Title - 'Cantate Domino'
Artist - Sistine Chapel Choir
For those not in the classical know, the Sistine Chapel Choir is a choir based in Vatican City and is one of the oldest religious choirs in the world. At present, the choir comprises approximately twenty adult singers (eleven tenors and nine basses) and thirty unpaid boy choristers (sopranos and altos).
And so, Cantate Domino has been brought to us, by kind permission of the Vatican, as being the first studio album ever to be recorded in the Sistine Chapel. Indeed, Cantate Domino opens the door to some of the worlds most beautiful choral music, as well as into one of the most treasured sacred locations on earth. Featuring the Chapels resident choir one of the longest-established choirs anywhere in the world.
Based at the heart of the Vatican, this unique musical institution has a rich history through the centuries, stretching back to the Middle Ages. Featuring music written for Popes, and this his choir across the centuries
An album of musicological interest and importance, as well as one containing some of the most beautiful choral music ever written.
Cantate Domino includes world premiere recordings and previously unpublished works and editions by Palestrina, Allegri & de Victoria. For me, personally, Allegri’s most famous work, his Miserere, is here; albeit in a version claimed to be a world premiere of the “original” (preserved in the Sistine Codex of 1661), which doesn’t have the later highly ornamented interpolations.
The singing throughout, from this impressive choir of approximately 60 men and boys, is excellent, and if you want a highlight, it is their performance of Palestrina’s marvelous motet Sicut cervus.
Cantate Domino follows the November 2014 release of Habemus Papam on Deutsche Grammophon - a double album featuring live recordings of the music sung by the Sistine Chapel Choir before, during and after the 2013 Papal Conclave that led to the election of Pope Francis.
www.DeutscheGrammophon.com