New Year's Concert 2003.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 289 474 250-2.

It seems like the Vienna Philharmonic has been playing these New Year's Day concerts since the beginning of time, but the tradition actually got started in 1941 and has been going strong ever since. They've been recorded over the past few decades by EMI, RCA, DG, and Decca, most recently by DG, and, of course, the orchestra invites a different conductor to perform the duties each year.

The conductors have included the some of the biggest names in the business, including Carlos Kleiber, Willi Boskovsky, Herbert von Karajan, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, and the 2003 maestro, Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He's in good company. And it's his second time at the helm, having conducted the festivities in 2001 as well.

As always, the program material for the affair consists mainly of works by the Strauss family, Johann Senior and Junior predominantly, and a few of their contemporaries. This year's new things include Strauss Jr.'s "Jubilee March," "Joke" polka, "Seconds" polka, "Hellenen" polka, "Peasants" polka, and "Coronation Songs," with Strauss Sr.'s "Chinese Galop" and Josef's "Delirien" thrown in for good measure. Among the other new things are Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" and Brahms's "Hungarian Rhapsodies 5 ...