Palestrina for Eight Voices, the first CD by Schola Adventus, our own resident professional choir, has been released by the Four Winds label and is available for purchase from Amazon.com. You can use the insert on the left to go directly to the Amazon page which features it.

Recorded at St. Stephen’s, Belvedere in July last year, it features the music of the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The centerpiece of the CD is his great Missa Confitebor tibi , which is based on his own motet of the same name (also heard on this recording), of which it is a parody . It was published in 1585, and is a remarkable work, capturing brilliantly all the contrasting “affects” of the mass text, from the reverential intimacy of Et incarnatus est and Benedictus qui venit to the climactic breathlessness of Et vitam venturi and dance-like ebullience of Hosanna in excelsis! Palestrina’s consummate mastery of scoring and antiphonal contrast for eight voices is shown to great advantage here, as he reveals himself to be the equal of the Venetian polychoral masters, Gabrieli and Monteverdi.

Many of you will remember the last time it was heard here—in the context for which it was written —at our Corpus Christi High Mass in 2005, and also in concert in June that year. It is the world premier recording of this work! Also included are several eight-part motets and his eight-part settings of Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis .

 

A Review from The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians

Palestrina for Eight Voices. Schola Adventus; Paul Ellison, director (Four Winds #3028 )

This superlative performance features the first-ever recording of the Missa confitebor tibi Domine along with the motet of which it is a parody; six additional (and well-chosen) eight-part motets complete the program. The Mass is a "find," an exquisite polyphonic work with effective contrasts among the sections, but maintaining an overall refined style. All of the motets are elegant, but the Magntficat is especially glorious.

Paul's Schola Adventus performs eloquently; the trebles are clearly adult women, but their sound is, like that of the men, as pure as this repertory demands. Phrasing and shading are admirable, and the polyphonic lines are crystal clear. The acoustic of St. Stephen's Church, Belvedere, is sympathetic without being noticeable. The liner contains credits and a knowledgeable essay by Alejandro Enrique Planchart, but no texts. AAM members hardly need a printed text for the Ordinary of the Mass, for the Ave Maria, or for the two Evening Canticles. They may recognize Surge illuminare as the "Third Song of Isaiah" and Confitebor tibi as the incipit of Psalm 111, but Spiritus sanctus replevit and Et ambulabant gentes may be less immediately familiar. Texts for highly polyphonic works ''help [one] to follow the progression of those textual lines through the imaginative counterpoint of the vocal parts," as I pointed out in my October review of a release from a Church of the Advent at the other end of the U.S.A.

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