The Herald - The Herald Magazine
A sparkling chaos of music and dance
Author and MSP Angus Robertson on the centuries-old origins of Vienna’s world-famous New Year’s Day concert
VIENNA is an international capital, a city that has been a pivot for diplomacy, culture, intellectual thought, music, art, design and architecture for hundreds of years. Its famous annual New Year’s concert and its glittering winter balls are long traditions that seem to distil the essence of festive celebration and they have survived periods of turmoil and upheaval.
They have their origins in the pomp and circumstance of the Habsburg court, which had its seat in Vienna for 600 years. Heading both the Holy Roman Empire and ruling territories across central and Eastern Europe, it was one of the most powerful and grandest in Europe.
I had the good fortune to report from Vienna as a journalist for a decade. The city’s cultural life and historic background were at the heart of many reports, from the Opera Ball, which attracts leaders and celebrities from around the world, to the New Year’s Concert with its huge annual global TV audience. Little did I know then how rooted these events were in Vienna’s pedigree as a centuries-old international capital. During my time in the city working for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC I learnt much about the Habsburgs, Vienna’s personalities from Mozart to Freud and Hitler, its brilliant cultural life, music and architecture. Nowhere however did I find a book that told the whole story of Vienna and its international pre-eminence, so I wrote it myself: Vienna – The International Capital.
The annual court calendar began with a New Year reception, followed by carnival season with the two grandest balls: the Court Ball and the
Ball at Court. In 1814-15 the season started early, when the Congress of Vienna began in October. This event established the Austrian capital as the pre-eminent diplomatic city of the age. Aimed at securing a long-term peace settlement for Europe following the Napoleonic Wars, it was the first largescale multilateral diplomatic conference to bring together sovereigns and government ministers from across the continent. Hosted by Emperor Francis I and managed by his brilliant foreign minister, Metternich, the other main congress participants included Russian Tsar Alexander I, Prussian King Frederick William III, British Foreign Secretary Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh and French Foreign Minister CharlesMaurice Talleyrande-Périgord. They were joined by delegations from more than 200 states, ruling houses, cities and religious organisations.
Monarchs, ministers, diplomats, their retinues and hangers-on, alongside hosts of tradesmen, profit seekers, prostitutes and interested travellers, headed to Vienna, swelling the city’s 250,000-strong population by 100,000 people. An exhausted Europe had suffered two decades of violence and privation, and the congress was set to chart a better future. It was expected to take no more than three to four weeks. But, as historian David King recounts, “the delegates indulged in unrestrained celebrations. The Vienna peace conference soon morphed into a glittering vanity fair: masked balls, medieval style jousts, and grand formal banquets – a “sparkling chaos that would light up the banks of the Danube”.
The perception of diplomacy to this day involves dances, ballrooms and high-society celebrations, images which all stem from the Vienna congress. The chronicler CharlesJoseph, 7th Prince de Ligne, famously said: “All Europe is here: and if you are fond of fêtes and balls you will have enough of them; the Congress does not move forward, it dances.”
From the start, the social side of the congress seemed at least as important as day-to-day diplomatic developments. Beginning with “possibly the most spectacular party ever held”, the masked ball in the Hofburg attracted more than 10,000 guests. Friedrich von Schönholz wrote: “Every dais is draped in velvet, with red and gold the colours here, silver and blue beyond ... Everywhere there are floating buffets with the most delicious refreshments, but everywhere, too, the most murderous crush, for your clever ticket collectors at the doors have resold the selfsame tickets immediately after, and at a handsome profit, too. Rumour has it that fully a quarter of the 10,000 silver spoons bearing the imperial crest, disappeared among the crowd.”
Concerts and balls at the Hofburg were to occur throughout the congress, establishing its reputation as a premier venue for diplomatic events.
While formal diplomacy and politics in 1814 was an exclusively male preserve, women were very involved in informal and highly influential ways: as unofficial advisors, hosts and communicators. This was especially true given the informal nature of the congress, which never actually met in plenary, and where much of the interaction took place in what were notionally the social settings of salons hosted by women.
One of the best attended was the Tuesday evening salon hosted by Fanny von Arnstein. Baroness von Arnstein, who was Jewish, had a reputation for refined sociability and, notwithstanding widespread antiSemitism, her mansion on the Hoher Markt ranked “amongst the first in Vienna”. Her events involved up to
200 guests, including leading ministers and diplomats but also less senior delegates with artistic interests, like poet Friedrich von Schlegel, budding writer Jacob Grimm, and Carl Berthuch, who represented German publishers and book dealers. Her Christmas reception in 1814 involved the “Berlin custom” of a Christmas tree: “the first Christmas tree that Vienna had seen”.
In January 1815, a grand sledge party was organised with 34 large horse-drawn sledges setting off from the Hofburg towards Schönbrunn
Vienna’s glittering winter balls have survived periods of turmoil and upheaval
Palace accompanied by a brass band. The European royals went first, and lots were drawn to determine who would accompany whom in the following sledges. “On this occasion there was a great display of coquetterie et luxe,” observed Count Otto Löwenstern. “The merry silver bells, the embroideries, the fringes, were all new, and glitteringly bright as the frost-bound snow. The cavaliers for the most part were beaux; les dames, without exception of course, trèsbelles, and all muffed up in ravishingly becoming velvets and furs.”
After the excesses of the Congress, Central Europe entered the conservative Biedermeier period, presided over by Metternich. This time saw the emergence of the two great romantic composers who popularised the waltz, which subsequently became synonymous with Vienna: Johann Strauss (1804–1849) and Joseph Lanner (1801–1843).
Strauss (the elder) is best known for his Radetzky March and beginning the famous Strauss dynasty. Lanner was also known for his reworking of peasant waltzes and melodies into what would become the leading music and dance craze of the 19th century: “Woe be to him who does not waltz, for tho’ there is a blaze of beauty and the balls are quite lovely to look at once or twice, yet no girl will speak to a man who does not dance,” wrote Martha Wilmot, who lived in Vienna from 1819-29. French composer
Hector Berlioz found the balls organised by Strauss in the Redoutensaal the highlight of his time in Vienna: “The Viennese youth indulges there its sincere and touching passion for dancing, and this has led the Austrians to turn ballroom dancing into a genuine art ... I have spent entire nights watching these thousands of incomparable dancers whirling around … Strauss is there in person, directing his fine orchestra … He is a true artist.”
Johann Strauss II came to eclipse his father, becoming the Vienna “Waltz King”. He composed more than 500 works, including the Blue Danube Waltz, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron). He is personally responsible for the popularity of waltz music and its enduring association with Vienna. The other crucial musical development of Biedermeier Vienna was that the task of sponsoring concerts shifted from aristocratic patronage to bourgeois society. The Musikverein (Music Association) was founded in 1812 and is best known for its concert hall, home to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the New Year’s concert. To this day, a box is reserved for diplomats accredited in Vienna.