Across the years the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna’s Musikverein has been conducted by the crème de la crème of the profession. This year marked the return of the Berlin-born maestro Christian Thielemann, casting that caused a raised eyebrow in some quarters on account of his championship of the heavyweight German symphonic repertoire, which, by dint of his bicentenary falling this year, included Anton Bruckner. His Quadrille, orchestrated for this occasion from a piano score by Wolfgang Dorner, is a light-footed medley of dance tunes, conducted in a most congenial manner. Thielemann’s symphonic credentials pay dividends in the grander pieces, his overview lending a structural breadth to such familiar fare as The Blue Danube, which took on the trappings of a symphonic poem with, in addition, surely the longest fermata on record before the main theme’s final return.

The famed discipline of the VPO is never in doubt, their music-making invested with an infectious zeal from the novelty of the whip-cracking percussionist in Josef Strauss’s Jockey Polka to Johann’s New Pizzicato Polka with glockenspiel, in which Thielemann, conducting without a baton, revels in the intimacy of the moment, smiles all round. The audience are held at bay from clapping too soon in the Radetzky March. The Waldmeister Overture, with tunes from the operetta and admired by Brahms, is fashioned with aplomb, with the whiff of a Hungarian dance in the final galop.

The relaxed account of Eduard Strauss’s Morning Spring is a reminder of how many works in this concert have a connection to Austria’s capital, this one celebrating the opening of a water pipe to bring more fresh water from the Alps to Vienna’s growing population. The youngest brother is also represented by the inevitable railway composition, a ‘fast polka without breaks’; talk about the runaway train coming down the track – this one is a veritable express. Then comes a delicious take on those Vienna Bonbons, sweets designed to stop coughing, where the distinctive horn sound makes a telling contribution. Josef Strauss’s Delirium is a vivid picture of those feverish dreams brought on in the flu season, conjuring up the spirit of Berlioz.

Hellmesberger’s Für die ganze Welt – a waltz ‘for the entire world’ – is a beauty. After an introduction flying the flag for all nations, a fragment of the main theme played by wind quartet, harp and strings blossoms into full bloom. Another tribute is an elaborate ‘waltz in honour of the citizens of Vienna’ by Carl Ziehrer, with the VPO catching the civic grandeur of such an occasion. If you watched the broadcast on television, you’ll recall this piece as the sumptuous backdrop to the Rosenburg Castle in Lower Austria, which featured dancers from the Vienna State Ballet.

Next year marks the return of Riccardo Muti. In the meantime, enjoy this brilliant recording, lovingly conducted by Christian Thielemann.