Аeatures sacred music by Renaissance composers living and working in Rome. Offers new interpretations of music by Josquin des Prez, including his famous Missa L’homme armé super voces musicales. Presents premiere recordings of works by Marbrianus de Orto, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and other scandalously understudied late fifteenth-century singer-composers employed in the newly built chapel of Pope Sixtus IV. In a space that overlooked frescoes by Botticelli and Perugino, they gathered around enormous choirbooks to sing one another’s masses, motets, and hymns. Cut Circle’s recording aims to capture the soundscape of the Sistine Chapel as Josquin knew it.
"…They have a long and impressive track record, so it's a risky claim to make, but I believe that, on disc, this is the best thing The Tallis Scholars have ever done." ~International Record Review
This series of state-of-the-art recordings by the Sistine Chapel Choir for Deutsche Grammophon makes an authoritative and profoundly beautiful case for the continuing relevance of Humanist, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces in the Papal Celebrations of the 21stCentury, and in the wider world. This album breathes new contemporary life into a precious tradition at the highest artistic level and transfers its listeners into a meditative, peaceful and conscious state.