Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

2011 sees the first recording by The Sixteen devoted entirely to Palestrina. The disc marks the start of a new project which will result in a series of new recordings exploring a selection of the composer's vast output, and a Choral Pilgrimage tour. Palestrina was born in 1525 not far from Rome, in the town whose name he bore and from which we take the cover images for this new series of discs. Possibly the greatest composer of liturgical music of all time, Palestrina was a towering figure in Renaissance polyphony. Choral singers world-wide will know his Missa Papae Marcelli (recorded by The Sixteen on COR16014) as, without doubt, it is the most renowned of Palestrina's works and possibly the most famous mass of all time. On this new disc The Sixteen has recorded some of the sumptuous music he wrote for the Assumption including his Missa Assumpta est Maria and Salve Regina. Without doubt, Palestrina was the great master of all Papal composers and his spiritual craft and harmonic vitality fulfilled the needs of the Vatican. His motets for the Assumption also entitled Assumpta est Maria, are glorious examples of such work and can be heard in all their splendour on this recording. By his death in 1594, Palestrina had published a huge amount of music including over 100 Masses and over 350 motets.

Palestrina, G.P. Da: Missa, "Ecce Ego Joannes" / Missa, "Pat

Classical Music

Palestrina's Fourth Book of Motets was dedicated to his patron Pope Gregory XIII and published in Rome in 1584. He took as his text The Song of Songs (also known as The Song of Solomon). The 29 motets, written in an age of religious tumult and Counter-Reformation, evoke the love of Christ in devotional music of chamber-like refinement and joy. This recording also includes plainchant antiphons related to the texts, and the motets Afferentur Regi and Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui.

How Fair Thou Art - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/6-1594) This selection from the Palestrina's settings of The Song of Songs is interspersed by four of the composer's Marian antiphons. Once you get used to the close recording and The King's Singers' distinctive 'barbershop' sound, these performances are highly enjoyable, benefiting from the singers' diffident and yet expressive approach. Just occasionally the very close recording shows the alto voices at a disadvantage, but the singing is generally of a very high quality and the readings of these beautiful pieces is intelligent and sensuous. I take a little bit of exception to the title with it's presumably intentionally punning use of the phrase 'Biblical Passions'-the Passion has a very specific religious meaning, and it's extension to embrace the erotic underpinning of The Song of Songs makes something of a nonsense of this. It is not entirely clear what context Palestrina's Song of Songs settings were intended for, but if-as seems likely-they were for private domestic consumption, then I am sure that the earliest performances would have sounded very much like the present recording. It is interesting to hear the Marian antiphons in the same context-almost certainly written for liturgical choral presentation, they work equally well sung by reduced forces and in a smaller acoustic. Indeed without listening closely to the texts, it would be difficult to differentiate the two repertoires from one another. Early Music Review

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music