Allegri Miserere

Allegri's early Baroque masterpiece Miserere from around 1630 movingly juxtaposes modal chant with tonality, and was so popular that the Vatican refused to allow it to be performed anywhere else - until the 14 year old Mozart broke the Vatican's monopoly by writing it down from memory after attending a performance. Pergolesi's late Baroque masterpiece Stabat Mater for soprano and alto dates from 1736, the year of his death at the age of 26. It was originally written for male voices but since it's hard to find a castrato these days, it's generally performed by two women or by a female soprano and counter-tenor. This performance uses a female alto but in other respects it's very much a period performance - the sound is intimate and the tempos are lively without any sacrifice of spiritual depth. The soloists, soprano Monika Frimmer and alto Gloria Banditelli, sing beautifully without overdoing the vibrato, and their voices are well matched. The disk also contains a brief "Sonata a quattro" by Vivaldi, and another setting of the Stabat Mater, by the late Baroque composer Antonio Caldara from around 1725.

(Kenneth Dorter)

This 1994 disc is something of a classic of the new strain of the historical-performance movement, which is characterized by a certain amount of license to speculate in the reconstruction of lost works. The Miserere mei Deus of Gregorio Allegri is, of course, not a lost work, but one with an unbroken performance tradition stretching back to its composition in the early seventeenth century (before 1638). It was sung for centuries at the Sistine Chapel, where the singers were enjoined from circulating the music beyond Vatican walls…

"Christophers draws brilliant performances from his singers, both technically assured and vividly impassioned". (The Guardian)

The Tallis Scholars - Music written for the Sistine Chapel
Allegri: Miserere & Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 358 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Gimell Records # CDGIM 041 | Country/Year: UK 2007
Genre: Classical | Style: Renaissance, Choral, Sacred

"…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

The Tallis Scholars - Music written for the Sistine Chapel
Allegri: Miserere & Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz/6CH: 3,69 GB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Gimell Records # CDGIM 041 | Country/Year: UK 2007
Genre: Classical | Style: Renaissance, Choral, Sacred

"…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