Daniel Barenboim is back to conduct the 2014 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) New Year’s Concert – one of the most hotly anticipated calendar events for the EBU Community.

The invitation is in recognition of the orchestra's 25 years of musical collaboration with the General Music Director of the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin, who conducted his first Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert in 2009.

The performance at Vienna’s Musikverein Concert Hall will be broadcast to a combined audience of up to 50 million people in more than 80 countries as part of an exclusive partnership agreement involving 43 Members of the EBU. 

A high definition recording of the concert by Austrian public broadcaster and EBU Member ORF will be distributed globally on the EBU’s Eurovision and Euroradio satellite and fibre networks.

The concert is the centre piece of an exclusive portfolio of three classical concerts, which Eurovision head of television Bettina Brinkman says form part of a distribution agreement which runs until 2017.

“This sumptuous event is even more so with the involvement of Daniel Barenboim whose artistic achievements are recognized as a means to reconcile what seems irreconcilable,” said Ms Brinkman. “The EBU is proud to be the medium through which this event is distributed to audiences worldwide.”

In keeping with New Year tradition, the VPO will present a programme from the vast repertoire of the Johann Strauss family.