Clemens Hellsberg, the Vienna Philharmonic's president and first violinist, has broken his elbow and will miss the annual New Year's Concert on Wednesday.
Hellsberg, 61, slipped on an icy road and suffered a complicated fracture of his elbow which required surgery, arts commentator Norman Lebrecht reported in "Slipped Disc" on ArtsJournal.
While his injury heals, Hellsberg will be absent from the Philharmonic's first violin section for about three months. "I can play again by the middle or end of March at the earliest," he told the newspaper Österreich.
Despite his injury, Hellsberg was able to pick Daniel Barenboim up from the airport on Thursday. Barenboim will conduct the Philharmonic in the New Year's Concert, an annual tradition that will be broadcast to more than 80 countries worldwide.
Hellsberg will be present at the pre-New Year's press conference, and he is planning to attend the concert--if only to sit in the audience.
The New Year's program will include traditional favorites by members of the Strauss family and their contemporaries. In celebration of Richard Strauss' 150th birthday in 2014, the Philharmonic will also play selections from his opera Capriccio.
