Vienna Church Music

Vienna is the centre of my world. It was the adopted home of many of our favourite composers. It is almost directly south of Prague and north of Venice. It seems to have been on a frontier at various times in history, most recently to the ‘Iron Curtain’. It’s a large city but only forty miles away is Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic. It is said that English people will go there so they can shop in TESCO but I don’t believe it. Here, in Vienna, we have BILLA and HOFER, the latter another name for ALDI, so perhaps they go to buy Marks and Sparks sandwiches

So it’s nice to wake up in the centre of Vienna. It’s three minutes walk to the Cathedral of St Stephen. If the bells start ringing on Sunday, I can be in the Cathedral well before the service starts. There I will sit on the south side of the nave as near to the place where the choir and orchestra are performing that day’s music. I will hear masses and choral music by Mozart, the Haydns, Salieri, and a host of others. I will be in the place where the Haydns were choirboys and legend (and only legend?) says that the great symphonist nearly became a great castrato instead of the composer we know today.

The problem, if problem there be, is that there is plenty of music being sung and played elsewhere using similar resources of soloists, chorus and full orchestra, The most famous of these employs the famous Vienna Boys Choir.

To attend a service where the Vienna Boys Choir are singing requires that you buy a ticket. So I go to the ticket office in an attempt to buy one. The lady looks on her booking chart and points one out to me saying, “Is that OK?” and tells me the cost. I say, “That’s fine. I only want to hear the music. I don’t need to see the choir”.

But she says she cannot sell me the ticket. I must send a request to them for a ticket and chances are that I will get this one. I’m sorry to say that I never got round to performing this strange ritual. It seems easier to go to a ticket agency and pay extra to save all that fuss.

My favourite church is the Jesuit or University church in the area where Schubert used to hang out. The interior is ridiculously rich and ornate, so much so that I feel compelled to ask how this could be compatible with a church for the people. The verger simply says, “We serve God and people”.

In the Jesuit Church, the performers are placed in the front of the people. Everything stops for the music. At the end of the mass, the celebrant announces that we will all clap the performers. I like this!! People hang around to hear the West End organist play an impossibly difficult piece and we clap him too. And the organist peers down at us with appreciation. It’s a happy place!!! And I am happy when I go there.

 

The Jesuits in Vienna seem to have an innate sympathy for church music and the people who perform it. In one sermon, the celebrant said, “Look at our musicians. How they play with passion! We Catholics are boring. We must live more passionate lives!!”

The Cathedral is different. There always seems to be some excuse they have for keeping us away from the performers. “Deacons?”, they say one week. But I do sympathise with well – meaning people wanting to protect the performers from people like me. And I am not the only music nut in Vienna!! So I often stand near the performers to hear the Kyrie and Gloria then make my way to St Augustins, whose music probably pleases me more than the other two churches.

In St Augustin’s, the performers still sing from the large musicians’ loft at the West End in front of the large organ. The sound percolates very effectively throughout the whole church especially the orchestra and organ. The organsolo masses they perform sound gorgeous! I still remember the sound of the orchestra as they began the first Mozart Mass I heard there. Then the choir makes its entry so beautifully. Yes, it is a marvellous church in which to hear your favourite music. It was here that I was able to hear most clearly some marvellous masses for the first time.

But there’s one problem about this church. It is VERY cold!! You really need to wrap yourself up to go there! Nevertheless, the church is always full for the Sunday services and standing is a little warmer than sitting. The church has its own internet website specifically for music and they give full details of all the music sung during each service as opposed to the others who only name the mass. If you haven’t looked on the website, you are handed a sheet listing all the music as you enter the church.

There are numerous other musical events in the churches. The Cathedral has various concerts and they perform the Mozart Requiem every December starting at the anniversary of the precise moment when Mozart died. It goes without saying that Vienna has hosts of musicians and the churches are often used as performance areas. And then there are many organs recitals. But their High Mass is the best show in town for me.