Les Métaboles / Léo Warynski THE ANGELS

 

THE ANGELS

Sistine Chapel Choir / Massimo Palombella PALESTRINA Missa Papae Marcelli - Motets

Deutsche Grammophon launched its latest exclusive collaboration with the Sistine Chapel Choir on Friday 7 October with a press conference and special concert at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Members of the Vatican clergy were joined by dignitaries, diplomats and representatives of the international media to hear performances of a selection of works from the Choir’s new album. Palestrina, only the second recording to be made under studio conditions in the Sistine Chapel, follows the yellow label’s pioneering release of Cantate Domino in September 2015. It comprises the world premiere recording of the 1567 first edition of Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli together with a selection of motets conveying the essential message of divine generosity and compassion. The album celebrates the “Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy” (8 December 2015 to 20 November 2016), defined by Pope Francis as “a revolution of tenderness and love”.

“We are delighted that our exclusive relationship with the Sistine Chapel Choir continues to grow and supports such uplifting music-making,” notes Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon. “Palestrina, recorded in the very place where the composer worked, unites the human and the divine spirit in the purity of its polyphony and the mystical beauty of its sounds. This new album flows from the open-hearted nature of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. We hope that Palestrina will inspire listeners with its music of divine compassion and love.”

Massimo Palombella, director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, explored the vast resources of the Vatican’s library in search of music with the power to transcend personal fears and offer comfort in our troubled times. He discovered that the earliest publication of Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli differed from the modern editions usually employed for performances and recordings. Monsignor Palombella transcribed the original version into modern notation and worked with his Choir to try and recreate the way in which the Mass might have been performed by the Sistine Chapel singers during Palestrina’s lifetime.

In addition to the Missa Papae Marcelli, Massimo Palombella chose to record nine liturgical motets by the composer on the theme of mercy. These include Ad te levavi oculos meos, a tour de force of contrapuntal invention, and the world premiere recordings of Veritas mea et misericordia mea and Iubilate Deo. Palestrina also contains the first recording of Confitemini Domino to be sung by male voices only, as it would have been in the late 1500s.

Monsignor Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Pontifical Household, welcomes the release of Palestrina and underlines the value of recording to the Vatican’s mission to reach out to all souls. “Pope Francis is not only aware that some important works have been recorded in the Sistine Chapel, by the Sistine Chapel Choir”, he observes. “He also completely supports the opening-up of the Chapel. He recognises, too, that Deutsche Grammophon is not just any music company but that it is one of the world’s leading record labels. This collaboration, therefore, is highly valued by the Sistine Chapel, by the Vatican and by the Catholic Church.”

Magnificat / Philip Cave SCATTERED ASHES Josquin's Miserere and the Savonarolan Legacy

To celebrate their 25^th anniversary, vocal ensemble Magnificat directed by Philip Cave have created a programme of Renaissance polyphonic works inspired by Girolamo Savonarola's (1452-98) famous meditations written while awaiting execution. One contemplates Psalm 50, Miserere mei, Deus, and another Psalm 30, In te, Domine, speravi. Savonarola was a Dominican friar burnt at the stake for his reformist preaching, his ashes scattered in a river to prevent supporters preserving them as relics.
This disc opens with Josquin's extraordinarily vast setting of the Miserere. Weighing in at just over 17 minutes, it is a motet of grandiose proportions characterised by repetition of the words ‘Miserere mei, Deus' (Have mercy on me, God). This functions like a refrain with five voices framing what is mostly a two- or three-voiced texture. Added to this, Cave employs his full complement of singers for each refrain and uses just solo voices in between, further emphasising the variations of texture. The overall tempo is quite slow if compared, say, to La Chapelle Royale under Philippe Herreweghe, but solo voices allow for a suppleness of phrasing that enhances forward momentum, often with arrestingly beautiful segues between textures such as at ‘et impii ad te convertentur' (‘and the unholy will turn back to you'), where a solo soprano soars over the dying echo of Savonarola's repeated plea.
In Lhéritier's more dense polyphonic setting of In te, Domine, speravi, Magnificat's velvety sound is at its most luxurious. This sonorous ensemble, combined with Cave's unhurried tempi, create a wonderfully melancholic sound world. Their interpretations of the post-Josquin generation of continental composers, Gombert and Clemens specifically, are among the finest on disc.
The programme ends with Byrd's Infelix ego. It's a tender performance; phrases roll pleasingly forwards under Cave's direction and his interpretation nudges Byrd closer to his continental counterparts. My own preference lies with a more demonstrative madrigalian approach such as The Cardinall's Musick under Andrew Carwood, leading to a dramatic final plea ‘Miserere mei, Deus' scorching the texture with emphatic chords. Here, instead, Cave strikes a prayerful note to end his programme. (Edward Breen / Gramophone)

The Hilliard Ensemble IN PARADISUM Music of Victoria and Palestrina

The music of Tomás Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina has been a cornerstone of the Hilliard Ensemble’s repertoire almost from the beginning of the group’s long history. In recent seasons they have frequently performed a programme they call “In Paradisum”, which incorporates motets by Victoria and Palestrina, framed by a roughly contemporary plainsong Requiem Mass. The antiphon “In Paradisum deducant te angeli” – may the angels conduct you to Paradise – gives the album its title, this being the sequence which concludes the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic liturgy for the dead, before the funeral procession leaves the church to escort the body to its final resting place.

Composer Ivan Moody, contributing to “In Paradisum” as an essayist, points out that while our awareness of the musical achievement of the great composers of liturgical polyphony has grown in this century, we have also lost our perspective of the fact that they were first and foremost men of the spirit (Palestrina’s social connections and more worldly ambitions notwithstanding) whose greatest works were written for the glory of God. Here, the Hilliard singers restore an appropriate sense of context, their performance reminding us that Palestrina and Victoria would have been closely involved with the plainsong and mass for daily offices; at the same time they are emphasising that the sung Catholic Mass was once also an extraordinary musical event. Nor were its musical forms immutable; this was a period when the traditions were in flux, “performance practise” in chant was changing, influenced by developments in polyphony.

Of the repertoire on the present disc, The Hilliard Ensemble’s Gordon Jones explains: “Of the four pieces by Palestrina included in this programme, three are settings of Responsory texts from either the Office for the Dead or the Burial Service. Two, Heu mihi Domine and Domine quando veneris are both from the Matins for the Dead and are set in two sections. The third, Libera me Domine, is the only one to retain its full responsorial structure. The plainsong Dum veneris acts as a response to the polyphonic verses, which are for three voices, and there is a repeat of the whole opening section at the end. To the Responsory proper Palestrina has added a setting of the Kyrie which would have been sung at this point in the service. The fourth piece, Ad Dominum cum tribularer clamavi, Psalm 119 (120), is set as a motet, in two sections. This psalm would have been sung at Vespers from the Office for the Dead.”