It must be difficult being a Vienna Choir boy. You travel the world in a sailor suit, making ports-of-call in Asia and the Americas before you're old enough to have a drink. When the boys arrive in Taipei for their Oct. 26 concert, they'll do so with chaperones in tow; hardly the way a sailor likes to travel.
Though the boys in the choir are aged between 10 and 14, the choir itself is now over 500 years old. It began when emperor Maximillan, moving his court from Innsbruck to Vienna, decreed in 1498 that his newly formed ensemble of musicians and singers include at least six boys. His stated interest at the time was in developing musical ability in children by awarding a post to the young singers. Until 1918 the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle, as it was known, sang exclusively for the court at masses, state events and private concerts.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Heinrich Isaac, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri and Anton Bruckner worked with the choir. Composers and conductors such as Jacobus Gallus, Franz Schubert, and Hans Richter were one-time choristers.
There weren't enough funds to pay for the boys' upkeep around 1926 so the choir started to give concerts outside the chapel, performing secular works, and -- at the boys' own request -- children's operas. Rarely has a debut been more well received and perhaps no other musical success story has been longer lasting. Within a year, the boys were performing in Berlin, Prague and Zurich. The next few years saw them in Athens, Riga, Spain, France, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In 1932, they went to the US, Australia in 1934 and South America in 1936.
Today, some 100 choristers divided into four touring choirs give around 300 concerts to about half a million people each year. They travel to most every country in Europe and are frequent guests in Asia and the Americas,
spending 11 weeks of their school year on the road. Still, as the original Hofmusikkapelle, they provide the music for Sunday mass in Vienna's Imperial Chapel, as they have done since 1498. Though the boys no longer have swords, they wield an impressive repertoire. For their concerts in Taiwan, audiences can expect to hear Mozart, Schubert, European and Eastern folk songs, and the Strauss polkas for which they are famous.
Performance notes:
When: All performances are at 7:30pm.
■ Wednesday, Oct. 26, National Concert Hall, Taipei
■ Thursday, Oct. 27, Taichung Hall, Taichung
■ Friday, Oct. 28, Chinghua University Gymnasium, Hsinchu
■ Saturday, Oct. 29, Cultural Center Performance Hall, Tainan
■ Sunday, Oct. 30, Chengde Hall, CKS Cultural Center, Kaohsiung
Ticket Information:
Tickets cost from NT$400 to NT$2,000, depending on location, and are available through the ERA Ticketing system at www.ticket.com.tw or by calling the National Concert Hall box office at (02) 3393 9888.
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