Wiener Singverein

Corporate pride and consistency were among the attributes that helped secure a commanding place for the Wiener Singverein among the world’s finest amateur symphonic choruses following WWII. The choir has performed with the Vienna Philharmonic (VPO) in the famous Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein since the building’s inaugural season in 1870 and continues to work with it and such leading conductors as Christian Thielemann, Franz Welser-Möst, Gustavo Dudamel, and Simon Rattle. They sang in world premiere performances that would eventually be seen as landmarks of choral repertory, among them the first three movements of Brahms’ A German Requiem (1867), Bruckner’s Te Deum (1886), and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (1910) (a centenary performance of the latter happened in Munich under Thielemann). The Singverein, which took its present form in 1858, grew from the Friends of Music Choral Society, founded in Vienna in 1812. Its international stock soared thanks to the many recordings it made with the VPO and Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan, including enduring accounts of Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 (1964), Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Op. 123 (1958), and Bruckner’s Te Deum (1975).