Morales: Mass for the Feast of St. Isidore of Seville - CD

ENGLISH

<br><br>In 1545 a very sick Cristobal de Morales left Rome where he had contracted malaria, and travelled back to his hometown of Toledo in Spain. Having left Papal employment, he had managed to secure a lucrative position as chapelmaster at the cathedral in Toledo – the seat of the cardinal primate of Spain. The cathedral had a very good choir, two organists, and a group of six minstrels. However, his health did not improve, and he ran in to difficulties with the cathedral authorities. Two years later these factors conspired to force his resignation. He had little time to compose any music, but he took a considerable amount of work with him from Rome. Among these works was the Missa ‘Mile regretz’. It was probably used to celebrate the feast of St Isidore of Seville, and the music is ideally suited to the Lenten period – the mournful text is full of descriptions of personal loss. Isidore was one of the archbishops of pre Muslim Spain, and became one of the Doctors of the Church, and his commemoration in Toledo was a double feast of the second class – the second highest classification of the church year. Therefore it was an ideal occasion for a major new Mass to be performed. As this was the period of Lent, the instrumental contributions were limited to the entrance and exit music of the cantors.<br /> <br /> On this recording the music is taken from a Spanish manuscript from the 16th century, and the keyboard tientos are by Hernando de Cabezon, the organist to Philip II. The chants were taken from Spanish chant books from the 16th and 17th centuries. It is almost certain that this mass was performed in the presence of Charles V, and this recording provides a vivid recreation of what the service would have sounded like in the Sistine Chapel, Rome in 1536.<br /> <br /> Other information:<br /> - Recorded in 1995.<br /> - Booklet notes from original release included.<br /> - "I have no more superlatives. Buy this disc" (Gramophone).