Recording of the Week, New Palestrina from Graham Ross and the choir of Clare College

As 2025 dawned, one thing I certainly did not have on my bingo card was ‘world premiere recordings from a composer born half a millennium ago’. And yet, like Théotime Langlois de Swarte’s Vivaldi premieres a few months back, here we are with five previously unrecorded works by Palestrina, whose 500th birthday falls (possibly) on February 3rd, courtesy of Graham Ross and his Clare College Choir - who, it’s fair to say, have become something of a choral powerhouse under his leadership and have elbowed their way onto the turf of other, historically dominant collegiate choirs through their sheer musical quality. 

The opening Magnificat introduces the choir’s relatively light sound, with a clarity that suits polyphony particularly well. There’s little or no vibrato here, but plenty of energy. The alternatim setting, with the odd verses set to plainsong and the even to polyphony, keeps things pleasingly light and ensures the Magnificat as a whole doesn’t outstay its welcome; two solo-quartet verse sections provide a further delightful contrast. The ‘Esurientes’ is particularly beautiful, as is an unexpectedly pared-back setting of ‘Fecit potentiam’. The phrase ‘He hath shewed strength with His arm’ is generally a cue for composers to bring out the big guns and the results are often great fun, but I enjoyed the approach taken here. 

The first of the two masses featured, Missa Emendemus in melius, is almost wistful in tone, as befits its Lenten inspiration (‘Let us make amends for [our] sins’). It’s also rather intimate in scale - just four parts, without too much overly complex polyphony. There are plenty of homophonic ‘tuttis’, as well as a tendency towards elegant two-part writing in thirds. The mood is sober and modal, and no movement (not even the Credo!) lasts more than five minutes. It’s eminently suitable for the less exuberant seasons of the Church year - and indeed I don’t say that just as a throwaway remark. This mass is available for free (like all the Palestrina works on this album) from editor Francis Bevan’s website polyphonydatabase.com, as are numerous other works of Renaissance polyphony, so any choral directors looking for some new repertoire this term that won’t strain their singers or bank balances might want to have a leaf through the directory. 

The impressive twelve-part motet Ad te levavi features some enjoyable word-painting in its opening rising motif, depicting the uplifting of the eyes to the hills (as does the preceding setting by Robert White, about which more a little later). Palestrina’s setting is distinctly more upbeat and bouncy than White’s - an uncharacteristically optimistic take on an essentially supplicatory psalm text.

Missa Memor esto and the motet it is based on strike a similarly limpid tone to the earlier mass - indeed that Ad te levavi stands out, alongside the Magnificat, as the most lively music on this otherwise remarkably serene album. It’s great to be able to compare the motet with the mass that Palestrina constructs around it - and while we’re talking about contrasts, I also enjoy Ross’s decision to interleave alternative English settings of these motets with the Palestrina - an Emendemus by Byrd, an Ad te levavi by White with some delicious false relations, and a Memor esto by Mundy. Palestrina is the star of the show, but the difference in approach offers a pleasant change of pace and flavour. 

The choir’s sound, as I’ve mentioned, is refined but never timid - there’s sensitive phrasing that allows syncopations to emerge, and all the step-out soloists for the verse sections (in the Magnificat and both masses) excel. For such relatively young musicians their assurance and poise is remarkable.

You might not be surprised to hear that other Palestrina recordings are in the pipeline, this being his anniversary year - and one of the most hotly-anticipated is the third in Stile Antico’s The Golden Renaissance series, due out next week and available to pre-order now. No premieres here as far as I’m aware, but instead a collection of Palestrina’s most beloved works - the legendary Missa Papae Marcelli, the spellbinding Sicut cervus, the uplifting Tu es Petrus and many more.