Vienna Boys’ choir and Chorus Viennensis delight a Manoel Theatre full house

The Vienna Boys’ Choir, under the direction of choirmaster Luiz de Godoy and Gerald Wirth, artistic director, performed to a full house in a concert organised in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation. The Vienna Boys’ Choir was supported by the Chorus Viennensis for certain pieces in the programme.

The Vienna Boys Choir goes back to 1498 when Maximilian I (HRR) moved his court to Vienna, lock, stock and choir, thus founding the Hofmusikkapelle (Chapel Imperial) and the Vienna Boys Choir. Over the centuries, the Viennese Court attracted great musicians like Isaac, de Monte, Fux, Caldara, Gluck, Salieri, Mozart and Bruckner − Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn and Franz Schubert were themselves choir boys. Until 1918, the boys sang exclusively for the court. In the 1920s, the choir was re-established as a private organisation. Since 1926, 2,482 Vienna Boys Choir has sung 1,000 tours in 97 different countries. Gerald Wirth is its artistic director and president.

Today, there are 100 choristers between the ages of nine and 14, divided into four touring choirs. Each choir spends nine to 11 weeks of the academic year on tour. Together, the choirs give around 300 concerts each year, attended by almost half a million spectators around the world. The choir regularly tours Europe, Asia and Australia and the Americas.

On Sundays, the boys perform with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Vienna State Opera Chorus in Vienna’s Imperial Chapel, as they have done since 1498. In 2012, the choir opened its own concert hall, MuTh; the state-of-the art facility seats 400 and has proven highly popular with both artists and audience.

The choir’s repertoire included everything from medieval to contemporary music. Motets and lieder formed the core of the repertoire, as did the choir’s own arrangements of Viennese music. The choir also performed children’s operas and world music.

The Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation would like to thank all those who have chosen to attend the concert, as well as the sponsors of this eventm − Bank of Valletta, the Malta Tourism Authority, Malta Airport Foundation, Valletta 2018 Foundation, Tumas Group, GO, Green Tube, nextmarkets, Vienna International Airport, Dr Werner and Partner, Apeiron Investment Group, Pure Concepts and Teatru Manoel.

The next cultural appointment in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation is a concert by “the most influential contemporary composer” Maestro Ezio Bosso, which will be held today at Teatru Manoel.