Vienna Boys Choir Perform Holiday Music from Around the World at the Kimmel Center December 1
November 19, 2007
Vienna Boys Choir is the ninth concert in the World Pop Mix series scheduled for the 2007/2008 season. The next performance in this series is Pablo Ziegler Trio for New Tango on Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 7:30pm.
Tickets for the Vienna Boys Choir on Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 3pm are priced at $75, $65, $54, $45, and $35 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
In 1498 the Vienna Boys Choir was founded as six boys included among Emperor Maximilian I court musicians. Until 1918, the choir sang exclusively for the court, at mass, at private concerts and functions and on state occasions. Now expanded to about 100 choristers, The Vienna Boys Choir is divided into four touring choirs that give around 300 concerts and performances each year in front of almost half a million people. Together with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Chorus, the Wiener Sangerknaben maintain the tradition of the imperial musicians: as Hofmusikkapelle they provide the music for the Sunday Mass in Vienna’s Imperial Chapel, as they have done since 1498.
Musicians like Heinrich Isaac, Paul Hofhaimer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Joseph Fux, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri and Anton Bruckner worked with the choir. Composers Jacobus Gallus, Franz Schubert, and conductors Hans Richter, Felix Mottl and Clemens Krauss were themselves choristers. Brothers Joseph and Michael Haydn were members of the choir of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and sang frequently with the imperial boys' choir.
The choir is a non-profit organization financed through concerts, recordings and private donations. Their repertoire includes a wide range of music, running from, medieval to contemporary to experimental. However, the core of the Vienna Boys Choir music rests with monets and lieder, as well as children’s operas such as Moby Dick. The Choir also collaborates with a number of men’s choirs to perform major choral works. Beginning in the 1920s the Choir started to collect world music as it traveled the world. In 2002, they recorded their first ever pop album, featuring songs by Madonna, Celine Dion and Robbie Willams. The bestselling CD was nominated for the 2003 Amadeus, the Austrian music award. In 2006, the choir reissued their 500th Anniversary CD featuring music from the time Viennese music itself was "king," including two works by a composer who started out as a Vienna choir boy, Franz Schubert. Their most recent pop music release is I am from Austria (2006).
Kimmel Center Presents 2007/2008 season is sponsored by Citi. Support for the Mellon Jazz Series comes from The Bank of New York Mellon. The Great Orchestra Series is supported by ARC Wheeler. Additional support is provided by the University of Pennsylvania Health System and American Express. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Mellon Jazz, Mellon Jazz Up Close and World & Pop.
The Kimmel Center also receives support from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The William Penn Foundation, The Wachovia Foundation, Verizon Foundation, PNC Foundation, The Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and the Philadelphia Music Project and Dance Advance, Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trust administered by The University of the Arts. In-kind support is generously provided by Deloitte. NBC-10 is a Media Partner for Kimmel Center Presents, and additional media sponsors include WDAS, WRTI, WJJZ, Afro-Pop, WXPN and WXPN's Kids Corner 20th Anniversary.
Free in the Plaza programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from Wachovia Foundation.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS SPONSORED BY CITI
Saturday, December 1, 2007 | 3pm
Verizon Hall
World & Pop Series
Vienna Boys Choir
Nikolaus Müller, Conductor
HENRY PURCELL: Excerpts from Come Ye Sons of Art
JAKOB ARCADELT and PIERRE LOUIS PHILIPPE DIETZSCH: Ave Maria
FELIX MENDELSSHON BARTHOLDY: Veni Domine (Come, Lord)
CESAR FRANK: Panis Angelicus (The Bread of Angels)
BENJAMIN BRITTEN: Kyrie, Gloria, and Angus Dei, from Missa Brevis D Major
ORLANDO DI LASSO: Echo
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Zigeunerleben (Gypsy Life)
FRANZ SCHUBERT: Standchen (Serenade)
JOHANN STRAUSS, JR.: Wiener Blut (Viennese Spirits)
-INTERMISSION-
JOSEF VON EYBLER: Omnes de Saba Venient (Gradual for Epiphany)
JACOBUS GALLUS: Pueri Concinite (Boys, Begin)
MICHAEL HAYDN: Heiligste Nacht
Selections from the Following Christmas Carols:
Es ist ein Ros’ Entsprungen (Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming) (Arr.: Michael Praetorius)
Maria Durch Ein Dornwald Ging (Mary Walked Through Thorn Bush) (Arr.: Uwe Theimer)
Schlaf, Mein Kindelein (Sleep, My Little Child) (Arr.: Strassburger Gesangbuch)
Kommet ihr Hirten (Come, Ye Shepherds) (Arr.: Gerald Wirth)
Ich Steh’ an Deiner Krippen Hier (I stand beside Thy Manger Bed) (Johann Sebastion Bach)
Il est né le Divin Enfant (Arr.: Gerald Wirth)
Adeste Fideles (Arr.: Gerald Wirth)
The First Nowell (Arr.: Gerald Wirth)
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy)
Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes (Shepherds in the Fields Abiding aka Angels from the Realms of Glory) (Arr.: Anton Neyder)
God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
Huanyo Navideño (Arr.: Andy Icochea Icochea)
Es wird scho glei dumpa (Arr.: Gerald Wirth)
Heissa Buama (Arr.: Cesar Bresgen)
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Thomas P. Connor)
Jesus Ahatonhia (Arr.: Healey Willan)
Let It Snow! (Arr.:Hawley Ades)
An Irving Berlin Christmas (Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep; White Christmas) (Arr.: Roger Emerson)
FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENTS:
Saturday, December 1, 2007 | 1:30pm
Commonwealth Plaza Stage | Free in the Plaza
Tuba Christmas!
Join us at the Commonwealth Plaza lobby area for a special Tuba Christmas! celebration open to all tuba performers in the city. Registration will take place in Innovation Studio in the basement of the Kimmel Center from 9:30am-11am, followed by a rehearsal from 11am-12:45pm.
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