New Year's concert - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2005 - 100 Euro Cent

The second stamp from the series for the Vienna New Year's Concert is shown by Lorin Maazel. Born in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the conductor conducted his first New Year's concert after the cancellation of Willi Boskowski on 1 January 1980. He then conducted the concert until 1986, 1994,1996 and 1999 and finally in 2005 for the eleventh time. In 2002 he was appointed honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic. Maazel began his career extremely early: he received his first violin at the age of 5 and shortly thereafter he learned the art of conducting with Vladimir Bakaleinikoff. At the age of 8 he already conducted a university orchestra. Between 9 and 15 years old, he had already directed most of the major American orchestras; Arturo Toscanini himself, for example, invited the eleven-year-old to lead the NBC orchestra. At the age of 17 he studied languages, mathematics and philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. His career was unstoppable, in 1960 he was the first American to conduct in Bayreuth, debuting at the Salzburg Festival in 1963. His instrument, the violin, the conductor never forgot. He played with many well-known orchestras and also composed several instrumental concertos for violin. The beginning of probably the world's most famous classical concert - the Winer New Year's Concert - fell into a darkest part of the story. The Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Clemens Krauss was simply called "Extraordinary Concert", took place on 31.12.1939 and was a confession to Austria, as only works by Johann Strauss were played.