La Grande Chapelle
Rediscovering Palestrina: The modern master
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) is considered the most important composer of sacred music in the 16th century, a prolific author of masses, hymns, and motets for the Catholic Church. He traveled little and developed virtually his entire career in the service of three churches in Rome: Santa Maria Maggiore, the Cappella Giulia of St. Peter's, and San Giovanni in Laterano. For a time, he taught at one of the city's main educational centers, the Roman Seminary, where he had disciples such as the Anerio brothers, Soriano, and, likely, Tomás Luis de Victoria. Scholars over the centuries, culminating in Jeppesen and Andrews, identified a unique style in the composer (the "Palestrina style"), easily imitable in seminaries and churches. However, they downplayed the innovative character of many of his works. Palestrina produced a considerable body of polychoral music (over 70 pieces, more than Lassus or Andrea Gabrieli), showing an awareness of the new trends in sacred music at the end of the 16th century. La Grande Chapelle celebrates the great Roman composer by revealing this hidden repertoire.
Performers
Raquel Mendes and Axelle Bernage, sopranos
David Feldman and Marco van Baaren, altos
Jeremie Coleau and Joan Francesc Folqué, tenors
Pieter Stas and Guillaume Orly, basses
Marta Vicente, violone
Jorge López Escribano, organ
Albert Recasens, musical direction
Information
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