The Sixteen’s first CD devoted to Palestrina marks the start of a new series of discs featuring some of the composer’s greatest choral works.

Palestrina was born in 1525 not far from Rome, in the town whose name he bore and from which we take the cover images for this new series of discs.

Possibly the greatest composer of liturgical music of all time, Palestrina was a towering figure in Renaissance polyphony. Choral singers world-wide will know his Missa Papae Marcelli (recorded by The Sixteen on COR16014) as, without doubt, it is the most renowned of Palestrina’s works and possibly the most famous mass of all time.

On this new disc, The Sixteen has recorded some of the sumptuous music he wrote for the Assumption, including his Missa Assumpta est Maria and Salve Regina. Without doubt, Palestrina was the great master of all Papal composers and his spiritual craft and harmonic vitality fulfilled the needs of the Vatican. His motets for the Assumption, also entitled Assumpta est Maria, are glorious examples of such work and can be heard in all their splendour on this recording.

By his death in 1594, Palestrina had published a huge amount of music, including over 100 Masses and over 350 motets.