Church-hopping in Vienna

Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Bruckner made the streets of the Austrian capital come alive, writes SELINE AUGUSTINE.

September 18, 2014 08:17 pm | Updated 08:17 pm IST

Franz Welser conducts the choir inside the St .Augustine Church.

Franz Welser conducts the choir inside the St .Augustine Church.

It was a night like no other. One city, one evening, six hours… and over 400 music programmes of every form at every venue. Welcome to the music capital of the world, Vienna.

Not just in the days of Mozart and Beethoven - both of whom chose to make it their home – but even today, the city is soaked in melody. Home to Haydn and Strauss and a whole host of big names in Western classical music, Vienna has dedicated a night for music -- Langen Nacht der Kirchen or the Long Night of Churches.

This year, it fell on May 23, and I was lucky to be there. A 250-page book in German had details of all the music happening on that one evening -- the soloists, orchestras, the repertoire, venues and time. There were music groups from the U.S. and other countries while local ensembles and performers formed the mainstay. All the performances were gratis. A striking contrast to the previous day when we had to pay 30 Euros each for a single extravaganza at Wien Kurzalon.

It's another matter that every single cent of it was worth it with choice opera arias, ballet excerpts and orchestral music.

The Long Night began at 5.30 p.m. at the Augustinian Church, the Imperial church of the Hapsburgs. The hour-long programme titled “Choral Bridges” sought to connect choral music of the Americas with that of Europe. The University of Mississippi Concert Singers opened with Esenvalds' ‘This Is My Father's World’ with Tamara Tanner as the soloist under student conductor Thomas Ardrey. After a few more anthems came the Weber Chamber Choir of Vienna. They stole your heart away with well-chosen legato pieces. In fact, they did four different versions of Psalm 43, the last one of them by Bartholdy. Joining hands with the American university students, the Chamber Choir rendered ‘Ave Maria’ followed by ‘Great Day’ by W. Martin. Truly, music certainly can bridge any chasm.

We made a quick dash to St. Peter’s Church in Petersplatz, just a five-minute walk away. Musica Sacra was on with Karl Riedl on the pipe organ with soprano Kathrin Zirbs. ‘Pie Jesu’, ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ were classics that stood out. When the soloist sang ‘Panis Angelicus’, it moved one to tears. Till the end, you didn't see the singer or the accompanist as the organ is at the back and on top. The duo came to the railings just to take a bow and you realised how appropriate and not-in-the face this was!

In the music-replete evening, we managed to squeeze in even a choir rehearsal. The resident choir of St. Peter’s consisting of the not-so-young took up their position in front of the altar and the young conductor was all fervour as he took the choir through Haydn’s ‘Gloria’ and ‘Agnus Dei’. It was fascinating to watch the quaint baby electric organ meant for rehearsals being wheeled in and out effortlessly.

Then followed the Chorkonzert with Vokalensemble Nonanett and Choeur du Soleil. The choristers began by entering the different aisles singing acapella and assembling in front and going on to sing “Come in and stay a while” by Rhonda Polay. This concert's repertoire included Rachmaninoff and Bruckner.

From St. Peter’s, we moved to Reformierten Stadkirch where eight women and five men in concert black, sang well-loved excerpts from Handel and Bach.

Not wanting to give the go-by to the Dom, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, we made a beeline for it. There was such a large crowd that we could barely catch a glimpse of the huge choir from the U.S., though the thoughtfully-provided monitors met the need. Not wanting to hear typical American music in a European church setting, we moved to the Lutherische Stadtkirch.

It was church-hopping with a vengeance! It was past 9 p.m. and we were a bit startled to hear Marika Lichter belt out Abba and arias from ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’

We topped off the memorable evening with Mozart’s Spatzenmesse at St. Augustinerkirche. At 10 p.m., despite the chill, the church was packed. The highlight that evening was the High Mass with choir, orchestra and soloists. Here were world class musicians performing a grand composition of Mozart in an august setting. At the majestic pipe organ was Elke Eckerstorfer while Robert Rieder was the conductor. Even as we sang along, we wondered if this was just an evening of music or a slice of heaven!

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