The Wiener Symphoniker's Festkonzerte series continues a tradition of top-class musical experiences on selected holidays within the the annual cycle. New Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts on four occasions, including the very special highlight that begins the series: his official inaugural concert, which spans an arc from the beginnings of the orchestra's history to the present. In December, an illustrious team of soloists under the expert direction of Andrea Marcon provides the spirit of Christmas with Handel's 'Messiah'. We continue our tradition of ringing in the New Year with Beethoven's optimistic and utopian Ninth Symphony, conducted this year by audience favourite Manfred Honeck. Around Valentine's Day in February, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Hilary Hahn entice you to a romantic concert of a special kind: in addition to Brahms's Violin Concerto, two central symphonic works by Richard Strauss can be heard with the tone poem 'Don Juan' and the 'Rosenkavalier Suite'. In April we celebrate the arrival of Spring with the primordial rhythms of Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana'; and the cycle comes to a summery close with a Proms concert, featuring Max Bruch's popular First Violin Concerto and Joaquin Rodrigo's 'Concierto de Aranjuez' for guitar and orchestra.