New Year’s Eve Viennese Gala Preview

The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra will be ushering in 2016 with their usual pizazz on New Years’s Eve with a traditional Viennese Gala, one of the most anticipated musical events of the year. 

Adding a touch of glamour to the occasion will be the Australian soprano Kiandra Howarth, whose ‘incredible voice and beautiful stagecraft and presence’ so captivated Placido Domingo earlier this year, when she took the Culturarte Prize at the World Opera Competition held in London. His prediction of an ‘exciting career’ for her definitely makes her one to watch. On Thursday she will perform two highly seductive arias by Franz Lehár, together with the vocal version of one of the classical repertoire’s most famous waltzes, Voices of Spring by Johann Strauss II.

Alongside some of the Strauss family’s most popular waltzes, polkas and marches are three classic pieces from the golden age of British light music, including Dance in the Twilight by Eric Coates, a piece with a Viennese-style waltz at its heart. The name Robert Docker may not be known to all but he was responsible for what have become many of the familiar standards of light music – music that is instantly recognisable even if we can’t put a name to it. His Tabarinage is a sort of eccentric British take on the French can-can.

There is much to delight then on Thursday afternoon at Brighton Dome, much of it gratifyingly familiar but with some delectable surprises as well. Can there be a better way of getting the celebrations started than with some wonderful seasonal fare of the musical kind?

Book now for Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra's New Year’s Eve Viennese Gala 

By Peter Back