Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The Cathedral Sparrows


The mystery bird got me thinking about the Regensburger Domspatzen which means the Regensburg Cathedral Sparrows. I believe they are the oldest children's choir in the world.



They are singing "For He Shall Give His Angels Charge Over Thee," by the great Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. That is Pope Benedict in the audience. Wow, he is a music person. He is just drinking it up!

Here they are in 1956, the Mozart 200th anniversary year, singing Mozart's "Regina Caeli."

The Regensburger Domspatzen grew more famous a few years ago because Pope Benedict's brother was for years their leader. There are the Brothers Ratzinger in the picture at the top of this post! He retired in 1994 but he was at the helm for a lot of recordings. And it was so funny, this CD of them turned up on my desk before Benedict XVI retired, and it was only when I sat down to write about it and had to get everything straight that I saw, in tiny print, that its director was Georg Ratzinger.

Good job, Georg Ratziner!

Perhaps he is directing them here, in Mozart's "Regina Coeli." This is a piece I love. It is so joyous! I get a kick out when it quotes Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus."



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