Chapel House Car Swap

The Sistine Chapel Choir were quite late to the recording scene, but they are making up for lost time under director Massimo Palombella. The strengths of the choir's performances on this holiday release are threefold. First of all is the sound environment of the chapel itself, resonant and big, yet hospitable to dense polyphony since Josquin was a choirboy there. Josquin appears on the program here, but the motet Missus est Gabriel is not a common work, and that points to the choir's second strength: they work from a manuscript tradition, that of the Vatican, that is different from the set of scholarly publications that have long shaped the Renaissance performing repertory, and several pieces here are world premieres, or otherwise seldom heard.

Simply titled “Palestrina”, it is a new release by the world’s oldest choir – performed and recorded in the heart of the Catholic Church, and featuring works by the most celebrated Italian musician of his time and reformer of church music: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

The Choir of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace build on the tradition established by its historic forebears of cradling new church music, with a programme of music for Advent, Christmas and the Epiphany featuring seven premiere recordings alongside new interpretations of more established repertory that has become embedded in the musical heritage at the Palace.