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Mozartchor Go America
The 26 boys of Mozartchor begin their tour of North America today. In the next eight weeks, they will sing 37 concerts in the USA and Canada. Says Jacob, who has just turned 14, "We are traveling through eleven states, plus we will spend about a week in Canada." Jacob, a veteran of seven tours with the choir, is clocking up miles fast. He has been to Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Spain, and, most recently, Korea. He has been to the United States with the choir before, in 2007. "That was a winter tour, and we were mainly on the East Coast. Now, we'll spend quite a bit of time in the West, in California, in Oregon, in Washington, and in Canada, in British Columbia. So I'll see things I haven't seen before. Plus, you notice more things as you get older."
Philipp is more of a quiet type. "We are singing a piece by Geronimo. It was not really written by him, it is an old Apache medicine song, and Geronimo, who was a medicine man, used to perform it. He said he could shift shape, and he drew the shape he assumed while he was chanting this piece." Gerald Wirth, the Vienna Boys' Choir's artistic director, turned the Apache tune into a nine-part choral piece which Philipp feels is "quite eerie". "We will perform it in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in March. I expect that will be special."
The boys' programme contains "something for everybody". Shintaro, originally from Tokyo, but now with a real Viennese lilt in his German, likes Gallus's early motet "Regnum mundi", with its contemplative text by medieval philosopher Johannes Tauler. "It's about focussing on God," says Shintaro. Erasmus Widmann's jocular ditty about the Flea by contrast is more concerned with worldly matters: flea bites. "Fleas carried the plague", remarks Christian. "Only they didn't know that then. They just thought it was funny when people had to scratch themselves." Michael (one of two boys by that name in the choir) is very taken with the selection of pieces from Curt Faudon's Silk Road movie, the Indian bhajan "Jog.wa", and the Pakistani qawwali "Haq Ali". "They are very rhythmical and fast, and we get to play the drums!" There are a few show elements as well: Philipp does a Schuhplattler dance, Older Michael performs a Sting routine, and Younger Michael plays his accordion during one of the Austrian folk songs. He just had his debut in Jeju, Korea.