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Palestrina, Giovanni : Tota pulchra es, motet for 5 voices (from Motets Book IV from Canticis canticorum)Album Summary
Notes & Reviews:
2011 sees the first recording by The Sixteen completely devoted to Palestrina! The disc marks the start of a new project, which will result in a series of new recordings exploring a selection of the composer's vast output. Possibly the greatest composer of liturgical music of all time, Palestrina is a towering figure in Renaissance polyphony. This first disc features some of the sumptuous music he wrote for the Assumption.
"Christophers draws brilliant performances from his singers, both technically assured and vividly impassioned." - The Guardian
"The parodic Missa Assumpta est Maria makes an excellent beginning, this performance showing Christophers's avowed intent of making the most of the expressive lines. The other works in a beautifully shaped and sung recital include the mesmeric offertory piece Diffusa est gratia." -Sunday Times****
The Telegraph
The Sixteen and Harry Christophers launch the first volume of a long-term Palestrina project, using their instincts to convey not just the mellifluous perfection of Palestrina's polyphonic vocal writing but also the music's expressive import.
BBC Music Magazine
The whole effect is quasi-theatrical without being melodramatic. The Mass also has its virtues from the vigour of the Kyrie...to the delicate duetting of the Osanna. The recording retains the spaciousness of the largish choir...the imaginative variety of these performances bodes well for future volumes in this series.
Classic FM Magazine
The abstract beauty of the singers' approach to the Missa Assumpta Est Maria and the breathless beauty of Song of Songs shows The Sixteen's adaptability and resourcefulness. Another tick in their box - the naturalistic sound quality which avoids the contrived 'other-worldly' quality that plagues lesser early music recordings.
Gramophone Magazine
This is Palestrina sung in the English manner but so well done that I suspect unprejudiced reviewers everywhere will give it a sympathetic hearing. The Sixteen are indeed on fine form...Christophers has a gift for taking his audience by the hand, and in that spirit it would be good to show off as many sides of Palestrina as possible.
International Record Review
it is the Missa 'Assumptis est Maria' that most clearly exhibits both Palestrina's and The Sixteen's art, with superbly deployed polyphonic, homophonic and antiphonal textures made to surge and recede like vast waves of sound...an auspicious start to what one hopes will be a long-running series
Recording information: Church of St. George the Martyr, Holborn, London, Engla (02/2011).
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Works Details
Palestrina, Giovanni : Salve Regina (unspecified of 5) - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 6 min. 22 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Form: Choral
Palestrina, Giovanni : Assumpta est Maria - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 6 min. 23 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Written: 1593
Palestrina, Giovanni : Missa "Assumpta est Maria" - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 21 min. 1 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Form: Choral
Palestrina, Giovanni : Ave regina coelorum, motet for 8 voices (from Motets Book III) - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 4 min. 29 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Form: Choral
- Written: 1575
Palestrina, Giovanni : Tota pulchra es, motet for 5 voices (from Motets Book IV from Canticis canticorum) - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 2 min. 28 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Written: 1584
Palestrina, Giovanni : Vulnerasti cor meum, motet for 5 voices (from Motets Book IV from Canticis canticorum) - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 3 min. 10 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Form: Vocal
- Written: 1584
Palestrina, Giovanni : Sicut lilium inter spinas (1569) - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 3 min. 49 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Form: Choral
- Written: 1569
Palestrina, Giovanni : Diffusa est gratia, offertory for 5 voices (from Complete Offertories) - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 3 min. 35 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Form: Choral
- Written: 1593
Palestrina, Giovanni : Assumpta est, offertory for 5 voices (from Complete Offertories) - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 2 min. 24 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Form: Choral
- Written: 1593
Palestrina, Giovanni : Ave Maria - Conductor: Harry Christophers
- Ensemble: The Sixteen
- Running Time: 4 min. 27 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Form: Choral
