Vienna Philharmonic Ready Huge NYD Party

Last minute preparations are being made for the traditional New Year’s Day concert, which takes place in Vienna this Saturday.

It’s become one of the largest classical music events in the world, with the concert being broadcast to over 70 countries.

As usual, the music is being provided by the Vienna Philharmonic which will perform favourites by the Strauss family and, this year, Franz Liszt too. Franz Welser-Möst will be making his New Year’s concert conducting debut at the concert.

He told Classic FM, "I always compare it to winning the Nobel prize. Not many people in the conducting world get invited to do that. It's a great honour and a great joy. I started working on it seven or eight months ago."

The event has become massively popular with tickets sold out well in advance. Applications for tickets for the next New Year concert are available from January 2nd-23rd 2011. The tickets are awarded by lottery.