Choral Works

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Composer : Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Composer : Gregorio Allegri
Conductor : Jeremy Summerly

Product Details

Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0730099423823
Label : Ncl
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 1999-04-01
Running Time : 76minutes
UPC : 730099423823

ASIN : B00000JMXS

Track Listings for

Disc-1
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus
5. Agnus Dei
6. Kyrie
7. Gloria
8. Credo
9. Sanctus
10. Agnus Dei
11. Stabat Mater - Jeremy Summerly
12. Miserere

Editorial Reviews

From Amazon.com

There's a wonderful legend, retold by (among others) Pfitzner's opera Palestrina, attached to the "Pope Marcellus" Mass: the Council of Trent, ground zero of the Counter Reformation, was about to ban all music but chant from the liturgy when Palestrina submitted this Mass, thereby changing the prelates' minds and saving church music. The writing is beautiful enough to deserve such a story: cheerful yet devout, comprehensible but not simplistic, without the complexity and secular borrowings (very prevalent in the preceding decades) that so perturbed the Council. The Missa Papae Marcelli has been recorded by choirs from Westminster Abbey to the Tallis Scholars, yet the Oxford Camerata does itself proud: Jeremy Summerly's reading of the music is reverently sweet, yet he's not afraid to make a joyful noise when appropriate--and the various voices are unusually clear. While the similarly radiant Missa Aeterna Christi Munera gets a similarly pleasing performance, the remaining two works on the disc were recorded on a separate, less auspicious occasion: Palestrina's double-choir Stabat Mater sounds gently dull, Gregorio Allegri's Miserere raucously dull. (The Tallis Scholars really are preferable, cost notwithstanding.) Nevertheless, Summerly's readings of the Masses are among the best--and, at Naxos's super-budget price, definitely the best value. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews

Beautiful! (2004-06-22)

Exquisite! The choir is resonant and beautifully blended, with a sweet line throughout the MISSA PAPAE MARCELLI. This recording is an ideal introduction to Italian Renaissance polyphony, as it was for me. Beautiful music, a nice combination of pieces, a ravishingly beautiful choir - and at this price, how can you go wrong? Hooray for Naxos!

Overall Excellence (2003-04-21)

The Missa Papae Marcelli and Missa Aeterna Christi munera are both excellent.

The whole of the Pope Marcellus Mass is a model of artfully managed simplicity; it is a glorious sound -- the Kyrie and the Sanctus especially are wonderfully serene and ethereal.

The other Mass is fine, too; a bit more rythmic activity, something more of the jauntiness of the madrigal, than the monumental Pope Marcellus Mass, but all the same, a lovely piece, and well sung here.

The Oxford Camerata here have a lovely, warm sound, very nicely blended; there is excellent rhythm in the ensemble, as well.

The Stabat mater is an exquisite work, one of those unnecessarily well-kept secrets; a fantastic piece which is marvelously suited to Holy Week observances (he writes, in Eastertide ....)

The Allegri Miserere is beautiful, as well. I have both this, and the Tallis Scholars; I don't want to get into the "this one is better than the other" swamp ... they have somewhat different characters, much as two people have different tones of voice, and yet both voices may be perfectly pleasant. The high soprano in the figure which is the trademark of the Allegri, has good control; I have an idea that the corresponding singer in the Tallis Scholars recording may be a little "rounder," a little more covered in tone. But as I say, both are fine, and wondrously musical.

Listen to this if you're unfamiliar with Palestrina (2001-03-13)

This disc seems to be a great introduction to the music of Palestrina. Missa Papae Marcelli is definitely the highlight. The choral artistry is exquisite on this work and also on the Missa Aeterna Christi Munera. The Stabat Mater doesn't seem too bad, either. I have heard better recordings of Allegri's Miserere, however. Richard Marlow and the Cambridge Trinity College Choir do a fabulous job with this work on their double set entitled "Choral Moods."

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