For a composer who from his own time and for most of the next four centuries was recognized as one of the crowning figures of Renaissance music, Giovanni Luigi da Palestrina remains neglected in terms of his vast overall output. A famous work, the so-called Missa Papae Marcelli, or Pope Marcellus Mass, associated with a now-discredited story, defined his style as something shorn of all rough edges, consisting of pure and perfect but rarely expressive polyphony. Some of his music fits this general description, but much does ...
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For a composer who from his own time and for most of the next four centuries was recognized as one of the crowning figures of Renaissance music, Giovanni Luigi da Palestrina remains neglected in terms of his vast overall output. A famous work, the so-called Missa Papae Marcelli, or Pope Marcellus Mass, associated with a now-discredited story, defined his style as something shorn of all rough edges, consisting of pure and perfect but rarely expressive polyphony. Some of his music fits this general description, but much does not. This 1988 recording touched on some of the exceptions, and it still sounds good in budget reissue, with the distinctively hard-edged boy sopranos of the Westminster Cathedral Choir turning in unusually intense performances. The two masses on the program are both what's known as parody masses, meaning that they're based on, and more or less frequently quote, preexisting works, and in this case the preexisting works are motets by Palestrina himself. Both are included on the album,...
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