Sistine Chapel Choir
The Sistine Chapel Choir in Rome has been one of the most famous choral ensembles in the Western world for centuries. The young Josquin Desprez was a member in the 1460s (and apparently carved his name in the chapel wall while he was there). The choir is a veritable icon of Catholic musical tradition, and it forswore the use of castrati in treble parts only in 1903. Yet its recorded legacy is sparse.
The choir's history begins in the first centuries of Christianity with the emergence of a "schola cantorum," a group of singers who lived and worked together, and were associated with the Pope. The group assumed its current form after the renovation of the Cappella Maggiore, built in the middle 14th century, by Pope Sixtus VI in the 1470s. The chapel, lavishly decorated with paintings by Botticelli and later by Michelangelo, is named for Sixtus. In the 1480s the size of the choir was fixed at 24 singers, six on each part, and for centuries the upper parts were sung by castrati. That size has remained fairly consistent down through the centuries, as has the choir's repertory: although new music was added, notably by composer and longtime director ("maestro perpetuo") Lorenzo Perosi (1872-1956), and chant dropped out of the chapel's musical practices in the 19th century, the Renaissance stile antico of Palestrina and his contemporaries formed an unbroken tradition in the choir's work.
Nevertheless, the revolution wrought by recordings on the musical world did not reach the Sistine Chapel until the 21st century. Recordings were forbidden in the chapel itself, but several live recordings appeared: Habemus papam (We have a pope) was a 2013 release featuring live masses, two of them outdoors, by the choir at the time of the deliberations resulting in the ascent of Francis I to the papacy. The appointment of director Massimo Palombella, who assumed his post in 2010 after replacing Giuseppe Liberto (an opponent of the musical reforms put in place by the Second Vatican Council), resulted in a relaxation of the regulations, and in 2015 the Sistine Chapel Choir released Cantate Domino, its debut album recorded in the chapel itself. The album appeared on the Deutsche Grammophon label, with all profits, by Francis' direction, going to charity. An all-Palestrina album, featuring an innovative version of the Missa Papae Marcelli with unorthodox treatments of tempo, appeared the following year.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
16 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Veni Domine: Advent & Christmas At The Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 27 Oct 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Cantate Domino - La Cappella Sistina e la musica dei Papi
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 25 Sep 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 7 Oct 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
O Crux Benedicta. Lent and Holy Week at the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Mar 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Pérotin: "Beata viscera Mariae Virginis"
Cecilia Bartoli, Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 20 Oct 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 7 Oct 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cantate Domino - La Cappella Sistina e la musica dei Papi
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 25 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Veni Domine: Advent & Christmas At The Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 27 Oct 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Anerio: Voce mea ad Dominum
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Feb 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O Crux Benedicta. Lent and Holy Week at the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Mar 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Works of Palestrina
Sistine Chapel Choir, Msgr. Prof. Dominic Bartolucci
Classical - Released by Legacy International on 21 Sep 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concert at the Vatican
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Legacy International on 10 Oct 2009
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: Motet "Quem vidistis, pastores - Dicite, quidnam vidistis"
Sistine Chapel Choir, Massimo Palombella
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 13 Oct 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concert At The Vatican - From The Archives (Digitally Remastered)
Pop - Released by Essential Media Group on 3 Nov 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tomas Louis de Victoria
Classical - Released by Period Records on 31 May 1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Haec Dies, col versetto confitemini di Pasqua (Gregorian Chant)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Apr 1904
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo