First performed in 1917 in Munich (conducted by Bruno Walter), Pfitzner’s opera on the great 16th‐century composer Palestrina became popular with those in German musical society who had become hostile to the direction which Schoenberg and Busoni had taken. Composed in “traditional” late romantic style it has a particularly Wagnerian flavour, a kind of catholic “Meistersinger” with hints of Palestrinian counterpoint and plainchant.

A superb cast in this exciting live recording from Berlin: Peter Schreier, Siegfried Lorenz, Rosemarie Lang and the Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by the great Otmar Suitner, a specialist in late romantic repertoire.