Palestrina (2016)

Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli or Pope Marcellus Mass is the Renaissance composition you know if you know only one, and the Sistine Chapel Choir has 400-plus years of experience in performing it. So this release, on the rather conservative Deutsche Grammophon label, might seem a stodgy exercise in tradition. In fact it is nothing of the sort. Director Massimo Palombella readily admits the necessity of not "simply mirroring existing versions," and he has forged a reading shaped by modern discoveries concerning ... Read More

Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli or Pope Marcellus Mass is the Renaissance composition you know if you know only one, and the Sistine Chapel Choir has 400-plus years of experience in performing it. So this release, on the rather conservative Deutsche Grammophon label, might seem a stodgy exercise in tradition. In fact it is nothing of the sort. Director Massimo Palombella readily admits the necessity of not "simply mirroring existing versions," and he has forged a reading shaped by modern discoveries concerning Renaissance performance practice. The choir (men and boys) is shaved down to a force of about 30, and Palombella gets a remarkable sound that is clean yet intimate. The registrally complex polyphony of the Missa Papae Marcelli comes through unscathed, and the mass gets a clearer stylistic differentiation from the short motets included than was possible under the more homogeneous, large-choir approach that has been so common with this music. The biggest thing listeners familiar with the... Read Less

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2016, Deutsche Grammophon UPC: 028947961314 CD See All from $6.77