SearchsearchUseruser

Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli - Ensemble Officium

Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli - Ensemble Officium

Christophorus  CHR 77313

Stereo Hybrid

Classical - Vocal


Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli

Ensemble Officium
Wilfried Rombach

Support this site by purchasing from these vendors using the paid links below.
As an Amazon Associate HRAudio.net earns from qualifying purchases.

bol.com
 
jpc
Presto

Add to your wish list | library

 

1 of 2 recommend this, would you recommend it?  yes | no

All
show
Reviews (1)
show
hide

Review by John Miller - November 14, 2009

This recording has been in the can for some time, having been set down in 2004, and is in stereo only, a fact not announced on the disc or its packaging.

Its programme is a quasi-liturgical sequence suitable for Ascension Day, comprising Palestrina's motets, Gregorian chant and the 6-part Mass of Pope Marcellus. The informative booklet outlines the reasons why the music was transposed down a fourth (said to be common practice in Rome, and the first CD to feature such a presentation). Ensemble Officium number around 17 singers, with female sopranos but with high tenors on the alto parts. Their sound is thus rather homogeneous, but the parts are generally clear, although their articulation with quite soft consonants sometimes makes it hard to follow the texts - ironically, because the Missa Papae Marcelli was said to be the piece which clarified the text for Roman congregations after a period when flamboyant polyphonic invention was more a priority than meaning.

A well-known story was put about by Abbé Baini, Palestrina's over-imaginative biographer, that Pope Marcellus, dismayed by lack of attention paid to the texts as sung by the Papal Choir, summoned the singers and demanded that on Holy Days, everything must be clearly heard and understood. Ten years later, Baini has Palestrina appearing before a commission of cardinals in 1565 with the Missa Papae Marcelli manuscript, convincing them that polyphony could still convey clearly both message and meaning, thus saving the sacred art.

However, it is now known that this mass was written some time before the proclamation by Marcellus (who only reigned for 3 weeks in the Spring of 1555). Palestrina had already changed his style, almost anticipating the Canon from the Council of Trent in 1562, which decreed that "...the words may clearly be understood by all, and the hearts of the listeners be drawn to the desire of heavenly harmonies, in the contemplation of the joys of the blessed".

Performances are very good and well paced, with the solo Gregorian chants set further back in a resonant church acoustic, but the ensemble is much closer. I did find myself missing the brighter, more vibrant sound of boy's voices, for example from the Westminster Cathedral choir on RBCD. The more recent recording of the Ensemble Officium under Wilfried Rombach (Palestrina: Messa per Santa Cecilia - Ensemble Officium) is notably more sophisticated than this 2004 one, in its more fluid and nuanced singing and atmospheric but finely-detailed MC recording. Nevertheless, a useful issue, very well presented with excellent notes, photographs and texts in an attractive Digipak.

Copyright © 2009 John Miller and HRAudio.net

Performance:

Sonics:

stars stars