Word: vienna
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...VIENNA CHOIR BOYS...
...boys were up for irreversible commitments. And luckily, they did not need to be. Some of Europe's most prestigious church choirs offered fame to the anatomically-intact. The Vienna Choir Boys, for instance, would train boys between the ages of 10 and 14 to sing with a sublime sweetness that was thought to rival the song of angels. Although we do not hear too much about the castrati today, boy choirs have retained their popularity. Last Friday, the Vienna Choir Boys, as witness to this popularity, came to Symphony Hall to celebrate their 500th anniversary...
...Vienna Choir Boys filed onstage in white sailor suits and bowl-shaped haircuts, the audience gasped and cooed. But these boys were more than pretty faces. They were poised to reverse any preconceptions about 10-year-old singers that we might have formed during our own disjointed renditions of The Twelve Days of Christmas and O Come All Ye Faithful in primary school. As the Vienna Choir Boys performed a sophisticated repertoire of Haydn, Isaak, Bruckner, Schubert, Salieri and Mozart, they brought fifth graders to rare musical heights. But while the concert was supposed to promote the talent of child...
...boys opened with Haydn's Te Deum in C Major, a sparkling piece with a quick tempo assured to enliven the audience. While the Chorus Viennensis was robust and energetic (this was the older choir of supporting tenors and basses who rounded out the four-part treble scale), the Vienna Choir Boys sounded withered and disengaged. They found Haydn's notes, but groped for his meaning. The boys sang the first line, "We praise thee, O God!" ambivalence nearer to pity than joy--and set a lackluster pattern for the remainder of the piece...
Just when it seemed impossible to assess the Vienna Choir Boys without adding some qualification (i.e. they were good--for little boys), they sang their finale, Mozart's Mass in C Major and forged such a herculean comeback, it was as though another choir had donned their white sailor suits during intermission. Not only did the choir boys sing the sacred prayer with everything on target--their key, their inflections, even their infusion of reverence--but the choir introduced a soloist who sent a shiver down the spine of every patron in Symphony Hall. Terence...