Giovanni da Palestrina: Best of the Best

Legend has it that, with his Pope Marcellus Mass, Palestrina (1525-1594) actually saved church music from being banned by the Catholic hierarchy. While that's not strictly true, his honeyed music has been used for centuries as the textbook example (literally) of good counterpoint. Here are his essential recordings.

	Palestrina: Music for Maundy Thursday / Musica Contexta
	Giovanni Palestrina(Composer), Musica Contexta(Orchestra) Usually ships in 2-3 days Click here for more information	List Price: $16.97 Our Price: $15.49 You Save: $1.48 (9%)
Amazon.com essential recording Musica Contexta was formed by Simon Ravens (a former assistant to Andrew Parrott) specifically to present Renaissance music in context--that is, in the sort of musical setting (e.g., a liturgy) for which it was conceived. Their auspicious debut record for Chandos recreates a portion of the Sistine Chapel's legendary Tenebrę services for Holy Week. They follow each lesson (taken from the Lamentations of Jeremiah) with a plainchant responsory and frame each Psalm with its plainchant antiphon....Read more
	Palestrina: Motets, Missa Sine Nomine / Fasolis, et al
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Amazon.com essential recording Palestrina was certainly a great composer, but "fascinating" is not a word usually associated with his music. Well, this is a fascinating Palestrina record. The performances are smooth and skillful, as are those on many other Palestrina recordings; the real interest is conductor Diego Fasolis's exploration of the different scoring options possible for performing this mellifluous music: unaccompanied single voices (the Missa sine nomine and Magnificat); choir with organ (Laudate Dominum, Sicut...Read more
	Prince of Music - Palestrina / Keene, Voices of Ascension
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Amazon.com essential recording Voices of Ascension's Palestrina disc is something of a "greatest hits" collection: a dozen of the prolific composer's best-known motets--including several, such as Super flumina Babilonis, Tu es Petrus, and Sicut cervus, that many listeners will have sung in church or college choirs--and the legendary "Pope Marcellus" Mass. Yet the performance is not the slowly flowing honey usually served up by, say, the Tallis Scholars (as good as that is). Particularly in the Gloria and Credo of the Mass,...Read more