Monday, October 6, 2008 20:00
St. Joseph’s Seminary Church
Admission with free tickets
Conductor: Franz Farnberger
Programme:
Part 1: Sounds from Heaven
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759): Hallelujah from The Messiah
César Franck (1822-1890): Panis angelicus
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986): Tota pulchra es
et al.
Part 2: "The Sound of Music" by the Riverside of the Danube
Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): Edelweiss
Traditional Austrian Songs and Dances
Johann Strauss II (1825-1899): The Blue Danube
et al.
Part 3: Highlights from the operas Die Fledermaus and Die Zauberflöte
Part 4: Global Travel of Classical Music
Chinese folk songs: The Crescent Moon Rising/ Beautiful Homeland/ Rising
Japanese folk song: Sakura
Italian folk song: Santa Lucia
Scottish folk song: Auld Lang Syne
Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948): Memory from Cats
et al.
The St. Florian Boys' Choir (St. Florianer Sängerknaben) boasts a nearly one-thousand-year-old tradition. This internationally acclaimed group was, in the old days, responsible for providing church music for the Convent of St. Florian in Austria, and from its ranks have come such musicians of note as Anton Bruckner.
Händel, Franck and Duruflé provide the initial musical steps in this concert, warming up the voices for Rodgers’ "Edelweiss" and Strauss’ The Blue Danube. More music from the Waltz King is heard in part two, as arias from his opera Die Fledermaus, as well as from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, open the way for folk songs from China, Japan and Europe. Franz Farnberger steers the St. Florian Boys’ Choir over musical waves, dropping anchor in the deep waters of the Austrian tradition.
Duration: approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, including one interval