on January 1 the Vienna Philharmonic, led by conductor Andris Nelsons, will perform a 1914 setting of the march that researchers found in the orchestra’s archives.
Since 1946, the New Year Concert has closed with two encores: Johann Strauss II’s The Blue Danube and Weninger’s setting of the Radetsky March.
Weninger, born in Austria in 1879, studied composition and piano in Vienna before relocating to Germany in 1909 to continue his studies.
In February 1932, he joined the Nazi party. Working within Nazi cultural organisations, he became a successful composer, conductor, and arranger after Hitler assumed power in January 1933.
Weninger was behind popular arrangements of the party’s anthem, Horst-Wessel-Lied, as well as hymns dedicated to Hitler and SA paramilitary marches. He died in February 1940.
The New Year’s Concert itself has Nazi roots. Beginning in 1939, its programme of frothy Strauss waltzes, performed in the opulent surrounds of Vienna’s Musikverein, was intended to promote the Austrian capital and boost morale.
Despite its origins, the concerts continued after the war. In 1987, the Philharmonic was led by Herbert von Karajan, whose conducting career thrived in Nazi Germany.