I work with choirs
in my other life, with children too,
and not having heard the Vienna Boys’
Choir for many years I came to this
disc with high expectations. It is a
compilation originating from several
sources, including concerts given in
Birmingham and London in November 1994.
All the performances are of this kind
of vintage, so it cannot be said that
the disc represents the choir as it
sounds today.
The choice of repertoire
is strange. A glance at the list of
pieces shows that most of them are extracts
from major choral works requiring men’s
voices, provided here by the Chorus
Viennensis. Many feature significant
participation from soloists too, all
of whom are named in the accompanying
booklet which otherwise features a short
essay on the history of the choir.
In the event I found
this disc disappointing. Firmly of the
opinion that critics are duty-bound
to avoid immoderate language, I nonetheless
feel obliged to say that this disc opens
with what is surely the most inept performance
of the "Hallelujah Chorus"
I’ve ever heard. The opening is ponderous
and heavy, the tempo reminiscent of
the worst of parish church Messiah
performances from the sixties. Within
the space of a few bars we are aware
that the conductor is moving the music
forward, and this progressive accelerando
continues throughout the piece until
at the end we are within a hairsbreadth
of Paul McCreech’s breakneck speed on
his superb DG reading. Curiously, in
spite of this imposed tempo manipulation,
the performance is almost totally lacking
in that cumulative excitement which
this overdone but sensational piece
possesses. A grotesque pulling up for
the final cadence completes the overall
picture. The chosen tempo for the second
Messiah extract "For unto
us a child is born", is positively
perverse (4.51 against McCreech’s admittedly
extreme 3.36) and it would take a conductor
of genius – in this context Sargent
or Beecham – to inject the essential
dancing, laughing quality the music
requires. Given the absence of the essence
of the music here there seems little
point in drawing attention to other
strange interpretative decisions on
the conductor’s part. There is more
of this kind of thing, though – double-dotted
notes never heard elsewhere, sudden
pianos and so on – in the final
chorus from Messiah which closes
the disc; moreover the final "Amen"
is so rushed and lacking in grandeur
that the music is transformed into something
almost comical.
Sadly, the same comments
seem appropriate for most of the extracts
from major works. In "The Heavens
are Telling" from The Creation
we note the same impatient manner of
imposing tension on music which easily
has enough of its own if only we respect
the composer’s markings to the letter.
And given the subsidiary role of the
chorus the second extract from Haydn’s
masterpiece seems a strange choice indeed
for a disc of this kind. I didn’t know
the extract from Bach’s Cantata BWV
21, but here too (listening without
a score and out of context) the rhythmic
articulation seems intolerably heavy
and ponderous.
Mozart’s wonderful,
if ubiquitous, Ave Verum works
very well, the choir entering well into
the intense spirituality of the piece.
A pity about the overdone legato which
leads to curiosities of text such as
"snatum" instead of "natum".
The Gloria from the Coronation Mass,
taken at a lively tempo, also fares
well, as does the Benedictus, though
the choir sings only a few bars – the
Hosannas – the rest being taken by solo
voices. The overall conception is perhaps
large-scale compared to current practice,
but this doesn’t bother the present
listener too much. I had similar reactions
to the extracts from the Requiem,
the one urgent and dramatic, the other
properly weeping, leading me to the
view that the conductor sympathies lie
with this composer; he is less fearful,
it would seem, that simply allowing
the music to speak for itself will lead
to an unconvincing result.
Bruckner’s sublime
Ave Maria is well done, though
attack on initial consonants is less
than unanimous when judged against the
highest standards of other choirs.
Two pieces are conducted
by Helmuth Froschauer. His arrangement
of Schubert’s Ave Maria begins
with a soloist drawn from the choir.
Intonation is immaculate and in other
repertoire his voluptuous tone could
be shown off to huge advantage. Here,
however, the reading of the piece is
more akin to a love song, with little
of the simple, devotional quality of
Schubert’s view of the text, and I listened
to this performance with something akin
to revulsion. There is some gorgeously
open-throated singing from another unnamed
solo chorister in Ritter von Herbeck’s
Pueri concinite and from two
others in Humperdinck’s beautiful duet.
In the event, regretful though it be,
these were the only two pieces on the
disc which gave this reviewer any pleasure.
The recordings took
place in six different venues, but the
sound is always vivid and unusually
immediate. I played the disc on a normal
CD player and therefore cannot comment
on its SACD qualities.
William Hedley
Academy of London, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra
and others/Peter Marschik; Helmuth Froschauer
SACD
CAPRICCIO 71 020 [60.02] 
