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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Lamentation I, Book 3, "De Lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae"
Lamentation I, Book 3, "De Lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae"
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Responsory I, "Sicut ovis ad occisionem dustus est"
Responsory I, "Sicut ovis ad occisionem dustus est"
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Lamentation II, Book 3, "Quomodo obscuratum est aurum"
Lamentation II, Book 3, "Quomodo obscuratum est aurum"
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Responsory II, "Jerusalem, surge, et exue te vestibus"
Responsory II, "Jerusalem, surge, et exue te vestibus"
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Lamentation III, Book 3, "Incipit Oratio, Jeremiae Prophetae"
Lamentation III, Book 3, "Incipit Oratio, Jeremiae Prophetae"
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Responsory III, "Plange quasi virgo, plebs mea"
Responsory III, "Plange quasi virgo, plebs mea"
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Stabat mater
Stabat mater
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Mulieres sedentes ad monumentum"
Antiphon, "Mulieres sedentes ad monumentum"
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Benedictus pro Hebdomada sancta (Benedictus for Holy Week)
Benedictus pro Hebdomada sancta (Benedictus for Holy Week)
Mulieres sedentes ad monumentum"
Antiphon, "Mulieres sedentes ad monumentum"
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Sicut cervus
Sicut cervus
2010
“This outstanding recording of music for Holy Saturday opens with two lessons from the third of Palestrina's four settings of texts from Lamentations, passages chanted during the Office of Tenebrae on the last three days of Holy Week. The third lesson is Palestrina's superb setting of the Prayer of Jeremiah. The performance is objectively straightforward, allowing the music, in its utter poignancy expressed with marked restraint, to speak for itself. The clarity of the individual voices is remarkable and the acoustic clear, yet warm: even the six-part final cry, 'Jerusalem… convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum', comes across with perfect intelligibility. In the chanted liturgy each lesson is followed by a florid reponsory, and full marks should go to Musica Contexta for transcribing these chants from Giovanni Guidetti's edition of 1587, which naturally comes from the right place and is of the right date. Though the responsories might have been better in a slower, more determinedly solemn style, these singers are well on the way to achieving perfection here. It's particularly interesting to hear them sing Palestrina's wonderful Sicut cervus, with its surging phrases, and also his famous Stabatmater for double choir, displaying that dramatic alternation between antiphonal choir and combined choral sections. For maximum effect, more antiphonal distinction might have helped in the choir – versus – choir sections; but overall this is a well-thought-out and moving performance.”
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