The State Theatre presents a ‘Salute to Vienna.’
By: Susan Van Dongen
Dance styles and crazes come and go. Right now people are complaining about freak dancing being too provocative. Moshing and slam dancing created some broken bones in the ’80s and ’90s. Before that it was disco in the ’70s, and any number of dances during the ’50s and ’60s, from the mambo to the Madison. Throw in the jitterbug, the Charleston and the foxtrot and you can almost picture society changing with the dances, music and fashions from different eras and people being scandalized by all the styles when they were new.
That’s why the waltz is so outstanding. It was the king of dances for a century or more, with its heyday in mid-19th century Europe. The vision of elegant men and women holding each other, gliding across the floor of a beautiful ballroom is iconic and also surprisingly erotic. It might seem the polar opposite of freaking, but there was still quite a bit of sensuality going on between those swirling bodies.
Even as late in its popularity as 1919, H.L. Mencken quipped that the waltz was something "magnificently improper the art of tone turned lubricious. There is something about a waltz that is irresistible. Try it on the fattest and sedatest or even on the thinnest and most acidulous of women, and she will be ready, in 10 minutes, for a stealthy smack behind the door."
Perhaps that’s why the waltz and the music that accompanies the dance takes people to a place that is joyous, romantic and a little fantastical. And ground zero for the waltz must certainly be Vienna, Austria, thanks to the Strauss family and its two generations of creating the world’s favorite waltzes.
Waltz lovers in central New Jersey can be transported to the days of the Strausses when Salute to Vienna stops at the State Theatre in New Brunswick on New Year’s Eve. The only North American event of its kind, the concert will recreate the Viennese New Year’s concert, which many people might know from the PBS special From Vienna. But this is live, featuring a cast of more than 75 dancers, musicians and singers from Europe and North America, dancing exhilarating polkas and waltzes and presenting arias and duets from such popular operettas as The Merry Widow.
The special New Year’s Eve concert, which will travel to Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center the next day, will feature Viennese soprano Ingrid Mankhof and baritone George Lehner. Maestro Peter Guth will conduct the orchestra.
Salute to Vienna has been touring North America this time of year since 1995, thanks to founding producers Attila and Marion Glatz. Inspired by childhood memories of listening to the famous Neujahrskonzert (New Year’s concert) in Hungary and Austria, the Glatzes wanted to share the tradition with North Americans.
"I grew up in Hungary and remember listening to the concert on the radio everyone listened to the music from Vienna on New Year’s Day," says Mr. Glatz, speaking from the group’s base in Toronto. "Now the concert is televised to 1.3 billion people in the world by PBS."
It’s grown into quite an undertaking, with live concerts happening almost simultaneously in 14 cities. Mr. Glatz says they employ more than 2,000 musicians to play for Salute to Vienna.
"They like us because we give them lots of work," he says. "This will be the 10th anniversary performance at Lincoln Center but the first time we’ll bring the show to New Brunswick which is a stunningly beautiful theater."
Salute to Vienna has graced the stages of Washington’s Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Chicago’s Symphony Hall and many more venues. It’s the only live performance of its kind outside of Austria officially recognized by the mayor of Vienna as an authentic Viennese New Year’s celebration.
It’s not an ancient New Year’s tradition, like Medieval English mummers, who have famously migrated to the streets of Philadelphia. The annual concerts in Vienna at least the broadcast versions go back to 1939, although audiences were enjoying a New Year’s waltz long before then.
"The tradition goes back to the Strausses, to the 19th century," Mr. Glatz says. "Of course, there was no radio or television back then. Johann Strauss Jr. died in 1899, but his music never lost its popularity. The Vienna Philharmonic picked up his music in the early ’30s and that’s when they started to produce annual Viennese concerts."
In the program notes for PBS’ From Vienna, music historian Justin Davidson writes that the annual New Year’s Day concert has a more uncertain background. In a sense, it was a way for Austria to showcase its history and traditions, as Hitler’s Germany was starting to annex various countries.
"The first (concert) took place in 1939, four decades after Johann Jr.’s death, and months after Austria had been absorbed into Hitler’s Germany," Mr. Davidson writes. "The Vienna Philharmonic’s Web site interprets that event as a cautiously subversive act: ‘In performing a concert consisting entirely of works of the Strauss dynasty, the orchestra subtly underscored Austrian nationality at a time when the country had disappeared from the world map,’ the orchestra’s official history explains."
The annual concert was silenced only twice during World War II, Mr. Glatz believes, but returned with a vengeance for the first New Year’s Day after the war was over. He says generations come back to this music because it’s joyful and familiar.
"It’s entertaining," Mr. Glatz says. "They’re beautiful melodies that everyone knows, for example, the ‘Blue Danube Waltz.’ There’s always something happening dancing, singing, the conductor telling Viennese stories. It’s a great tradition that everyone loves."
Salute to Vienna will be performed at the State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, Dec. 31, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $45-$90. For information, call (732) 246-7469. On the Web: www.statetheatrenj.org. Salute to Vienna on the Web: www.salutetovienna.com

