Release Date: 01 March 2010
Label: Hyperion Records Ltd
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 034571177854
Genres: Classical Early Music
Description
The celebrated Choir of Westminster Cathedral goes back to its roots with this recording of some of the towering masterpieces of Renaissance polyphonyâa genre which the choir has made its own through the ritual of daily liturgical performance. Recent reviews have declared the choir to be at the peak of its powers, and this disc is an important celebration of a great musical tradition.
Palestrinaâs Missa Te Deum laudamus, a paraphrase Mass based on the ancient chant, is recorded here with Victoriaâs vibrant alternatim setting of the Te Deum. The Mass, like the chant on which it is based, is in the Phrygian mode, which in modern terms can be regarded as a modal form of E minor. Haberl, a late nineteenth-century editor of the complete works of Palestrina, commented that âthis gives the Mass a certain severity of colouring, but [it is] full of holy fireâ.
Missa Tu es Petrus is a parody Mass based closely on Palestrinaâs own motet for the Feast of St Peter and St Paul (published in Rome in his second book of motets in 1572), from which a great deal of the musical material of the Mass is drawn. The motet, which precedes the Mass on this disc, is one of the most gloriously sunlit and uplifting pieces in all of Palestrinaâs music, and its joyous splendour sets the tone for the Mass.
Tracklisting
Mishka Rushdie Momen
The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park
Takacs Quartet
Simon Callaghan, Sinfonieorchester St Gallen
Cinquecento
Andrey Gugnin
El Leon de Oro / Peter Phillips
Piers Lane
G. P. Palestrina
