
Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s path to the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year’s Day concert started when he replaced a banned Russian conductor at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2022 with the help of a pianist who traveled trans-Atlantic after practicing all night in a Berlin hotel bar.
Just four days before Valery Gergiev was to lead the famed Austrian orchestra on tour at Carnegie, Nézet-Séguin was walking into the hall to lead his Philadelphia Orchestra when he noticed a wall poster for Vienna's performance.