Palestrina - Missa Papae Marcelli
Oxford Camerata | Jeremy Summerly
Renaissance | 1430-1600
Review No. 5
Credited with rescuing Catholic sacred music from a return to plainchant in the mid-16th century, Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli is among the best-known, best-loved works of unaccompanied vocal polyphony from the Renaissance period. And this reading of it by Jeremy Summerly’s outstanding Oxford Camerata is surely one of the very best available. Balancing an appropriately reverential tone with some admirably clear and high-quality vocal performances, it’s captured in a warm acoustic that contrasts with the cavernous cathedrals in which it was once performed.
Merciful light
The Kyrie which opens this work rises and stretches like someone waking to greet the dawn. Hypnotic interlacing harmonies ascend and descend, before urgency seizes the singers (T1-3:19) and choral textures become denser. This first section ends with all voices unified – the morning sun now higher above the horizon, its light warmer and fuller. It’s followed by a most glorious Gloria, with the Latin words Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam (We give thanks to you for your great glory) (T2-0:42~1:02) moving, and worth cherishing. The potent final reprise of the closing in gloria Dei Patris, amen (in the glory of God the Father, amen) is another highlight.
Profound profession
In some mass settings, the Credo can come across as brow-furrowingly serious; devoid of the joy that should accompany a profession of one’s faith. Not so in Palestrina’s treatment – nor in the way the Oxford Camerata delivers it. By turns gladdening and soothing, this declaration of belief in the central tenets of Christianity unfolds in rising and falling vocal lines: a musical depiction, one might almost imagine, of the entrance into heaven.
The proceeding Sanctus – combined with the Benedictus – could hardly be more different in character. It opens quietly, its long-drawn lines bringing peace to mind and heart. Incredibly, a mere 25 Latin words make up the Sanctus/Benedictus, yet they’re set so spaciously by Palestrina that it takes almost nine minutes to sing them – the two instances of Hosanna in excelsis (Hosanna in the highest) providing the most intense moments.
From the flock to the Lamb
What Palestrina makes of the two Agnus Dei texts is still more astonishing – eight minutes of beauty and piety from 11 words. Lapse in concentration during the opening ten seconds of the fifth track on this recording, and you could be forgiven for thinking you’d returned to the very beginning of the work, so similar is the writing to that of the start of the Kyrie. But from here on the singing is less sunny; a dusk to this mass’ opening dawn.
If tears should escape while you listen, you shouldn’t be surprised. Consider first the words: Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis / dona nobis pacem (Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us / grant us peace). Then consider how simply and sincerely these are sung. It would almost be wrong not to cry.
