Presentation of the CD of the Pontifical Sistine
Chapel Choir
This morning in the Holy See
Press Office a press conference was held to present the music CD of the
Pontifical Sistine Chapel Choir: “Palestrina. Missa Papæ Marcelli – Motets”, a
monographic work on Pierluigi de Palestrina edited by Deusche Grammophon. The
panel was composed of Archbishop George Gänswein, prefect of the Papal
Household; Msgr. Massimo Palombella, director of the Pontifical Sistine Chapel
Choir; Dickon Stainer, president and chief executive officer of Global Classics
Universal Music Group International; Clemens Trautmann, president of Deustche
Grammophon; and Mirko Gratton, director of the Classical Music Department of
the Universal Group.
Archbishop Gänswein explained
that it was not by chance that the second CD by the Pontifical Sistine Chapel
Choir contained the famous Missa Papæ Marcelli and several motets on the theme
of mercy, selected to emphasise also musically the extraordinary Jubilee
convened by the Holy Father. “Last year, on the occasion of the presentation of
the first CD of the Pontifical Sistine Chapel, the principal intention was to
promote awareness of the centuries-long history of this ancient institution of
the Holy See, its artistic, cultural and above all spiritual function, and its
special bond with the Pope. .. Listening to this CD and reading the
accompanying booklet, one is immediately aware not only of the spiritual
reasons for such refined and sublime music, but also of the great commitment by
the director and the singers of the choir in perceiving and rendering the
original inspiration. With this Mass, the prince of Roman polyphony has
successfully sought to respond to what the Council of Trent asked of liturgical
music: that is, the intelligibility of the text united with the quality of the
music”.
“This challenge remains
pertinent today”, he continued, “and sees the Pontifical Sistine Chapel Choir
engaged in positioning liturgical relevance the great musical heritage of the
Church, intelligently acknowledging scientific studies on ancient music and
experimenting new ways of implementing and proposing great music in the context
of the liturgical reform of Vatican Council II. In this way, the aims of this
CD, which is presented as a cultural operation, go far beyond in their
endeavour to contribute to communicating the essence of the Catholic Church’s
mission, which is to evangelise, that is, to announce the good news also through
beauty, the way to God, and to invite the search for good, the querere Deum
which is inherent in art and in religious music. This is intended to express
that outbound Church of which Pope Francis speaks, a Church that is not afraid
to speak the language of man and his needs, of which music is a high and
universal expression”.
The maestro and director of
the Pontifical Sistine Chapel, Msgr. Massimo Palombella, highlighted that the
“almost mythological” Missa Papæ Marcelli is Palestrina’s first work for six voices
and the only composition explicitly dedicated to a pope. Furthermore, it is
attributed “the merit of having saved polyphony, ensuring that ‘intelligibility
of the text’ requested of polyphonic music by the Council of Trent.
“The possibility, more unique
than rare, of recording in the Sistine Chapel, is an added value in the search
for aesthetic pertinence”, he remarked. “Indeed, by taking this approach, the
Pontifical Sistine Chapel Choir has for some time now been revisited a certain
way of singing intended to produce strong and powerful ‘basilica sounds’. This
happened for the simple fact that in the time of Palestrina, the Pope’s
celebrations did not take place in St. Peter’s Basilica, but rather in the
Sistine Chapel, and also because the current St. Peter’s Basilica did not exist
as it was in construction. Singing in the Sistine Chapel necessarily demanded
the search for a more intimately perceived sonority. The great emotionality of
a mass of sound, of singing voices filling the vaults of a basilica with sound,
is replaced by the refined perception of the text, from the emotional and
expressive rendering of the word through sound, from the dialectical relations
that emerge from the contrapuntal language understood as an intellectual
component moved by the emotions”.
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