Strauss For Ever

Of Sailors, Emperors, and Bandits -
and of the Difficulty in Singing Strauss

Waltzes and polkas by the Strauss family are a specialty of the Vienna Boys Choir – they are its musical calling card. The choir has been singing Strauss since the early 1920s; the choir has participated six times in the traditional New Year's Day concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

The boys enjoy singing Strauss; the music is upbeat, rhythmical, fast. What sounds easy, requires practice. Says the choir's artistic director, Gerald Wirth, „Fast music is difficult to sing – there is hardly time to develop any kind of sound, let alone a beautiful tone. Every note has to be delivered with the right kind of energy. In that sense, it is almost more difficult to sing a polka than a complex Renaissance piece.“

The choir's first recording of The Blue Danube waltz was made in 1933; Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald – Tales from the Vienna Woods – followed in 1937. In 1939, the choir recorded an entire collection of Strauss pieces in the USA. The choir's last recording of Strauss music dates to 1999: High time for a new CD – and high time to record the newest additions to the choir's Strauss repertoire.

Three pieces out of the current selection have been recorded for the very first time for this CD: Matrosenpolka (Sailors' Polka), Banditengalopp, and the eponymous For Ever! The lyrics were written for the boys from Vienna; they tell of sailors, ghosts, bandits, and hamsters – not to be taken too seriously, but to be heard and cherished – forever.