The Tallis Scholars

The Sistine Chapel, the heart of the Vatican in Rome, is well-known for having bequeathed a treasure-trove of visual art to posterity.

With one notable exception, it is rather less well-known for the musical treasures which it has held for many centuries.

In many cases this is due to the jealous guarding of the music by a series of Popes, who would not allow certain pieces to pass beyond the walls of the chapel.

Such is the case, famously, of Gregorio Allegris Miserere, which acquired such a mystique on account of the Sistine Chapels monopoly that tracing its evolution has become one of the most intriguing musical exercises of our time.Tonights programme allows us a privileged glimpse into the heyday of the Vatican during the high Renaissance.

The power and prestige of the Papacy was at its apex, and before long the Council of Trent would spur liturgists and artists to the heights of the Counter-Reformation.

In this spirit, the continuity in this programme is provided by that most prolific of polyphonists, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Rather than choose just one setting of the Ordinary of the Mass, Peter Phillips has chosen individual movements from five different masses, forming a composite which shows the remarkable breadth and consistency of Palestrinas style.Many of the masses are in the so-called missa parodia or parody mass form, meaning their music is based on a pre-existing work, usually a motet.

Hence Missa In te Domine speravi, which draws its material from a 5-voice motet by an influential composer from the generation before Palestrina, Lupus Hellinck.

The Gloria is from a mass based on Palestrinas own celebrated motet, Tu es Petrus.

The Credo comes from the famous Missa Papae Marcelli, supposedly written to prove that sacred music could be both beautiful and intelligible, after officials at the Council of Trent considered banning complex polyphony.

Certainly the prevalence of syllabic declamation in this movement suggests a particular concern that the words be understood.

The mighty Sanctus is from a mass based on the double-choir Confitebor Tibi, whilst the Agnus Dei is from the Missa brevis, a mass which, despite its name, is not a great deal shorter than any of the others! Instead, in the second statement of this freely-composed movement, Palestrina adds a further voice to enrich the polyphony.